Cover Design

Rincewind · Tue 09/05/2006 19:43:04

Heyhey, folks. Been getting myself used to using photoshop lately, and especially for design purposes, making record covers, mostly for my own band, sometimes for a real demo, and mostly just for fun.
I've basically been just putting together something without even thinking about how a good piece of cover-design should be done.
So, with this one, I felt like the whole design wasn't all that bad and fully usable, but I also wanted to hear some critique and comments from you other design and art gurus out there, so that I might improve it.

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/kraademo.png

The band in question is not mine this time, however, but a great local six-piece folk-rock-band called Kraa, therefore I wanted to use the rather simple design, with a forest/nature/green-theme throughout the whole thing, to connect a bit with the feel of their music.
And no, it's not for an official release or anything, so the songtitles are just silly stuff in swedish. If I'm happy enough with it, though, I might ask them if they want to use it for their demo coming up in June, however.

Cheers!

(And yeah, btw, if you'd like to hear Kraa, you can listen to them here )

ManicMatt · Tue 09/05/2006 19:59:46

The blur on the front cover hurts my eyes! What is it like without the blur?

The back photo is definitely a photoshop filter effect, and although it's a cool effect and a nice use of colour, it's not a very "organic" feel, as the band I imagine sound like, if they're folk. 9And by the front cover)

Is that the band's actual logo are did you make it? It looks cool, although I'm not so sure about the positioning of it on the page.

The layout on the back is just what I'd expect to see on an official release.

Rincewind · Tue 09/05/2006 20:36:40

Heh, that blur is actually in the actual photo, courtesy of my photographic skills, so I don't know how it looks without it. Heh. I thought it gave it a bit more "mystical" feel, but you might be right, it may just be more hurtful to the eye than enchanting.

Mm, I was a bit uncertain about that one myself, and I think I'll use the original photo instead, actually.
I was mainly just experimenting.

Here's the original:

(Unfortunately I don't have it in it's orginal colours/real size, I just borrowed it from their website)

Nope, it's just a font I chose, but I felt it went rather well with that old-timey-folky feeling.

Mm, ok, what position do you think would look better? Further up?

Thanks alot for the comments, dude!

MashPotato · Tue 09/05/2006 20:52:31

I think it's quite a nice cover layout so far ^_^. A few suggestions:

If you're going to go with the original photo, I would suggest photoshopping out that thing entering the picture on the right edge, as well as maybe the shadows in the top right corner. Maybe try to adjust the colour of the forest to match the original photo too, so that there is a uniform colour scheme.
I think the location of the title is fine, except that it goes a little too close to the right edge. I think I would move it a bit to the left, and ever so slightly upward. You can also try centring it along the bottom to see if it looks better, but I don't think it would look good if it was smack in the middle of the picture.

Tuomas · Tue 09/05/2006 21:11:01

First of all, AWESOME MUSIC and pretty girls too. A bit of errors in playing here and there, but not too much. I shall make a note to myself to get the record, should there be one, this is for a demo right?

Anyhow, I really liked the first try on the first sight. Then I read ManicMatt's comment on the blur and I noticed it and I must agree. The angle in the original photo is really effective and looks professional to me. I also like the green-white thing you di to the photo, though it does bring sort of a neo-dance -record feeling to it. I recall some guy calling himself Darude here in Finland, playing bullshit, and that clolour scheme brings that to my mind.
Ã,Â Ã,Â As it is folk, great folk, we are talking about, I'd suggest, as you had though, I presume, something more traditional -kind. THe first one pic does have too much white in it too. I especially like the forest picture next to that one, I know it wouldn't fit with the band photo, but something to it, or to the style, you know what I mean.

Now what I want you to do is to first of all link to their website and give me their phone numbers

, and then take a little bit milder approach to the gradients.

EDIT: Oh, oh, okay, well I just realized there was a scroller there... I'd say make some small borders on the front cover. I like it like that. and to back cover, read the latter.

Rincewind · Tue 09/05/2006 21:35:15

Ok, did a little re-working of the cover after reading MashPotatos comments.
- Removed the photoshop-filter
- Changed the colours in the picture to match the cover-photo
- Fiddled with the position of the logo and text

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/kraademo2.png

And I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one to appreciate them, Toumas.

They're incredible live as well, watching them was like witnessing a ritual, almost - Hypnotic, yet bursting of energy. Extremely charming, nice and indeed pretty girls, yes.

Can't help with the phonenumbers, I'm afraid, haha, but they have a very temporary website-ish thingy here. Bear in mind that it's in swedish, though.

Tuomas · Tue 09/05/2006 21:49:31

Like I didn't know Swedish

Det Ã¤r just bra det!

Ok, about the new one, the girls look a bit like they had some skin-disease. I suppose you could smoothen the cheecks a bit. Especially Marta's cheeck and forehead, Sara's and Fanny's cheeck. And a bit radical suggestion, but if you added something to the blank area too. It looks a bit lonely, I have no idea what to suggest, sorry, I'm a bit unexperienced in these.

EDIT: ok, now it would be much easier to write that thing correctly if this thing didn't edit it to txt style spelling XD

Rincewind · Tue 09/05/2006 22:40:24

Haha, well, you never know, I don't speak a word finnish, so...

Kul att hÃ¶ra, hursomhelst. Hah.
Mm, you were right about their faces - Did a smoothing operation on them, and also added the logo in the white space. I'm not sure if it looks better or not, but at least it fills up the blank area.

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/kraademo3.png

ManicMatt · Tue 09/05/2006 23:27:16

I was thinking like this, but I really am undecided.

Her name is Fanny? Oh my! That doesn't translate well in American OR English!

skw · Wed 10/05/2006 00:26:39

Wow! Some time ago I was into the scandinavian folk/metal scene and I can tell you it's very, very good (as for my taste). I like the instruments used in that project, and of course the band itself. Six chicks? Nice!

But.

Placing a forest on the front cover isn't an original idea. I would think of something different as almost every folk / folk-metal or metal band has the forest on it's demo cover. Is that photo yours? Take a few more with different composition and choose the best one!

Logo. It's the first thing that come to mind when you think of the band, so you should work on it. Take a pencil and try some curved shapes, not just write it with an existing font.

Kraa... why not KrÃ¥? It would look better.

Oh, by the way... what does that mean exactly?

You should change the position of both logo (like ManicMatt did) and the playlist. The current look is rather uninteresing. Work on layout, as the back cover surely needs some!

I would also leave the band photo without any filters. The carved stone (or what the hell they call that) thing doesn't look good in that case. You should give listeners a chance to see what they do look like.
edit: Ah, sorry. I didn't noticed the 3rd edit. Yea, now it looks a way better!

---
At last, take a look at the Łukasz Jaszak's cover designs and take some example. That guy rocks!

Rincewind · Wed 10/05/2006 07:49:42

Skurwy:
Myeah, you have a point about the originality. But then one might argue whether originality is the most important thing...
Yeah, it's taken by me, but to be honest, that photo is perhaps two years old, and I chose it because it was the only decent forest-related photo I had on my computer... Heh. Maybe says a thing or two about my photo collection.

But if they like this design and let me do it for their demo, I'll probably take another picture.

Hm, yeah, I tried doing an assortment of hand-drawn logos at first, but I never really got it to look good.
But I agree that it would be nicer if it was an original design.
Heh, well, I can't really change their name for them, I'm afraid... Heh.
And "KrÃ¥" does sound a bit wierd of you say it in swedish, too, so.

(I think that the name Kraa comes from a b-horror movie, actually...)Ã,Â

Mm, I've changed the logo now, to match Matt's suggestion, and I'll try and give the tracklist a look-over as well.

Good design by that Jaszak guy, as well.

I'm a huge fan of Stephen O'Malley's design work, myself.

skw · Wed 10/05/2006 12:09:01

Quote from: Rincewind on Wed 10/05/2006 07:49:42Myeah, you have a point about the originality. But then one might argue whether originality is the most important thing...

It doesn't matter if it's just a demo, but a bit of creativity would make the design better.

QuoteYeah, it's taken by me, but to be honest, that photo is perhaps two years old, and I chose it because it was the only decent forest-related photo I had on my computer...

At last you live in Sweden, don't you? There are a lot of forests, lakes and a few fjords to take photos' of.

QuoteHeh, well, I can't really change their name for them, I'm afraid... Heh.
And "KrÃ¥" does sound a bit wierd of you say it in swedish, too, so. (I think that the name Kraa comes from a b-horror movie, actually...)

Okay, I was only asking. Yea, it does sound a bit weird, but being honest, I thought there's no real difference between aa and Ã¥.

Keep up the work! Good luck!

Rincewind · Wed 10/05/2006 23:37:12

Ok, a bit of an update, fiddled around with the text positions mostly, made the whole back cover a bit more compact, moved the logo as Matt suggested, and did some other minor things as well.
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/kraademo4.png

I won't bother much with the tracklist for the moment, though, since these are just temporary nonsense titles, which is the reason they're so long and it's so akward to make them look good... So I'll probably wait until I know the real songtitles before I give any more effort to them... :)Ã,Â

Also, it turned out that photo was one of the ones that I didn't take, but my friend took with my camera, so I had to change the photo credits a bit.

But yeah, Skurwy, you're right about the creativity/nature aspects. But until I drag my sorry carcass out there and get some new shots, I'll stick to this one.

No fjords here, however, if we're gonna be nit-picky. That's more Norway than Sweden. But close enough, I suppose. Hehe.
Thanks a bunch for the critics, anyways! Appreciate it!

ManicMatt · Thu 11/05/2006 18:04:26

Yay I did something positive on here!

lo_res_man · Thu 11/05/2006 18:34:41

I really like the back cover pic of the band. But I am not sure if it fits the front cover as much, but still quite nice.