Comments on: Local DIY Album Design

By: DIY Album Design Park 3 | Music Marketing - Gen-Y Rock Stars

DIY Album Design Park 3 | Music Marketing - Gen-Y Rock Stars — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:45:10 +0000

[...] the way his indie punk band has created a home-made limited edition feel to their latest release. (Part 1 and Part [...]

By: Local DIY Design Part 2 | Music Marketing - Gen-Y Rock Stars

Local DIY Design Part 2 | Music Marketing - Gen-Y Rock Stars — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:53:34 +0000

[...] procedures on how we produced our album design and presented our form of marketing to our audience (read part 1 of the DIY design here). Please keep in mind we deal with the underground punk scene that is deeply rooted in DIY ethos [...]

By: Mojo Bone

Mojo Bone — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:58:58 +0000

I’m willing to reserve further comment until I’ve seen the rest of the packaging, but I think that unless the font on the CD matches that on the outside of the manila envelope, the intended theme of “desperate songs” could easily be mistaken for “desperate band”.

By: gregrollett

gregrollett — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:04:41 +0000

Hey Steven – I totally agree with you on some of the points.

For this release, it seems, Zach and his band went for a limited edition feel. The handwriting does give it the personal feel, whether it is tacky on not is not the objective here.

I think the packaging fits the “theme” of their release…”desperate songs”

The goal of this wasn’t to suggest copying the design, but more to open up to new forms of getting your material out there. Stop thinking in terms of CD’s in jewel cases, etc. While that business is still going to be great for some bands, doing a limited release in special packaging will get your “super fans” to pony up some cash that adds to your bottom line.

Thanks for chiming in. Hopefully we can hear from Zach more about the “why” and the results with this type of packaging.

By: Zach Frimmel

Zach Frimmel — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:17:24 +0000

Thanks, Steven Razorblade, for your candid feedback – all is appreciated. Granted, we could have spent under $100 to print on our cds, but that was part of the budget we were willing to cut – plus, we just like to keep things simple. I do understand and share your concern for “Eye-Catchyness” but we thought our visuals effectively communicated our intentions for our expressions and for our understood audience.

Just like you mentioned, I don’t want to come off as negative, but our band’s logo is The Hand which would, in fact, mean that we effectively directed our audience’s attention to what we want. Could “Eye-Catchyness” be in the eye of the beholder?

If you or anyone else is interested in our design and means of creativity you can easily find our more about us on our Bandcamp site.

Thanks kindly for time and attention.

-Zach

By: Steven Razorblade

Steven Razorblade — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:00:23 +0000

I dont know about this. Nothing at all about this is eye catching. While this is creative I feel like too little thought went into the design. You can get an ink jet printer that prints on CDs for under $100 theres no excuse for a blank CD-R with the bands name written in sharpie pen. Also the cover just flat out doesn’t grab your attention in the right way. Your eye goes straight to the hand when it should go to the bands logo.

I dont want to sound like a hater I like this blog alot. Im just being honest on this post. The overall Design could have been better with the same amount of money being spent.

I did an article on my web site about Designing CD covers. While its based on Goth and Industrial CD covers, it still applies to all musical styles. I just really feel like in todays modern music market “Eye Catchiness” is one of the most important things to have come CD release time.
http://razorbladesociety.com/home/?p=569