Album creation

In order to create my album I will need to take exact

measurements of an album case. The case I have examined is a
hard case/crystal. The measurements follow:

Back insert:

Main:
Length: 140mm
Height: 118mm
Clip:
Length: 6mm
Height: 118mm

Insert:

Length: 120mm
Height: 120mm

CD Insert:

Length: 140mm
Height: 118mm

CD:
Circumference: 118mm

CD Case:

Back length: 140mm

Front length: 127mm
Case Width: 10 mm
Case height: 122mm
Here I have taken an image of a band member posing with a
fender Stratocaster. I had issues when creating the album insert.
When taking the images I had no way to obtain measurements and
specific scales that I would need to create my album. Therefore I
decided to take images in a large scale so that they could be
transformed to a smaller size. I did this with the use of Photoshop
rulers and grids.
I then placed the edited image into a fitted canvas so that I could
begin to add filters, effects and text.
I then added a grain effect.
I then changed the gradient map to a preset colour scheme called
‘purple’. I felt this added a psychedelic aesthetic feel. After looking
at previous album designs I chose to use this image as part of the
inside pages of the insert. To do this I created another vector file
but doubled the pixel width to create a spread that could be folded.
The second page will contain information surrounding the band. I
will also insert a middle page into the insert. This page will contain
song information such as track length and lyrics.

I have also experimented with several different colour schemes.

Each colour scheme had a different effect:
Eventually I decided to experiment with textured patterns as well,
as I felt solid colour colours didn’t hold the aesthetics I am aiming
for.
Although I had problems with trying to add texture to my layers, I
found that if I enlarged particular brushes to the maximum scale I
could achieve a variety of patterns.
Eventually I reached a snag in the design of my album. I had
found that the content I had didn’t fit the criteria of the album I
was trying to create. Originally I had intended to create a
traditional album which consisted on a crystal hard case, plastic CD
frame, a booklet/front page and a back page/track list.
After my research into previously made albums I then decided that
it would be better to design a more modern/earth friendly product.
Although it was not necessary for me to do so I had looked into the
future of how albums are progressing. And through an analytical
study I noticed that crystal hard cases were being replaced with
simple card cases. This meant that the product was slightly more
complicated to design but held the same principles. This new
approach is also more environmentally friendly and supplies could
be found easily for mass production.

An example of this new design could be seen with Above and

Beyond Anjunabeats volume 7.

This general design consists of one solid piece of card which is bent
3 times to imitate a front, side and back album case. On the inside
we would find a slit in the front page to allow space for a wallet to
keep the content.
So in order to start creating my new album I needed to recalculate
the album measurements. This meant adding the previous
measurements together to get accurate results.

Firstly I needed to create a band logo for the album cover. Through
using downloaded copyright free Photoshop brushes I was able to
create an interpretation of a face/succubus. I decided to use
neutral colours as they were easier to see when creating the
design. In the image displayed above the image is in the original
position. Later I needed to rote the flattened image so that the
face was visible.
At this point I had measured the crease of the page and added a
marker. This was done by using a new brush which gave a tribal
effect. I achieved a smaller image to what the brush offered by
selecting a small area with the lasso tool. Although to make this
visible I needed to change the background colour. This therefore
made it difficult to see the main logo. Before I added anything to
my album I ensured that all unwanted layers were locked so that
they were not edited by mistake. I also created a border which
separated the colours and made a box effect. I thought the box
effect made the product have a stronger cliché effect.
So here I have changed the background to a much darker colour.
The colour tones are brought out by the contrast between a dark
background and a light border. I have also rotated and enlarged
the album logo so that it clearly represents the band. This meant
that a fan could easily see the product and identify it as a creation
of the band.

I felt at this point that the overall design of the front cover was ok,
it was just lacking content. But before I could put this data in I
needed to create a listing of what I was going to include.

I decided that it needed:

Track listing
Copyrights
Advertisements
Band name
Album name
Inside content
I then moved onto creating the inside content. I thought at the
time that this content would be relevant to the overall aesthetic of
the front cover. As part of my sleeve I had chosen to include an
image. I found one of my previously rejected photos and added an
effect which gave the image a rustic feel. This effect was called
poster edges.

Although the image was of satisfactory quality it did not fit the size
of the insert sleeve. I chose to add the image to a background
which colour matched the album cover. It is obvious that the
image has been edited; I felt this was not a problem as the image
fitted without problem.

This was the design of the inside case. I chose to use a floral
pattern as its sweeping effects created the illusion of space. Before
the product had some form of artwork my peers suggested that
the product looked very plain but now feel that the artwork is
enticing. I could not show on the actual product where the sleeve
would fit but here I have added lines to demonstrate.

This idea works as there is two layers of card, one fore the front
and one for the inside. The inside card is fractionally bigger (1mm)
so that the card has the capacity to bend/create a pocket.
Here I have finally added the content. As the product developed I
found that the inside creation did not influence the front cover. To
finish off the product I decided to add the required content with a
“hand written” font. This gave the album an ideal crooked
aesthetic.
Although…
I had noticed that I was not yet finished. It turned out that I had
forgotten to create the other side of the sleeve as well as including
my music video track onto the album. In order to kill two birds
with one stone I decided to create an “additional content” sleeve
which promoted the song and the lyrics. A lyric sleeve tends to be
a conventional way to fill the gap of albums content. Of course this
meant that I needed to follow the aesthetic design s for the other
parts of my album. Problems I found with the floral pattern at this
point were that it was difficult to read the text with the images
behind it. I don’t feel it is as successful but by making the lyrics
font Black the content has become easier to read.