Please help me with a CD cover idea! I'm having trouble visualizing it.

January 9, 2008 11:31 AM

Please help me with a CD cover idea! I'm having trouble visualizing it.

Hello all,

Friends of mine are in a band and they have asked me to design them a cover in Photoshop. My skills are limited to photo manipulation so I'm kind of useless when it comes to sketching so I am hoping someone here can help me visualize their request.

This is what was sent to me:

'We were thinking for the cover...... 2 hands clasped together digging in and spreading the soil and on the fingertips a tiger's eye pot seed. You can find billions of pics on the web. And running throughout the soil there should be decaying small rodent type animals and worms. From the bottom a bunch of decrepit hands reaching up towards the top from the elbow and the like. On the inside we were looking for a burnt parchment type of border and horticultural notes made to look like they were torn out of a notebook.<< like one to 3 word snips. Use your judgment for the pictures on the inside underneath those notes.'

I am having the hardest time trying to visualize this and find examples mainly because I've never been asked to create someone elses 'thought' so to say. I've always done personal work that did not require anyone else telling me how things need to be so I am hoping someone here can give me guides to how I can accomplish this project.

I'm doing this for free so no money will be collected, its basically a favor for a friends band.

Thanks in advance!

posted by bostonhill to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

Try just assembling a 'shopped together mockup in Photoshop from base images. You know what the components are, just try putting them together: e.g. start with the hands digging in the soil, add the seed to the hand, etc.
posted by SansPoint at 11:38 AM on January 9, 2008

Second SansPoint's idea of a kind of "rough draft". You don't want to do a bunch of work and have them come back and say that you didn't get it right.

This kind of thing works best if you can sit in a room with them and do quick sketches on paper or a laptop. Basically you want to be able to say "Something like this?" and have them give you feedback. Repeat the sketching and feedback over and over again until you're both comfortable going for the real thing.
posted by burnmp3s at 11:42 AM on January 9, 2008

Sounds to me like they're describing a side-view for the cover, with the stratigraphy of the soil in profile. Like so, where the digging hands + tigers eye pot seed are where the tree is, the rodent corpses are running throughout the A & B zones, and the arms reaching upward are in the C & D zones.
posted by mumkin at 11:42 AM on January 9, 2008

I think they need to give you a sketch, no matter how bad it may be, to at least show the basic idea of what they mean.

One thing I have learned is that no matter how well-described something seems to be, it's never really accurate, partly because people use different words and phrases to mean the same thing.
posted by The Deej at 12:00 PM on January 9, 2008

Sounds to me like they want Goatse + pot seeds

Seriously, I agree with Mumkin about the "side view", and the interior notes sould like they want a "ransom note" style thing with torn notbook paper. Not sure what makes that "horticultural".
.
posted by cosmicbandito at 12:07 PM on January 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

Seconding the sketch.

Their idea sounds like it was made up as they went along, like one of them was on the phone with you explaining about the pot seed and the soil, while the rest were in the background saying things like "make some decrepit hands coming up!" and "put rats and worms in the soil".

I know it's not my place to say, but that sounds like the worst cover to an album ever. You're right to have trouble visualizing it. It makes no sense.
posted by poppo at 12:13 PM on January 9, 2008

I am thinking along the same lines as mumkin but instead of the cross section where you see the front of it maybe moving the viewing angle 45 degrees up and 45 degrees over to give the image some perspective. Just my $0.02.
posted by hexxed at 12:17 PM on January 9, 2008

Yar. I didn't comment on the inside bit, because I didn't quite understand the "1-3 word snips torn from notebooks" bit either. Horticultural notebooks I understand—presumably the band is asking for something like this ("Botanical Illustration" is the usual term of art)—but how you rip out 1-3 word snippets with attached illustration and assemble them on burnt-edged parchment is a bit beyond me. Obviously there's an agricultural theme at work here.

Is this CD already recorded? Do you have a copy? I'm wondering if their vision for the artwork is related to one of their songs, or a theme running through the album. Regardless, you would do well to allow their sound to inform your work. And yes, as others have said, this needs to be an iterative process in which they, or you, provide a sketch that the other can react to, creating something more concrete to develop from.
posted by mumkin at 12:20 PM on January 9, 2008

Also, I'm not finding these billions of tiger's eye pot seed images, and two hands cannot be simultaneously clasped together and digging and spreading soil while a seed floats on their fingertips. You're going to have to creatively interpret their request and get feedback.
posted by mumkin at 12:42 PM on January 9, 2008

I'd ask them to do the web searching and give you some images they like you can use. Right now they're just dumping all their thoughts on you, that would force them to focus a little bit. Just tell them that you're no good at drawing, but if they find the pieces online you'll try and stitch them together.

Friends tend to be more difficult to work with than paying clients, because it isn't going to cost them anything to give vague instructions and make a million changes. You're doing them a favor-- don't be afraid to keep the burden on them until they give you something you can work with.
posted by InfidelZombie at 1:02 PM on January 9, 2008

As a side note—that description sounds like you'll end up with a busy, ugly cd cover. Much better when you've gotta do design work like this to listen to the album and talk about a few concepts, then come up with ideas on your own to pitch to them, rather than having non-graphic designers try to dictate to you exactly what they want. They'll never have it perfect, and you'll be endlessly frustrated.
posted by klangklangston at 1:21 PM on January 9, 2008

There's a lot of detail there, it's far from vague - somebody can see this. So unless they TELL you what they see... you're just wasting your time.

I would reply with this-

2 hands clasped together digging in and spreading the soil What do you mean by clasped and how are they digging in with the finger tips are visible? Male or female?
and on the fingertips a tiger's eye pot seed. What is a tigers eye pot seed? Pot as in weed? Tiger eye as in animal or stone? I don't get it??
And running throughout the soil there should be decaying small rodent type animals and worms.From the bottom a bunch of decrepit hands reaching up towards the top from the elbow and the like. (This sounds like big scene) How close in relation to each other are the seed hands and the reaching hands? What do the seed hands appear to be attached to. WHAT VEIW IS THIS TAKEN FROM?? (From the veiw of the seed hands might make this shit work?)
On the inside we were looking for a burnt parchment type of edges? and horticultural notes made to look like they were torn out of a notebook.<>. Send me what you want it to say. Are there only few words because the page itself has been torn also? Or is it an angled veiw? More like notebook paper than scroll paper right?

Actually on second thoughts I'd just tell them to fuck off.
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 8:10 PM on January 9, 2008

I'd love to see this when it's done. Any progress?
posted by mumkin at 1:01 AM on January 25, 2008