Sunday, May 8, 2011

CD Cover Design







I have always been really interested in the way that CD covers are designed especially ones that use typography and different patterns to make a creative looking cover. I feel like music artists usually just slap a picture of themselves on the cover and put their name on it. If they want to include a picture of themselves I think it works if they add a creative spin on it like the one that John Mayer did for his CD titled Room For Squares. I love when I can see design on the covers, it just makes it look that much better and it looks like the band cares about their music when they treat their covers like art.


I know that with the creation of the ipod and mp3 players CDs are becoming obsolete but they still show the artwork of the CDs on the ipod touches next to the song that is playing. I think that the use of design and music are a cool combination together because it is musical artists and graphic artists coming together to create a product or brand for a CD that will be sold to millions of people. I found this site with the 99 best designed CDs, take a look at the link below, you will probably find some artists on there that you like to listen to on you ipod. CD design has always been an interest of mine and it is something that I think is really neat!

15 comments:

  1. I love that Blink-182, Jack's Mannequin, and Coldplay made the list! I completely agree that album art serves an important role in how the person experiences an artist's music. It adds another dimension to the musician(s) branding and sound.

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  2. CD cover designs have always caught my eye too. I like listening to techno music and some of the covers for those cds are very interesting also.
    Here is a site I came across with more cd covers.
    http://designm.ag/inspiration/30-influential-house-and-techno-album-art-covers/

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  3. CD covers are important to representing the artist and the artist's style. I liked MiMOSA's Silver Lining cover and the Kaskade Strobelight Seduction and Dynasty cover.

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  4. Album (yes, I still call them albums) art is something I have always loved, especially in the seventies. I love the illustrations on band albums like Kansas, Boston, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden (not so much a fan of the band, but the character art is astonishing to me) and oh so many more. Recently, I saw an album cover for the group, Boards of Canada. The cover of their album Campfire Headphase is pretty cool. I hate to wax nostalgic too much, but one thing I hate about the end of albums is seeing those wonderfully illustrated covers lining record stores. I do like cd's and prefer those over mp3's (I like having a physical object for what I paid for), but even though they print the art on cd covers or display them on ipods as the album is played, I feel something has been lost. I miss the large canvas that albums provided. Anyway, one thing I am thinking of doing for myself is redesigning the covers for albums I liked. I think it would be a good personal project for my portfolio and something to keep me busy when school is over. This was a great post, Thanks Jené.

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  5. Unfortunately, I fear you are right about the decline of CD cover art. However, perhaps it will give way to new design opportunities in the music industry.

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  6. It is sad that because everything is going to the web many print collateral have declined a bit. I love the covers you put up though. No doubt is one of my favorites. Hopefully print material revives itself once people get over the craze of the web. I agree with John though that new design of opportunities will arise and have arisen from the decline.

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  7. I like the Zac Brown Band one that you posted here. I'm not to fond of the others. But his had amazing typography!

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  8. CD covers are an essential part of an artists work. Even though music is going digital I feel that the covers or at least illustrations on them should continue to be included. It's like a package you shouldn't separate.

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  9. I feel the same way! The album art on either a CD or record is such a huge deal for me, and I actually read in an article over the weekend that vinyl records are making a huge comeback currently when compared to years past.
    Many new bands are beginning to press records along with having mp3's of their stuff accessible online.
    This to me is great news, I could go on for days rambling about the beauty of gatefold LP's (alice cooper's killer album gatefold is definitely one of my all time faves!!!)

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  10. Like I posted in the comments of Carly's post about album art, I think it's a new challenge that designers have to meet. Music is turning to the digital world, so how can we follow? It might be interesting to see how design evolves along with the music it represents. Even album art on iPods and iPhones is one step - it isn't completely separating the music from the visual, but print pieces are so striking I think we must find a way to evolve the print covers to something new!

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  11. there is so much freedom in cd cover design. anything goes.

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  12. I think that the end of CD cover design goes in hand with any topic that has merged with the digital and electronic media. I remember looking at the CD covers excited to see what my favorite band had done.

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  13. Sometimes, album art can make or a break the album! If a band has really intriguing album art, I'll likely check out their music and that goes the other way too.

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  14. I liked about half of them - I'm glad to see they chose a wide variety of styles.

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  15. Nowadays I usually prefer to download tracks, but if the CD's got awesome design, I'd want a hard copy of it. I really like the John Mayer cover, it's a fresh twist on the portrait + text pattern.

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