Members Terry Allan Hall Posted May 29, 2002 Members Share Posted May 29, 2002 (Got this in my e-mail, thought I'd share it...) By: Christian Lange Most CD purchases are made on impulse. People sift through the display racks, a CD jumps into their hands, something snaps, and the sale is made sometimes without even knowing anything about the artist. People are influenced by the packaging of a CD because its artwork almost always reflects the spirit and style of the artist. It's the most important visual statement you'll make about your music, and it is something that deserves a good deal of thought. You don't want to shortsell or misrepresent your music on the contrary, you want fans to instantly recognize it as "their own." The best CD designs usually happen when a musical act has a clear concept of who they are and the designer understands how to interpret that on paper. Hopefully there is a shared respect for the responsibility of each. To impose an "image" on a band is disastrous; in the long run this inevitably backfires. Find yourself a designer who understands music and let him know what you're all about. Make sure he or she really listens to your music. Tell him who your fans are, their demographics, and what other music they listen to. If the designer doesn't appear interested, stop the train and get out -this is not the person we're looking for. But how about a band that is blessed with a drummer who is also a designer? Well, just make sure it IS a blessing. Maybe there is a good reason why your drummer works as a surveyor and not as an art director at an ad agency. If someone is going to impact the commercial success (or failure) of your project, make sure they've designed a dozen other music CDs before they work on yours. And make sure they're familiar with the CD manufacturing specifications for CD discs and inserts. Turning a job in for replication that is incorrectly set-up can cause long and costly delays. How about having the duplication company do the design? Depends! If it's a very big company focused on volume, probably not. If they seem concerned about your individual needs, your unique style requirements; if they ask a lot of questions about these things and have a nice portfolio to show, you're probably in good hands. A designer doesn't need to sit across a table and smell your mouthwash to do a good job long distance collaboration is easy in today's electronic environment. Once you find a talented designer that understands your act, cultivate that relationship and each new project you do together will surpass the previous one. As with a good manager, recording engineer, booking agent, music attorney, etc., building a solid team around you will allow you to succeed and concentrate on your real strength: making music. Elements of a good cover design While every genre has a different visual "style", there are a few items that are common to all good CD packaging things you might keep in mind while you're brainstorming.? The cover should be an eye stopper. You have only a second or two to get someone's attention while they are flipping through CDs in a music store. ? If the cover is conceptual, a traycard that reveals something about the artist (like a compelling artist photograph) can really nail it. It humanizes the whole thing. And when selling to humans, that's not a bad idea!? Use the interior of the CD (page 2, 3, and 4) to strike a personal connection with your fans. Along with liner notes, share written lyrics or a personal statement. Interior photos (unlike the arresting, manipulated images on the outside) are more for real. They tell you something about the lifestyle of these performers.? A great CD disc design has a layout and color scheme that matches the rest of the packaging at a glance. Besides the obvious practical reason for this, it gives the project a bold, cohesive appearance.? The last rule: there are no rules. Every project is unique. Every design should be conceived from the ground up. You can see a few projects I've designed at http://www.kmusic.com/photos/which I hope will help illustrate some of these points. CD Replication After your design is completed, the next step is replication. 500 is the minimum quantity most manufacturers will handle to replicate your project, ie, "press" your job using a glass master and silkcreened image on the disc (as opposed to "burning" CDRs which is only practical on small quantities and look home-made). Ultrared Multimedia offers a good price on quantities of 500 ($1,099) and 1000 ($1,450) which includes glass master, replication, printing the 4/1 color four-page insert, traycard, silkscreening on the disc, and poly-wrapped jewel cases. You can contact Ultrared at 888-353-DISC or production@ultrared.com. Scheduling Finally, a note about scheduling. Allow sufficient time for the design and production of your CD. Save the stress and schedule the release party once you have the CDs in hand. You've probably spent the better part of a year producing your music. Don't rush the people working on this final stage from mastering to photography and design to manufacturing. You want these individuals to be consciencious of every detail, attentive to every possibility that could make your project better. When quality is at stake it's really not that important whether your release is out the first of August or the first of September the fans will still be there; better to give them an outstandingproduct!-----------------------------------------------------------------About the author:Christian Lange has produced award-winning designs and photography for scores of acts in every genre of music. You may see a portfolio of work at http://www.christianlange.com You may contact his studio at x@christianlange.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drummerjoe Posted May 30, 2002 Members Share Posted May 30, 2002 or you could just make a cd with MUSIC that sells. Speaking of which I really need a great theme song for my latest oil painting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crimson Warlock Posted May 30, 2002 Members Share Posted May 30, 2002 Originally posted by JohnSchreimann Only 10 year old morons do that. Because pop music appeals to them because of the look of the artist. Kids are impressionable... so they buy it. "Moron-ness" knows no age limits. How many Iron Maiden fans bought "X-Factor" or "Virtual XI" just because it was Iron Maiden -- without realizing that the new singer, Blaze Bailey, is terrible? How many Metallica fans bought "Load" because they expected it to be another "Master of Puppets"? Or, back in 1983, how many of those fans picked up "Ride the Lightning" because it had an electric chair on the cover -- which is, like, totally metal, dude -- and discovered that their brand new favorite speed-metal band went soft with that ballad "Fade to Black?" How many people glanced at Blink 182's album with porn star Janine Lindemulder on it? Whether they bought it or not, the marketing worked. Even if they don't know or don't remember the band's name, they will remember that there's a band out there with an album that has "that porn star on the cover." Of, if those people ever see a picture of Janine in a nurse's outfit pulling on rubber gloves, they'll vaguely remember seeing it as some band's album cover...... Music is just as susceptible to the rules of marketing as any other product, regardless of how the music elite would like to believe otherwise: that, because music is -- at its root -- an artform, it is immune from commercialism, and that any form of music that succumbs to commercialism is instantly labeled as substandard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drummerjoe Posted May 31, 2002 Members Share Posted May 31, 2002 it is substandard if you are just trying to find a standard everyone will buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terry Allan Hall Posted June 1, 2002 Author Members Share Posted June 1, 2002 Wow! ...just thought this info would help some of y'all (at least a little) to rise above that gig at McDonalds...Way I figure it, if someone is not familiar w/ my music (which describes 99.7234879% of the human race!), but the album art makes he/she/it decide to buy it anyway, then I've just sold one more album... Then, again, if your personal mantra is "Ya want fries w/ that?", just ignore the initial post... Either way, good luck w/ it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kingnome Posted June 1, 2002 Members Share Posted June 1, 2002 Originally posted by Terry Allan Hall Wow! Way I figure it, if someone is not familiar w/ my music (as 99.7234879% of the human race is), and the album art makes them decide to buy it anyway, then I've just sold one more album... Then, again, if your personal mantra is "Ya want fries w/ that?", just ignore the initial post. ! A. Correction- 99.99% . There's over 6 billion people on the planet ! B. Will your CD art be in braille, and scratch and sniff ? C. What kind of sauce would you like with your chicken? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terry Allan Hall Posted June 1, 2002 Author Members Share Posted June 1, 2002 Originally posted by Kingnome A. Correction- 99.99% . There's over 6 billion people on the planet ! ok...thanks for the math help...LOL B. Will your CD art be in braille, and scratch and sniff ? Both of my recording are "visual only", but I'll certainly give the "scratch and sniff" concept some thought...I've been thinking about putting out a recording called "Pornograph", a collection of "blue material" to sell at the biker rallies I play each spring...this could work! C. What kind of sauce would you like with your chicken? Ask JohnSchreimann and/or drummerjoe if they have any of that "Cajun" flavored dipping sause, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kingnome Posted June 1, 2002 Members Share Posted June 1, 2002 Are you guys old enough to remember the book called "The Album Cover Album" ? Tons of the best of rock's album covers of the 60's and 70's. Maybe they came out with a later edition, I don't know, but I know this much--- A CD that's only a few inches square can't really impact the average sweaty-palmed music lover like the LP's did ! Remember the posters? Big, real, posters? It's a sad state of affairs now. The jewel case gets put I-don't-know-where and the cd goes in the multi-cd case or on the sun-visor. And with the cost of printing on both the cover and the cd itself, even the big boys can't afford more than a couple of colors. CD's are great, but I'm waiting for the next revolution (pun intended) in recorded media formats. Can we bring back the LP ? Please ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.