Hayley+Sanchez


 * Genre:** CD cover


 * Why I am interested:** I am interested in pursuing this genre because I love music and part of the listening experience is going through a CD booklet while listening to the CD. Whenever I get a new CD, I thumb through the booklet and read lyrics, as well as look at pictures and read through the artists' thank you notes. I believe this is an important part of listening to a CD for the first time, and it helps allow the listener into the lives of the musician just a bit more. This is the reason why I still buy CDs and then put them on my iPod, rather than just buying them off of iTunes.


 * What I know:** I know that some CD covers can be very artistic or very simple in their appearance. Some artists include song lyrics and some do not. Just about every CD that I have does have some sort of thank you inside, whether it is very brief or very long. Some artists will use real pictures, while others will hire an artist to draw sketches particularly for the album cover. The album cover is also very important to the listeners because looking at the outside of the CD before you listen to it is the first impression of a CD that the listener gets.


 * Annotated Bibliography:**

"How To Design A CD Cover." //Just Creative Design - Graphic Designer, Logo & Brand Identity Specialist//. Apr.-May 2008. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. .

This source actually takes the making of a CD cover in two different steps, in which the author of this article talks about how she goes about thinking of a name for the album. After getting a name, she then thinks about how she can convey that word or phrase into text that will represent the meaning. I believe this will be helpful for my CD cover because I think I would work well with trying to describe the music as a whole and then trying to represent that meaning in a visual way. This is most likely what many artists do because often their CD booklets are reflective of their music.

Outlaw, Danny. "How to Design a CD Cover Using Photoshop : Shutterstock." //Stock Photos | Shutterstock: Royalty-Free Subscription Stock Photography & Vector Art//. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. .

This source will be of great use to me because I have never used photo shop before, and especially not to make a CD cover. This also gives steps and shows visuals to guide one along the process of using this program. Also, it not only gives you a visual tour of what needs to be accessed in photo shop, but it also gives an example of a CD cover in the process of being made, as well as the result.

Carpenter, Leha. "Make Your Own CD Booklet  Web People Media." //Web People Media—Web Design, Video, Motion Graphics, and Branding  Web People Media//. 20 Oct. 2009. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. .

This source gives more of a look at what should be included in a CD booklet, such as "thank yous," song lyrics, types of pictures, etc. This will be of great help to read through someone else opinion and experience when it comes to designing a CD booklet that will catch the listener's attention and convey the emotions through photos and lyrics just as the actual music does.

Motion City Soundtrack. //My Dinosaur Life//. Columbia Records. Both of these album covers gave me a lot of inspiration to design my own. They are so completely different from each other, but the photographs and artwork are amazing and make the whole album experience amazing. I thought I would look at both of these as examples for when I design my own cover. The Goo Goo Dolls. Dizzy up the Girl. Warner Bros.

Buying a CD for some people, like myself is not only exciting for the music, but also to see what the cover of the CD looks like. For most artists, this is a very important part of releasing a CD because the CD cover is the first impression a listener gets from a CD before they listen to it. The few minutes it takes to unwrap the annoying wrapping around the CD is spent looking over the cover.


 * User's Guide:**

According to my sources, as well as my own experience buying CDs and flipping through the booklets, it is important to create a cover that is, in it's own way, interesting and fitting to the artist/music. Commonly, a must for the cover is the artist's name and the album name. However, I just recently purchased an album that had neither. Therefore, it seems that part of creating an enticing album cover is to break the rules sometimes. The front of the album most commonly has a picture of some sort, as well as color. Some artists create a simple cover that has little meaning to some listeners, and others create a very artistic cover that envokes meaning as much as the songs on the album do. The key element to an album cover is creativity. It can be anything the artist wants it to be.

As for the inside of the album booklet, there tend to me more "unspoken rules" as to what should be included. First of all, there should definitely be credit given to all of the people that helped make the album, whether that be additional vocalists, instrumentalists, producers, song writers, etc. These are equivalent to the credits at the end of a movie. If the artist is more than one person, as would be in a band such as The Beatles, there is often a list of their names as well as the instruments they play. The booklet often contains a song listing, and in my cases, lyrics to each song. This is not something that every artist does, but as a listener, I always appreciate when the lyrics are included in the album.

Lastly, the back of the CD usually includes a summary of the information that is included inside the booklet. There is usually a song listing, as well as copyright information, publication information, and a picture or design of some sort. Sometimes, artists may continue the same image/theme from the front to the back, or sometimes it is completely different. Again, the most important aspect to designing a CD booklet is to be as creative as the artist and designers want to be, but be conscious because it is the first impression listeners get of the CD.

//Dear Hayley:// //This sounds like some CD covers I have seen, but I was hoping there would be more reflection on the content and significance of the music, almost like a review of the album. One of your sources says "the author of this article talks about how she goes about thinking of a name for the album. After getting a name, she then thinks about how she can convey that word or phrase into text that will represent the meaning." This kind of information is interesting, and I hope you can include that kind of info in your cover.//

//Bill//