CD cover opinions please?

[Nikolas]

What do you think of these four? The illustration is part of the score itself, so it's fine... and makes sense, in an inner kind of way.









or perhaps any of these: www.nikolas-sideris.com/AGS/CD_ferrum.pdf (the text in the PDF is not correct, but can be corrected very easily of course... It's "Piano Stories' rather than "Sketch Music'...)

Comments and feedback please?

[Anian]

It's nice to cross elements, makes things seem connected, but why are those squares that in the background of 1,2,3 a slightly different color from each other?
I may like the 1st one the most because there's no squar that distracts from the background and the illustration, but just has a clear contrast of text. Then I'd say the 3rd because again there's a clear contrast between the background squares and the square with the title and credits and the darker colors are used for farther objects.
4th would be very nice if all the text is in that white banner, but the illustration doesn't just stop below it, but sort of continues behind it and upwards.

In the extra .pdf option, I kind of like the 3rd one, if it's for younger people then it holds a certain creepiness about it that I like. The 2nd one wouldn't be bad if it's for lessosn/teaching, because the design is slick and serious, yet stylish.

[CaptainD]

I kind of like the 3rd one, the contrast between a lighter background at the top and darker at the bottom looks good to me.  In the pdf I like the 2nd one, the first could work but only if the music itself could be described as "abstract".  Otherwise I pretty much agree with what Anian has already said. 

Nick, what is your your target audience for this?

[Ilyich]

I think these are all quite nice, the first two being my favourites. And I like that it's relatively minimalistic - that's the best way for contemporary academic music.

The fonts could use some more work, though, I think. Things to consider - using CAPS for either the title or the composer; lighter shades of gray for miscalleneous things; more unusual fonts (but  only simplistic ones). Here are two examples of CD covers of similar genre that I think use fonts quite neatly:

[Nikolas]

The target audience is any music lover who cares for classical music... These illustrations and blocks are from the score itself and the cover... as in here: http://www.musica-ferrum.com/catalog/viewitem.php?show=47

The idea for different fonts and CAPS is a good one I think...

Thanks all. Keep the comments coming if possible...

[arj0n]

My first thought after looking at the 4 examples:

I like the 1st one the most.
The text not being shown in such grey block as done in the 2nd and the 3rt creates more a bit more calmness.
This causes the painting (in the 1st one) being slightly more on the foreground in relation to the text.

The 4th one could be interesting, but what I don't like is that the painting and the block behind it are having the same grey tint.
Somehow that doesn't match well enough for me.

But then, that just my opinion 

[selmiak]

to be quite honest they all look more like bookcovers for books with notes and chords in it than a CD cover.
Go grab a good cam and take a pic of four hands playing on the piano in a cool angle (from the side all over the key, straight from the top...) and use this as a background image and overlay the artwork.
have you written the piece or why is your name twice on the cover?

[Nikolas]

I'm the composer and the primo (first) pianist, thus my name is twice in the cover.

And I guess you're right. The illustration comes from inside the score, while the other elements are from the cover... I'm not to sure about a too generic image of 4 hands playing on the piano (which I could grab easily from the videos actually)... :-/ It just seems a tad too... normal and generic!

[cat]

There is "piano" several times written on the cover which makes it kinda redundant and boring. Could you write "Performed by ....." instead of "piano" again?

[CaptainD]

Maybe get rid of "for Piano 4 hands" completely, take your name off the top, have "Composed by Nicolas Sideris" just above "Pianists: ..."?

[Nikolas]

First of all, thanks to all for your comments and help. Some feedback has been taken in...

Here are too coloured versions of the same cover, pretty much.

I largely prefer the 1st one, but I'd be interested in reading what you think.



and

[selmiak]

I prefer number 2 now. The higher contrasts work quite well, even though only the top third uses a different background and the rest is still the grungy wall, and a dirty grungy wall as background may be the thing for website background but maybe not so fitting for classical music. Why not use the waterdrops image for the complete background?

Just a thought: Why is your composer name on another element and thus 'cut off from the piece' while the performers are still on the brighter part? Either have also the performers on another part (and therefore in a brighter fontcolor) or I'd try to move your composer name to the bright element too and maybe put it in between the dot on the i of Piano and the S of Story for stylistic reasons. Might also look completely bs, dunno, but I'd try it at least
And I'd give the editions musica ferrum logo a subtle glow to make it stand out from the darker background. Or have it in white and give it a shadow with 0 distance.

Also the 'piano stories' letters are a bit to the left from the total middle.

[Viking]

I prefer the layout of the second, but the colors and backgrounds of the first (although on the first, I think the middle section should be a little lighter, like the second version, to maximize the contrast).  Also, I know I'm being picky now, but I'm not a big fan of the plain Helvetica font that you're using, although I do like the font you're using for "Piano Stories".  The Helvetica font looks too normal and clean for the grungy background.

[Nikolas]

I don't know. I rather like the combination of the grungy backround and that weird looking illustration along with the helvetica font, which is definately very clean.

It's a classical music album, so it needs to be clean and sharp, etc. The fact that it's got that illustration and the grungy BG only makes it more interesting I think, but I do prefer the clean outline of the fonts there... :-/

[LimpingFish]

I like the second of these latest two. I understand about the font choice, but the mix of font styles, along with the use of italics and punctuation seems a little off to me. I'd like to see something more along the lines of:



Just a rough edit to illustrate what I mean. Using a single font would keeps things a lot more uniform (though "piano stories" might benefit from a second font style if need be), and dropping the italics and punctuation is just easier on the eye.

I'm no graphic designer, though.

[Nikolas]

Hey all,

Thanks for the comments.

I've decided to go for the 1st one after all (coloured version). I simply felt that, knowing the music, the red one with the very strong contrast was too much for the music inside the CD. So... and as for the different fonts, I think I'm fine as it is.

So thank you all.

Very appreciative of your help guys! Your comments made it better!