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Forward e-Newsletter |
Disc
Makers Industry Access:
Don’t overlook the importance of good design |
 It’s
obvious that getting your music rehearsed and ready for recording
is a key element to making a great CD. You want to spend as much time
and energy getting the recorded components of your project as close
to perfect as you can. After all, your recording will ultimately define
you and your act.
Here’s a newsflash: the look of your CD is also an integral
part of the finished package. It seems obvious, but it often ends
up being the element of the process that artists are willing to compromise.
It may not be the intention, but it is often the result if the package
and design aren’t given the proper energy and attention.
You wouldn’t let your drummer’s girlfriend mix the final
tracks unless she were a professional engineer, right? Having a mixing
board and computer software doesn’t make someone a professional
engineer, just as owning a computer with design software doesn’t
make you a designer. Why would you let anyone but a professional create
your CD artwork?
 “I
can’t stress the value of good design enough,” says Mike
Young, Director of the Design Studio at Disc Makers™. “Our
clients work hard on their projects. They’ll rehearse for days,
rewrite every note, record dozens of takes until it’s just right.
It’s sad when they shoot themselves in the foot by compromising
their design and packaging. It makes the job of selling your CDs much
harder, and it just detracts from the overall product.”
Your artwork is the first thing a potential buyer or industry representative
is going to see when they get their hands on your CD. Their first
impression shouldn’t be that your project is less than 100%
professional.
Great design isn’t just finding a cool graphic element or photo.
It begins with an overview and evaluation of your music, market, and
image. We’ve assembled some important tips to consider before
you start planning your design.
Determine your target audience.
Think of who your likely buyers will be. While you don’t want
to limit yourself, you also can’t be all things to all people.
You want to craft a message that is likely to appeal to the largest
segment of your potential market. One way to consider your audience
is to determine where will the discs be sold. If you plan on selling
discs at a Borders bookstore, your packaging will probably look different
than if you sell only at live gigs in grunge nightclubs.
Develop your message.
When someone who doesn’t know you picks up your CD, what information
do you want them to get? Are you selling fun, party music, or introspective,
personal, love songs? Does your music carry social commentary, or
a sense of humor? Effective marketing creates an emotional response
in the customer. What do you want someone to feel when they see your
project for the first time?
Know your competition.
It’s a lot harder to stand out in a marketplace if you don’t
know what the rest of the marketplace looks like. Take a look at designs
for products that are similar to yours. Which ones do you like and
dislike? How are other artists getting their message across?
“A successful package design will both fit in a market segment
and stand out from it,” says Young. “When we approach
a design, we’re looking to create something that will say what
makes this product unique, and what makes it similar. If the content
is heavy metal and the design is smooth jazz, it’ll certainly
stand out from the rest of the metal market, but not in a good way.
The message is confusing.”
Get a professional designer involved
early in the process.
As mentioned earlier, owning design software doesn’t make you
a designer any more than owning a mixing board makes you a sound engineer.
A professional designer understands the limitations of commercial
print production: trapping, color gamuts, and differences between
silkscreen and offset printing. Given the expense of replicating CDs,
you don’t want to take a chance with someone who’s never
printed anything commercially. They could wind up making beginner
mistakes that will be very costly to fix.
“In the same way a songwriter conveys a message through music,
a professional designer thinks in terms of visuals,” explains
Young. ”All we do, every day, is come up with visual solutions
to convey ideas. Our job is to come up with ways to get your message
across that you would never think of.”
Simplify your message.
You don’t have a lot of time to capture the customer’s
attention, and people won’t dwell on concepts they don’t
understand.
“Elaborate concepts usually aren’t nearly as effective
as simple ones,” warns Young. “We’ve had clients
who request 12 images on their cover, one to represent each song on
the album. That collage might mean something to the songwriter, but
it’s a jumbled mess to a customer.”
Spend money on good photography.
This is a very important investment, and it’s the biggest difference
between major-label artists and independents. You don’t have
to spend hundreds of dollars to get good results. If your budget is
tight, check local art schools for photography students, or find a
friend who does photography as a hobby. Make sure they’re using
a quality camera (35mm SLR film or 3+ megapixel digital). Any digital
photographs should be taken with the camera’s highest quality
setting (e.g., Fine or SuperFine, low compression). Take more photos
than you think you need, so you have plenty of choices.
If you have a particular setting in mind for your photos, set it up
in a photo shoot rather than relying on digital retouching to fix
it. Designers can accomplish amazing things on a computer, but it’s
often cheaper and simply looks better to shoot the real thing. If
you want it to look like you’re standing in a graveyard at night,
find a graveyard and take a picture with you standing in it. That
will always look more realistic than superimposing you onto a stock
background of a graveyard.
Focus on the message, not on the image.
Before you think about what your CD packaging should look like, make
sure you know what it’s supposed to do for you. Remember, the
number one job of your packaging is to get people to buy the item.
You want to convince a customer that this is a quality product worth
their investment. Don’t approach the design as the creator of
the product: look at it from the perspective of someone who’s
going to buy the product, and who probably hasn’t heard or seen
the content.
 Be
careful of falling in love with a particular concept before you discuss
it with a designer. You may be disappointed if you find out the perfect
vision in your head will be difficult, and therefore expensive, to
produce on the page.
If the idea of coming up with a marketing message is making you dizzy,
then just come up with a list of words that you would use to describe
the content, and bring that to your designer. Again, an experienced
designer will be able to give visual form to your ideas.
“Even if you don’t have a clue who your target market
is, ”explains Young,“ or have no idea what your message
should be, giving us a little information like ‘high-energy
country pop’ or ‘true-life stories of growing up in the
street’ will help us give you a successful design.”
Good packaging is vitally important to your sales and your image.
That notion can be intimidating for the inexperienced. Fortunately,
the Design Studio at Disc Makers makes it easy.
“We understand that our clients aren’t advertising executives,”
says Young. “They’re musicians– guitar players,
djs, vocalists, etc. That’s precisely why we’re here.
We’re like having an award-winning advertising agency at your
fingertips!”
Check out the Design Studio at Disc Makers at http://www.discmakers.com/design/.
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