CD DESIGN

A large amount of why I became a graphic designer was my love for art in music. With art in music I mean such as CD / Vinyl artwork, posters and adverts.
As far back as I can remember I always used to design CD artwork for bands I used to listen to. It was just something to do and I enjoyed doing it. It wasn't until I got a computer that I really go into it and started producing CD artwork for bands I was in and bands I knew. These probably were a little rough around the edges, but they looked cool, and I had a strong feeling of achievement producing CD Artwork that was laid up and sold at gigs.
When I finally got a job working for a company that provided a a graphic design and print service I got to learn the real professional way of doing things. Bleeds, Spot Colour, working in CMYK, aligning and curning text. Work I produced looked better than ever taking these rules in to account and using such programmes as InDesign.
When I was working for the print company they produced work for certain record labels who then took our designs and had mass printing and pressing done, which was then exported EVERYWHERE! I'd done a few covers for some labels while working at the establishment, but the first full booklet artwork, lay up, CD design I done was for a Rockabilly / Psychobilly label called "Western Star". It was for a CD compilation of Psychobilly bands called "Western Star Phychobillies Vol 4". The theme was "B-Movie" which was right up my street.
A few days of laying up the artwork for the CD and it was done. A month later and posted to me was a pressed version of the CD. It looked fantastic, and fed my passion for CD Artwork. The boiling point of my passion then over-flowed when I played a gig with a Rockabilly band at a Rockabilly weekender. At the weekender was a stall selling cds.....and there in the compilations section was a few of my designs....yay!
I think the first, maybe couple of of bits of artwork that really struck my eye was on some 7 inch singles my mum had. 1st was Jackie Wilson - Reep Petite. The cover was just taken from the video (you know the one, stop motion animation one with the clay). The 2nd was Shakin Stevens - I might, the cover art was done by someone from Viz comics, so geeky guys and large women with big breasts was the call of the day. I'm not sure if that was the reason why I was attracted to that Vinyl artwork, I think it was more the case that it was a cartoon on the front.
My parents had lots of vinyl and it was a mixture of Rockabilly, Rock n Roll and Motown/Soul so the vinyl art work was varied in styles and was quite inspiring. It's also funny now that trends come back around and lots of modern artist CD Artwork has a vintage/retro feel that I had seen when I was very young.
When I was young looking through my parents vinyl collection I also had a thing for vinyl labels for some reason. I always found myself attracted to vinyl by RAK, I used to think it was a giant fish (I think its because I saw Beetlejuice quite young and the sandworm used to haunt my dreams), when I was older I realised it was a boat. Around my mid teens I had a pretty impressive CD collection. At the time I was listening to a lot of heavy music; metal, punk stuff like that. With these genres you're pretty much guaranteed some fantastic looking CD Artwork. A couple that stood out for me was Blink 182 - Dude Ranch art work. This had sort of a cowboy/ranch feel about it. The cover Artwork featured a cartoon bull with "Blink - 182" branded on its rump. The artwork through the inlay had the band dressed as cowboys. Such a great look!
Another was Slipknot - S/t. It was the first CD I bought that was "heavy" music. The artwork featured some pretty dark images showcasing the bands masks, but what I thought was great was the whole "grungy" effect put on everything. This effect now days is pretty popular and I'm pretty sure Slipknot was the first the show case this with their CD Artwork.
While still in my teens I started collecting Vinyl. It started off with a few coloured vinyl of a few bands I listened to. I then got word of a local charity shop selling a fudge load of vinyl. I turned up, and there was mountains of vinyl. This then ignited the vinyl collecting passion. I then went everywhere to collect vinyl. I also found myself buying vinyl just because of the artwork. Sometimes this paid off (Rezillos - Mission Accomplished....) and sometimes it didn't.
As I now have all the "experience" and "tools" needed to produce CD Artwork and layout ready for print I of cause produce CD artwork for my own band and through the band's label. I think one of the biggest jobs I've ever done as a graphic designer was putting artwork together for an album for my own band Hello Bear.
Our lyrics are pretty expressive and we wanted to feature that. I had always liked it when a band features lyrics within the CD booklet artwork. So the plan was to have a page for every song. We also wanted the CD artwork to be sort of a scrap book, of all of our "adventures" up to when the album was recorded. In total I had to produce 12 scrap book themed pages with lyrics, photos and random stuff that had to do with Hello Bear. Plus a thank you's page, credits, front image, back image and CD design. In total I think it took me over a month to produce the artwork (while still working the 9 to 5 dream). It looks fantastic....just have to wait for it to be pressed. Once it is I'll pop it up on here for all to see. So I guess I should wrap this up. My love for CD Artwork will never die. I know the word on the street is that because so many people download now days that physical copy CDs will one day die out. I'm not sure if this is true or not. I personally think if you're a musicians you'll always want a physical version of your release. I hope this is the case, I enjoy producing artwork for CDs and artwork for vinyl. I also still enjoy looking through the CD or vinyl artwork of other artists. Lets keep this alive! For various CD art check out this link Thanks for reading.
Daryl