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CD Cover Design
The quality of CD cover is almost as important as the music itself.
It can draw in new fan bases that would have never have bought your
if it were not for your attention grabbing design. A few questions
to ask yourself when critiquing a CD cover:
- Is the name of the artists clear and visible?
- Can you distinguish the artists name from the title of the CD?
- Does your cover image portray the style of the music or the band?
The inside of
the CD booklet is less important for attention grabbing factors
because if someone is viewing the inside cover it means its out
of the shrink wrap and you have most likely already made the sale.
The booklet inside is important in developing a fan base though,.
You may want to include information on where to find more of your
products, like a web site URL, and/or advertise for work that is
soon to be released.
The spine of
the CD is a good place to include information such as a catalogue
number, label name and its good to repeat the artists name and CD
title here as well. Do not use a super large font on the spine,
this is only a guide line but in my opinion when the font is too
large it gives a cheaper look to the CD, making your CD look professional
is the key.
Technical Info When Designing a CD Cover
Lets start off with the standard size of a CD cover which is 12cm
x 12cm (front cover), and 11.75cm x 15.1cm (back cover), as shown
in the illustration below.
By choosing
B&W over colour will save you money in production costs, I only
recommend doing this if you are on a tight budget, unless you are
using B&W as an artistic design element.
When you are designing your cover art be sure that you are using
the right file format to produce your image files, jpeg's are the
best if you only have images, but if there is text incorporated
be sure that you are using a vector based image program. The ideal
format for printing is .eps this is the industry standard for printing,
but its draw back is the large file sizes that you will have to
deal with.
CD Resources
CD
Directory
Your one-stop destination for anything you can think about CD. This
CD directory designed to help its users find the CD information, source,
companies, products and services...
| Suggested Reading |
- How to Mix Down a Song
Creating the initial tracks, mixing down the song, and then mastering
your musical projects. This article goes in depth on mixing levels and
techniques to improve your songs.
- Creating a Demo Tape
Every record label has its own guidelines for submitting demos. This
is a general guide for some of the production standards when creating
your demo tape.
-
How to Set Up and Record
Vocals
This article explains how to set up and record vocals. The equipment
that you need to get started and some recording techniques.
-
The Flanger Effect
There are countless effects out on the market that help mold, shape,
and totally distort your sound. But today I'm going to tell you a little
bit about, one of the more popular, and commonly used effects, the flanger
effect.
- Reverb Tutorial
What reverb is, and tips when applying reverb to a track
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