CD and Album Design

[Vicious]

here is the album and cd that i shot for a friend of mine. i took all of the pictures,and obviously photoshoped them.i think it turned out very well.

CNC

here is the album layout:

and the CD:

[McNabb_5]

Very nice man!!! Inside sleeve design a Duotone?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I think it looks nice and clean, but I have some questions: Why is the font on back different than the font on front? With is the "UE" on the CD a different color that "AVEN"? Why do you have track numbers on the inside, but not the outside? If it were me and I were going for a road motif, I would just shoot a photo of a roadsign with "5th Ave" on it, because most most streets don't the street name written in the double yellow lines.

[oddball]

I'm also curious on why the UE in a different color than AVEN. As far as the use of a 5th Ave. sign. I know it'd work, but I wonder if it'd be too cliche. I like the use of a the double yellows, but one thing I'd do is a drop shadow on your white numbers so that they jump off the page and make it easier for the person reading it.

[ShinyHubCaps]

I don't like how similar the two portraits are, but other than that it looks good. The street with the double line looks almost a little too light and low-contrast.

[andrewharrington]

1. I like the front cover all right. The photo is a little safe and cliche for an album cover, but I like the color cast. I don't usually use photos. I prefer type and/or illustrations, unless I can get some really interesting shots that support a clever concept.

2. A. You don't need the album name on the back cover. It's redundant, especially when the title track is chilling right there at the top of the list. B. Don't stack type like that. If you need vertical type, rotate it 90 degrees so it reads sideways. C. You need to repeat the dominant yellow color from the front on the back somehow. I might like to see the same sort of warm, muted cast or yellow type. D. Why did you use a different typeface on the back track list than on the inside track list? E. No numbers on the back track list? F. Big tension point where the song name ends right at the edge of the road line. G. Track names are HUGE. I generally don't type things any larger than 10 points. It's a really good reading size. H. The type needs room to breathe. Reducing the size will help a lot. Make it interesting and tense by putting the track list directly on the left edge of the back cover. Make it feel open by giving the track list a larger margin on the left side. See which way looks best after you reduce the type size. I. You should replicate the rich, moody contrast from the front image in the back image. The average value of the cover is darker and has more contrast than the back image.

3. A. Photos are your biggest design elements here. The front and inside photos are almost identical in content and layout. Make it interesting. Get some contrast in there with a change in subject matter. B. You need to repeat the yellow color somewhere on the inside, too. Maybe the text? C. Practice typographical hierarchy. Maybe a different typeface or color for the numbers than the track names. Maybe a different typeface for Eric Quimby than for 5th Avenue. Make it coordinate. I like the brown '5th' and white 'Avenue' on the cover. That's hierarchy; typographic differentiation.

4. A. The Polaroid looks wildly out of place and a little tacky. There's nothing even remotely similar to that graphic anywhere in the rest of the package. It would be great if you had a Polaroid theme, maybe. B. You can do double duty by putting song lyrics in this space. Just put them all in a big block of text and differentiate the titles with a bold typeface, a colored typeface or a different typeface altogether. Mix-n-match if you want to. the solid block of text would contrast the photo on the inside left very well. You probably wouldn't even need the track list on the left if you put the song lyrics on the inside right, underneath the clear plastic CD tray.

5. Why is the 'ue' a different color that the 'Aven'? Try different things with the line. Maybe it shouldn't go all the way across the CD. Maybe only halfway. Maybe just a little onto the other half. Maybe you don't need it at all.