How to Design a CD Album for a Local Band
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 Sleeve, 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.
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How to Design a CD Album for a Local Band…
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……
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Andrew Kelsall † and Boris Rasonja, Famous Bloggers. Famous Bloggers said: How to #Design a CD Album for a Local Band http://bit.ly/blBUE7 by @AndrewKelsall [...]
Some pretty impressive work Andrew. Congratulations on the final design – looks great.
.-= Duane Kinsey´s last blog ..Selfish Self Promotion =-.
10 May 2010 07:05 am Duane Kinsey
Great article! Local bands are always looking for a great design, they just don’t know it yet…
.-= Scott Corgan´s last blog ..Test Post for You Man =-.
10 May 2010 06:05 pm Scott Corgan
@Duane & Scott → Thanks for the encouragement
10 May 2010 07:05 pm Andrew Kelsall
Beautiful design. Couldn’t help but notice the list of song titles. Should be giving that album a look.
12 May 2010 11:05 am Jane Cooke
I think the design looks great, especially the typography. What font did you use for the track listing? I like the band’s logo as well. Did you do that and if so which font was it based on? Using the silver to “shine through” the CD artwork is a great effect. Nice work!
.-= Rob Cubbon´s last blog ..Essentials of great blog post design =-.
17 May 2010 07:05 pm Rob Cubbon
awesome stuff
27 May 2010 11:05 pm Skylar Hartman
@Jane + Skylar → Thanks
@Rob → I think it was Dito or Ditco, something like that. I cant remember the font for the logo, but yeah, I did that too. This one’s a few years old now
26 Jul 2010 06:07 pm Andrew Kelsall
Hey no problem!
26 Jul 2010 06:07 pm Skylar Hartman
Hi Andrew, nice job there.
I work for a design agency who produce loads of CD covers. Most of them are commercial, TV advertised compilations, so the design considerations are quite different to what applies for local bands (i.e. huge, very readable title), but we still get the opportunity to be pretty creative.
(shameless plug coming up
…) Check us out if you’re interested – http://www.designcorporation.co.uk
12 Sep 2010 12:09 am Matt
@Matt → Thanks. I’ve noticed how big the “Now” compilations texts are; they definitely get peoples attention in the stores!
No worries about the plug
12 Sep 2010 12:09 am Andrew Kelsall
Yes, NOW is an interesting series. Not necessarily the coolest design, but it’s stood the test of time as a brand. I think it still far outsells every other compilation on the market when each new edition comes out. It’s all about brand recognition, which it has in spades. We don’t design the main NOW sleeves, but we do all the sub-brands, such as NOW Dance.
12 Sep 2010 01:09 am Matt
@Matt → That’s great; I’ve always wondered what software you use to get the 3D look on the text…or is it a trade secret
20 Sep 2010 03:09 am Andrew Kelsall
It’s no trade secret
We use Cinema 4D.
26 Sep 2010 10:09 am Matt
How to Design a CD Album for a Local Band…
This article shows via photographs how I designed a CD print and booklet for a local band…
How to Design a CD Album for a Local Band…
This article shows via photographs how I designed a CD print and booklet for a local band….
[...] How to Design a CD Album for a Local Band [...]
[...] How to Design a CD Album for a Local Band [...]
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Matt → Oh right, cool…
01 Nov 2010 07:11 pm Andrew Kelsall
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