So this is the second segment of Great Friend of Mine’s merchandise which includes visuals and 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 and resonating with the fans in this same fashion. Our marketing and presentation matches our audience but may not be the same for your fans and audience. The goal of this series is to get you thinking of new ways to present your materials to your fans and increase the value in your music.

The Booklet / Insert

So – there are many topics I could continue to touch on about the 20+ page booklet because just the first couple of pages include: (editors note, thanks/acknowledgments, contact numbers and emails, a lengthy passage that introduced a background story to the album’s inspiration so that reader can gain a better experience while listening to the album.) The picture below contains the last half of the lengthy story on the left page and then goes straight into our first song which is just our vocalist reading a short passage from Ayn Rand’s Anthem as an additional source of information to try and help our audience understand what our album is about. And as you can see, we gave credit and mention to Ayn Rand in our booklet.

Song /Artwork / Lyrics

Great Friend of Mine decided to stagger some self-shot pictures throughout our booklet to give some kind of visual appeal. All the pictures, like the one you see above, were taken with various knick-knacks that our vocalist Paul Gonter had sitting around in his room. Of course they are not professionally taken nor professionally printed, but for us, that’s half the point because we are not trying to come off as producing professional material or trying to pretend we do things like we’re on some kind of major label. We understand our DIY audience and our methods of production and creativity are well-marketed according to that. All the knick knacks we used were assembled for other uses as well but can be seen below.

We included some second-hand photos that we collected from our friends who took pictures of us while playing live. They show us being in and enjoying our musical environment and pursuits. These live photos are located in the middle of the booklet just to break the cadence of the information a little bit.

CD Housing

Throughout the booklet, all of our songs are obviously in chronological order along with the lyrics to each song. Each photo that is tagged to each song was intended to help represent the ideas and message in the song – in which the picture are up for interpretation. The structure of the last photo and lyrics ends like the first, and out of the last two black pages of the booklet, a CD-R sleeve (colors vary) can be observed. I took the actual CD out for demonstration purposes. Really all this step consists of is to buy thin CD jackets and little stickers for the corners – which are made specifically for CDs like this and can be bought at most office supple stores. It’s a very simple and cost-efficient design that represents our DIY ethics well.

One of the greatest joys and accomplishing feelings about DIY production is the source of satisfaction that walks beside you and the individuals who participate in the process. Great Friend of Mine had several think-tank sessions about how we wanted our design to look physically and be presented creatively. There were ideas thrown out every other day and decisions that almost made it to the end but were agreed upon that they just be cut out.

Such brainstorming does not just demonstrate that a musician/musicians care about what they put their names on, but it also brings the musicians closer together as a tighter bond with themselves and with the music they have created. It’s a you-give-you-take relationship with the creator and the created and the choice and possibilities are always endless.

This post was written by Zach Frmmel, a senior at UCF majoring in English Literature with a minor in Humanities. He plays in an indie band, GreatFriendofMine, and you can check out their music on Bandcamp here.