I recently wrote an article about the unique media designed by 5inch. Yesterday, I was clearing up some paperwork in my office, and found this CD artwork I designed for a local band a few years ago.
As can be seen, it uses a unique CD Jewel Case Design that houses a clear disc.
The image above is the reverse of the jewel case, with another element of the design that shows through. When the CD is “sprung out” of the case using the trigger, the rest of the design can be viewed.
Have you designed CD artwork that uses a jewel case like this? Have you designed a cover that uses another unique-style of case?
Here is a CD Album Design I produced for a local band named “The Reeds”, a Christian-based 2-piece who produced music for the album “all in a days musing”. Even though I produced this artwork a few years back, it’s one of my favourite CD designs I have produced, so I thought I’d feature it.
Firstly, Scott and Karen (the Reeds) provided me with a detailed description of what they wanted, including a set of photographs of themselves to be utilised in the design. The design I produced was for a CD jewel case with black tray. The reverse printed colour and so was the face-up side of the 4-page inner booklet. The inner booklet was black & white.
I designed most of the CD cover in Adobe Illustrator®. I made the reeds-illustrations in vector format and tweaked them in Photoshop® before compiling the whole design set back in Illustrator® before exporting to PDF-X.
The CD print was comprised of two Pantone® colours, which I instructed the printers to print straight onto the CD face. This utilised the silver of the disc face as “a third colour” in a way, which maximised the simple yet attractive design.
As can be seen in the above image, there isn’t a lot of space on the jewel case spine for the allocated text. My article on CD Design Tips (on point 7) address’s the issue of getting this critical text positioning right.
When designing a CD cover, one great thing you can do is use an unusual, but appropriate font. Here, I used a readable yet original font on the CD back tray and throughout the design. As there is limited information, a non-standard font can be used in keeping with the style of design.
Further resources: Scott Antony Wainright (from the Reeds) solo music sites: on MySpace & also on his Own Site
Any questions? Please ask them below or leave a general comment.
I’ve been a fan of CD Sleeve design for as long as I can remember (I also design them). Here, I have collated 10 of the most Visually Outstanding CD designs that I have seen over the past few years and even recently.
I don’t think these are great because of the bands they represent, but just because they have the “Wow” factor that would make you want to look at them further… Enjoy!
Lemon Jelly “Lost Horizons” CD Cover Design
Interpol “Our Love to Admire” CD Sleeve Design
Interpol“Best of” CD Cover Design
Feeder“Echo Park” CD Sleeve
Editors“An End Has a Start” CD Cover Design
Muse“The Resistance” CD Sleeve
Björk“Volta” Album Art
The Prodigy“The Fat of the Land” Album Art
Coldplay“X & Y” CD Sleeve
Delphic“Delphic” Album Cover
I plan to compile another list soon listing some great “Conceptual CD Sleeve Designs”. Why not subscribe to my RSS Feed or get Free Updates by Email so you don’t miss a thing?
Just a quick post about a poster design I recently produced for the Bob Cheevers tour, which also featured Dominic Finley and Lizzie Nunnery. My last post was about the CD Sleeve I designed for Dominic—and this poster was done straight after to announce that he was touring with the other two musicians.
◥ These PDF Proofs show two versions of the poster design, which announce varied dates and venues.
◥ The posters were supplied in three [European] sizes (A3, A4 and A5)—and also in black & white. Notice that the B+W one isn’t just a direct copy of the coloured one converted to greyscale. I individually lightened the text shades so the whole thing looked sharp and legible.
Dominic Finley is a singer/songwriter who has worked in the UK and USA. There’s a full bio on his site, but this quote from the site (below) sums-up his career and music in a glance:
For the last decade and a half Dominic Finley has successfully adapted to various different styles of music. He has moved though Brit-pop, Motown and jazz, to more recently doing session work and playing progressive rock with Combination Head and classic pop-rock with the recently reformed Cutting Crew.
Before I write about the CD Design I produced for Dominic, here is one of his tracks entitled “As Often is the Case”. It’s a great song—and I recommend that you let it play whilst reading the rest of this post—it’s quite mellow and relaxing…
The Design Process
This was one of those rare projects where I had total artistic freedom over the design. Before I started the design, I asked Dominic to answer a series of questions pertaining to the design and specifications (my online CD Design quote form is available on my site here).
◥ The only thing that was absolutely specified was the use of a photo of Dominic on the front cover—in some way, shape or form. Another aspect of the design was for it to have an earthy feel, and to be aimed at people 30+ years.
I had a very basic idea in-mind for the CD Sleeve design. As always, I sketched a rough plan of my intended illustration. Nowadays, I use a Moleskine® Notebook to collate my thoughts and ideas.
◥ As can be seen in the image above, I only required a very rough sketch of what I had envisaged, as the next step was to create some vectors in Illustrator® on my Mac. The actual specification for the CD was a 4-page colour booklet, Tray Card + CD Print.
What is the design concept? Well, after I listened to some sample music from Dominic’s site, I settled on an organic-looking, earthy formation that was both visually-appealing and suited the style of music it represented. This kind of job is, in essence, illustration. There are “no rules” to artistic interpretation, so I just designed what I saw in my mind when I listened to the music.
◥ This is the vector I created in Adobe Illustrator®.
◥ I wanted the vector to be textured, so I downloaded a couple of free images from Fudge Graphics, authored by Franz Jeitz. Most of the time, I pay for stock images from sites like Dreamstime, however, with great designers such as Franz around, there are many high-resolution textures on the web—free for commercial use— and also downloadable for free, too.
◥ This is how the main images I used on the CD Sleeve started to shape-up using textures.
◥ The image above shows pages 4 & 1 of the CD booklet from the final PDF I supplied.
◥ This was the tray Card PDF (I’ve left the guides visible here for illustration only). As can be seen, the CD was inclusive of a professional barcode. Even though these CD prints were to be printed in Digital, I only used flat black in the actual barcode .eps to ensure a sharp-print on the black lines.
Client Proofs
◥ After I finished the design work I sent off some PDF proofs to Dominic. For a more in-depth look at the type of proofs I supply to my clients, please refer to my article Total Design Process for Edit Websites.
CD Photos + Technical Info
◥ The prints were printed on a Digital Press, which is a suitable choice for small print runs.
◥ The CD comprised of a Clear Jewel Case with a Black CD Tray.
◥ The actual “CD print” was produced digitally too. For larger print runs, CD’s are normally printed using a Litho or screen process.
◥ The inside of the 4-Page Booklet shows the track-list, credits and production information (I get a mention, too—thanks to Dom!).
◥ The back of the 4-Page Booklet is visible on the inside of the Jewel Case. As can be seen, there is a thank-you message from Dominic [t0 the listener].
◥ A big headache that can be caused when designing CDs is getting the placement of the Spine Text just right. Even if the text is placed in perfect position on the template, the actual tray print is still subject the guiletines. However, a good print-house should always do a good job when it comes to perforating the Spine “creases” in the right place.
◥ The only gripe that I have is that the reflectiveness of the Jewel Case makes the print look a little darker than it should. I’ll remember this next time I design a dark-blue CD.
This was a great project to work on. I didn’t have a massive budget to work with, however the project worked out well—and Dom really liked the design. I think that his music is great, and this design has the potential to let his music flourish in physical sales and online, too.
I’ve included another one of his tracks below named “Misery”. His albums can be purchased here.
I’ve also produced another CD recently for Dominic Finley which will be featured in another design-process article in the new year. Be sure to Subscribe to my RSS feed for free as not to miss it Any comments or questions about this article can be left below…
