How I Designed 3 CD Jackets Just by Listening To Music
Written by Jacob Cass on Saturday, May 10, 2008 – 7:18 pm
Music shares many common ideas and themes with the visual arts. For example, repetition, rhythm, harmony, tone, shape, space, scale, line, texture and colour are terms common to both the musical and visual language and this project was focused around these points.
In this University Project we had to listen to music, draw an abstract response then create 2 CD covers from what we heard and below is how I went about doing it… This is how to design a CD cover just by listening to music. I would advise to scroll down and look at the final designs before reading the article.
Oh and before you correct me, I actually did 3 CD covers because I enjoyed it so much instead of the 2 requested. You may have even noticed me putting them up in my portfolio last week.
Part One
The project was divided into two parts and in the first part we had to listen to 4 contrasting pieces of music. We had to take an A4 page and draw a simple visual language of what we heard. We could do this only by using the basic elements of line, shape and colour and it had to be a non representational, abstract design and we could only use the 6 spectrum colours (red orange yellow green blue purple).
We had to aim for a contrast between the drawings and let your subconscious tell you what shapes and colours represent each type of music. Kinda cool in a creepy kind of way.
Below you can see my 4 visual responses after listening to the music.
- The first was a slow, smooth, soft, calm watery type song.
- The second was a upbeat funky song.
- The third was a hard rough death metal rock song and the
- Fourth was an electronic digital sounding song.
Part Two
We then had to discuss our results with our peers… All 120 responses from 30 students were pinned to a board and compared. We then had to choose which of our own drawings provided the most contrast and you can see number 1 and number 3 had the most contrast so I used these two (I later chose to do number 4 as well). We then had to use these drawings above to develop them into CD covers and the final designs had to strongly reflect the initial graphic responses.
After brainstorming many different ideas, I decided that whatever I was going to do, it was going to be in 3D probably due to the fact that I enjoyed my Vodka Bottle project in Cinema 4D so much - that is the beauty of University, you get so much creative freedom!
I then came across this post called 50 Essential Photoshop Text Tutorials and I saw in there a tutorial link to design in 3D (Nik Ainley style). I knew that I wanted to do something like that and I got inspiration from his two pieces that are shown below.
After a bit more brainstorming I came to the concept of using one word to describe the type of music that the band played. I would then use that word as the main piece on the front cover. I chose the word Smooth for the calm music and the word Rough for the heavy metal music and the word Digital for the electronic music.
I then went out and got myself a copy of Xara3D (USD$45) which I tell you is VERY easy to use for a 3D program. It took a total of 10 minutes to figure out without any tutorials, just playing with the buttons.
I then pumped out the 3D letters into Photoshop and then did about 80% of the designing in Photoshop and 20% in illustrator for the vectorised pieces. Below you can see the design process I used to create the first CD cover.
You will notice the visual consistency between the three CD covers as we were required to have this between both designs, there were meant to be all from the same publisher. We also had to have all legal requirements on the CD jackets.
The album title was given to us and for the smooth song it was called Mad World, the rock one was called Attitude and the electronic one was called Equinoxe. The first Smooth cover took a day to complete and the attitude one took about half as long as I was more familiar with what to do and the digital one took about 3 hours.
Below are the final designs, try to compare them to my visual responses up above.
You will notice in the Smooth design, I have used the colours blue and green with an ocean type feel (check out the Jellyfish).
In the Rough design you will notice I have used angry red colours in a grungy chaotic mess that reflects my original musical response. The text was purposely made hard to read to reflect the chaotic nature of the music.
In the Digital one I have used an in-your-face, high energy, bright coloured design which reflects my original music response. You will notice the circles on the back cover, kind of popping as like in my original drawing.
Front Cover
CD
Back Cover
Inside Cover
CD Mock Up
Front Cover
CD
Back Cover
Inside Cover
Mock Up
Front Cover
CD Cover
Back Cover
Inside Cover
MockUp
Constructive criticism is welcome as always, please be as harsh as possible. I won’t hate you, I am here to learn! What is your favourite? You can read more of about my University work by visiting the university category page.
PS. Sorry about the delay between my last post, I have just moved house and everything is a bit chaotic.
A Comparative Study of Logo Design between the 70s and 90s.
Written by Jacob Cass on Friday, April 18, 2008 – 6:24 pm
This was an essay I wrote one year ago for a University class. I do recommend printing it as it is 2000 words long. Click here for a printable version. Read more »
Design Process for my Vodka Premix Bottle
Written by Jacob Cass on Sunday, April 13, 2008 – 2:38 pm
Another university project completed and this time two weeks early. We had to create a Vodka premix bottle and label design for ‘Wedgetail Distillery’ using Cinema 4D and the Creative Suite. Here is how I went about doing it.
The scenario we were given (in short)
Wedgetail Distillery, makers of premium vodka produtcts have asked you to design the new bottle and labels for their pre-mixed vodka and citrus drink. It is a mid priced product (about $65 for a case of 24) and they are aiming for the 18 to 35 years market. It must have all the Australian legal requirements (which we had to research). It can have up to 4 colours including special or spots or CMYK if you wish. It must feature an eagle somewhere.
You must complete a 3D render of your bottle in Cinema 4D and the final presentation must be A4 in size and it must be targeted towards the client to sell your design concept.
Design Process
Research
I first redefined the problem then I researched bottle designs by going into my local bottle store and I also borrowed packaging books from the university library. I also researched the legal requirements for Australian packaging and alcohol. Who ever thought I was going to be researching Vodka?
Bottle Design Sketches
This was where we had to design the outline of the bottle. We could have any shape or texture or material we wanted, there were no restrictions.
I kept to the typical glass bottle design as I wanted to make it look realistic as possible however I did add some cool bevelled effects to the bottom of the glass bottle.
You can see to the left the shape of the bottle I designed.
Label Design Sketches & Vectorisation
After I had the bottle design done I could now start on the design of the label. I did a lot of sketches here and then once I had the general idea of how I wanted the design to look I started vectorising my ideas.
You can see the vector outline of my original label to the left and then the final label designs below. The fonts I used were Mesquite Std Medium (for Wedgetail), Adobe Garamond Pro Bold (for Citrus), Edwardian Script ITC Regular (for Premium Vodka).
The colours I used were Pantone 877C (Metallic), Pantone 8404C (Metallic), Pantone 1795 C (Solid Uncoated), Pantone Process Black U.
3D Rendering
After the labels were completed we had to render the 3D bottle in Cinema 4D from our original bottle designs (this was a big learning curve, let me tell you!). After we had rendered the 3D bottle then we had to bring the labels into Cinema 4D and wrap them around the 3D Bottle.
Below you can see a screenshot from Cinema 4D of me doing all of this.
Presentation
After I had completed all the renderings it was time for me to make them presentable. In Photoshop I experimented with different backgrounds and effects to see what was the best. Below you can see just some of the experimentations of different background effects.
I added the lemons into the composition to for scale and to add a bit of contrast to the image and to emphasise the citrus flavour of the vodka premix drink. I created smoke using the clouds filter and then used a light feathering on the clouds and then I added a zoom effect to make it look like a kind of back light coming out of the bottle.
Final Composition
Below is the final A4 composition that I printed out on Semi Gloss photo paper and to be honest it looks so much better in print. What do you guys think?
If you want to check out more of my university work go here.
As an added extra, just because I liked this project so much I did a little mock up of the 6 pack box.
Comments are always appreciated.
Design Graphics Student Magazine Cover Competition 2008
Written by Jacob Cass on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 – 12:22 pm
For university we had to enter the “Design Graphics Student Magazine Cover Competition” which is open to all Australian graphic design students and secondary schools. This is my mock-up for it.
For those who qualify, the entries close 30th April 2008. More entry details here (PDF). You can see last years entries here.
I have not submitted the cover yet as I need to refine minor details and we are still awaiting a student peer review at Uni so the design still may change depending on the feedback I receive from university and from JCD readers.
There were some tips on DG regarding magazine cover design saying:
“Magazine covers are generally designed to attract attention (sometimes called ’shelf presence’) and to reflect the style of the publication. With this in mind, there are some basic rules that make a good starting point. The use of a single, eye-catching image, for example, is a good place to start —and you will notice that these are the covers that once again proved successful.The golden rule of magazine cover design is that the image should contain some ‘emotional content’ that give it pick-up appeal. If the design is too ‘busy’, is too abstract, or the colours are too dark or dingy, it will not be immediately noticed on the shelf. By all means challenge the shelf browsers, but don’t ask too much of them. The publisher wants the magazine to stand out and attract new readers, as well as ring in the regulars. Try to create ‘graphic charisma’. “
- Have I adhered to what is mentioned above?
- What are your first thoughts upon looking at the cover?
- What can I improve?
- Would you pick this magazine up?
- Would you buy it?
Please be as harsh as possible! Below is the original and then my updated and submitted version is below (with 3mm bleed). Try to spot the differences.
What is a Font Flag? What is a Font Specimen Sheet?
Written by Jacob Cass on Monday, March 17, 2008 – 9:41 am
Do you know what a font flag or font / type specimen sheet is? Here are the answers as well as an example made by myself for typography class at university.
What is a Font Flag?
A font flag is a poster – a visual ‘sell’ – presentation of the style, feel, mood and aesthetic sense of a particular font. It deals with the emotive, pictorial, poetic or pragmatic sense of the font. It may recall the sense of history, the classification group, notable or famous uses. It is about appeal – looking good.
What is a font specimen sheet?
A font specimen sheet is about measurement specifics, display of the font – all characters and expressions, at differing point sizes, paragraph setting, leaded or tracked. Upper Case and Lower Case, title box, formal identification of the font - its name, classification, designer/typographer, the foundry – and a demonstrated showing of ‘font family’ characteristics – weights/shade in print.
My take on making a font flag and specimen sheet
For typography class at University we could choose any typeface we wished and then we had to make up a font flag and a font specimen sheet, here is the result, as well as a title page.
I chose Bodoni because it is so unique and because I wanted the challenge of working in an Didone (Modern) font, something I have never done before.
I made the background in Photoshop from about 8 different layers, then merged them and imported into Illustrator. The rest was done in Illustrator. You may notice that the Fibonnaci Sequence or golden mean has been the inspiration for these designs.
The characteristics of a Didone (Modern) type face.
- Thick vertical strokes.
- Thin horizontal strokes.
- Fine hairlines.
- Straight serifs.
- Extreme contrast between the thick and thin stokes.
- Curved letters balanced and slightly compressed.
- The angle of stress is vertical.
- Prints best on a smooth matt finish, white paper with black ink.
A thing worth noting on most digital Bodini fonts is that they suffer from a particular kind of legibility degradation known as “dazzle” caused by the alternating thick and thin strokes, particularly from the thin strokes being very thin at small point sizes. For more info on this see Bodoni on Wikipedia.
Bodoni Font Flag
Bodoni Font Specimen Sheet
Typography Title Page (For a little typopgraphic pdf book we are creating.)
Need to brush up on your typography skills?
- Top 5 Typography Resources of all time
- 30 Fonts That ALL Designers Must Own
- How To Choose A Font
- ilovetypography - A typography blog
- 54 Typography Resources Every Designer Should Know
Feedback / Suggestions / Constructive Criticism is appreciated. I would love to hear your feedback.
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