Graphic Designer Answers!

When I was looking for email addresses of record companies so I could ask them questions, I came across one record company that had seperate email addresses for different jobs within the company. I looked at these titles looking for someone I could separately email about album art, and I found one. This is the email I sent;




Hello, I'm doing a Creative and Media Diploma Level 2 at school, and I'm doing a higher project about the difference in album art across different genres. If you're not too busy, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could answer a few questions that which would really help me out.

I saw on the Fearless Records website that you are in charge of graphic design. Does this mean you are in charge of the design of album covers? If yes, could you please explain the process you go through?

Thank you so much for your time!

Courtney Hackney
Brigshaw High School
And this is the email I received a day later!

Hey Courtney,

I am in charge of all online graphics, Magazine ads, Tents and tour graphics, album art, etc. Basically anything that has a fearless logo on it passes my desk at some point.

Album art is a difficult process because it involves so many different people.

First the band has to come up with a name for the record.

We develop a concept for the art together.

We agree on a look for the artwork.

I hire several designers to work on cover art concepts.

The band and fearless management discuss the concepts sent by designers

We come to an agreement on the correct mockup to go with.

We hire a certain designer to finish the cover.

Once we have a finished cover, we start developing the rest of the packaging. (usually I propose something like a digipack, jewelcase w/ certain number of pages in the booklet, etc.)

Either I or the designer that created the cover will finish the rest of the layout.

I send everything off to proofing for press checks.

I make sure everything is cool with the colors, pick spot colors for the disc art that match the offset print

Tell the printer how many to make.

coordinate shipping of all the product.

Thats really about it. Let me know if you have anymore questions!

Thanks,

MIKE FARRELL

fearless records

I think this is a really interesting reply. Him and his team can do everything to do with the designing of the CD, from the type of CD case to the design of the booklet inside.
I would like to look at some of his designs and see if they have some similarities or if they are all very different.
From this I have found out that if I were to go into graphic designing, I would need to be skilled in lots of things. Not even just designing, I would need to be able to communicate with bands and try and figure out what designs would suit the bands and their attitude, and decide how many to print and sell. He also mentions he designs online graphics, tour graphics and magazine advertisements! He is obviously a very skilled guy to do all these jobs. It all sound so interesting and it would be an amazing job to have.
Luckily, I only need to do half the jobs that Mike would need to do, and I'm not creating it for a big company so I have alot less stress.

Record Labels

I'm going to try to contact some record labels by email and ask them if they have a process for creating a successful album cover.

Here are the questions I am going to ask;

Does the record label have any choice in deciding album covers for artists/bands?
If yes;
- Do you have a specific team for it?
- Do the artist/band sit down with the team and decide?
- Are several covers drawn up/made then decided on?
- Do different people do different jobs, e.g Title name, cover colours, back design, lyric book design(if there is one)?

I'm going to try to contact these labels first (pop/rock genre)

Rise ,
Ferret,
Warner Music,
Fearless,
Tragic Hero,
Columbia,
Equal Vision,Visible Noise,
Epitaph Records,
Thirty Days of Night,
Earache Records,
Shock Records

CD Case Materials; Advantages and Disadvantages.

A jewel CD case is the original case that has been used to hold CDs since 1982. There is normally a disk-shaped tray which the CD fits into so it doesn't slide around in the case, which would scratch and damage it. There is also the 'jewel' in the center of this, it's like a circle of teeth that holds the CD in, again so it doesn't move around and scratch. But you probably knew all this.
The circular tray and the jewel are two advantages of jewel cases, because it prevents damage to disks. Also, the plastic the case is made of is sturdy enough for everyday use and shouldn't case much damage if it's dropped, however I find that double disk cases are very fragile, and many double disk cases of mine have fallen apart, and I would need a double disk case for my final product.

The simplest and least expensive packaging would probably be a paper sleeve! The advantage of them is that they're very cheap.
There are more disadvantages though, because the disk can get damaged very easily as paper isn't very good protection. It will keep the CD clean, but won't keep scratches away. Another disadvantage, or would be to me for my project, is that it would be very difficult to get any album art on it, and to have two disks in it. I could stick two sleeves back to back, and then decorate the front, but I don't think it would look very good or proffesional. If I thought about it in a professional way, it wouldn't be very easy to mass produce (not that I will be doing that) so that is another disadvantage.


This is one I had never thought of until I had researched different possibilies for the case. I recognise them as cases normally used for work videos/tutorials or the ones you get in newspapers. My dad has brought home afew like these.
They have a cardboard cover, which is more protective than paper but not as good as plastic. The cardboard cover would probably be very easy to design, for one genre anyway.
They then have a plastic part where the CD is held. This is good, because it's one of the main reasons I prefer the jewel cases.

There are afew problems though. I don't know if there are these types of cases which can hold two disks in the same case. The two CDs wouldn't get scratched because I would put the 'music playing' side down, and the two tops may get a little scratched. I also don't know how easy it would be to get hold of afew of these to do drafts of. In addition to this, I kind of need the case to be symetrical, so it gives the two genres in one CD case a good effect.


A diskbox slider case is similar to the digipak above, except it doesn't seem to have the plastic holder in it. I think my Pegasus Bridge cardboard case is like this, and I think it's really nice because it's different. However, I have the same problen with the double disk thing, putting them in the same case would probably scratch them if put in the wrong way.



Information found on;

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_packaging
- http://www.ehow.com/list_6685308_types-cd-cases.html
- http://ezinearticles.com/?CD-Cases&id=221854

Alternative Compilation Albums

Snow Patrol - Up To Now

This album features the highlights in Snow Patrols 15 years+ career. It's a compilation album because it contains music from different years, and music 10 years ago is different to music now.
I like the simple design. The snowflake relating the the band name 'Snow patrol'. The font is simple too, and I'm seeing the red title on a lot of albums in this genre and I think that's something I should use on mine.

 I really love this cover!
This is like Snow Patrols album above, but it also contains live recordings, out-takes and rarities as well as songs. It's a part of anthology trilogy released by Apple Records.
I think the front represents a kind of journey, because it looks like ripped up posters from different shows or tours. It's a really interesting cover.
I wouldn't buy it, because I'm not really a beatles fan, but I think i'd like to create a cover like that for my final product. It's eye-catching and interesting. I'm just worried I'm not creative enough to do something like that!

Kerrang! is a pretty well-known rock music magazine.
There is also a Kerrang! Music channel, where songs from 'nu metal' and 'pop-punk/skate-punk' are played. Songs can be requested via text.
Kerrang is like the rock version of the Now! CDs.

Aswell as having multiple artists on the CD, it is has two CDs in the album. It also looks like it's an annual CD but I don't think the artists on the CD will change very much.
I don't really like this cover, I think it's quite boring. The font is the one that Kerrang use on their magazines too.

Pop Compilation Albums

These Pop Party CDs have been around since I was in primary school, I loved them!
They're like the Now! CDs except they have a younger audience, but the have a lot of the same music.
I think they're for a younger audience because I listened to them when I was younger, and they're very colourful and have younger kids 'idols' on the front like Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber and JLS.
I think I will use alot of colour on the pop genre side. But I don't want the target audience to be the same as this album.

This is a random compilation CD I found. I haven't seen it or heard of it before.
It's just the type of CD you can put on when you're sunbathing, or driving to the coast. Or that's what it looks like to me anyway.
The picture on the front makes you wish you were on holiday!
I don't think I will be taking any ideas from this for my final piece. It's nice for the 'Summer Hits' but I don't think it would suit what I'm wanting on mine.

These are probably the most well-known compilation CDs. I've written a little bit of information about them before, they're released several times a year, and feature the top 40 in the charts at that moment. They have 2 CDs in them. The number '79' on this one means it is the 79th to be released.
I like the cover of this because it's colourful and the season it was released in is clear by the flip-flops on the front. This was most likely released in the summer.
I like how the title is huge and it's colourful. I will definately put that into my album cover.

A Little Information About Compilation Albums!

The simplest way to explain what a compilation CD is would be to give the example of the 'Now! That's What I Call Music' CD's.
They are albums with multiple artists on the CD. Sometimes there are multi-genres, sometimes there are multiple disks in the case.
There can also be single artist compilations such as 'Greatest Hits' albums. These count as compilations because the music can be from different years, instead of normal albums where they are recorded for a specific album over a period of a few month, or have several CDs.

Why is this relevant to my other writing on album covers?
Well, my projects final piece will hopefully be a compilation CD, an album with 2 CDs of different genres, featuring different artists.
This may also effect the cover of my album. I need to think about how to make my album cover the same kind of style. I think I need to look at compilation album covers for each of the different genres of music in the album.
That will be my next thing to research!

Information found on;

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilation_album

Double Sided CD's?

I don't think it will be possible for me to do a double sided CD like I expected. When I look at my CDs, I find that there isn't really a way I can burn music onto either side. This is possible with some DVDs, but not CDs.
There was some research into 'Dual Disks' but they arn't very easy to get hold of yet, and I don't even think they're used yet.


I've been thinking of a solution, and I think instead of a 'double sided CD', I'll just do two different CDs with two different genres. This  means I will need to find a CD case with two CD compartments in it, it shouldn't be too hard.
I may try to do designs on the front of the CDs, but I don't know how possible that would be either!