Friday, March 22, 2013

CD Art

I love creating my own custom music CD comps, and that goes for the artwork as well.  On this page is some examples of these.

One thing that absolutely drives me crazy about so much "professional" CD art is that the text is TOO SMALL to read!!! Note how I go out of my way to make the text readable, both in choice of fonts and font size.  This goes for both the song list on the back, and the name of the album on the ends. It's also important to make sure that where text overlaps an image, that the text doesn't get in the way of the picture, or the picture doesn't make it difficult to read the text. (It's amazing how much "professional" CD art does not follow such simple concepts.)

THE MADEIRA is an instrumental surf guitar band based in Indianapolis, Indiana that started in 2004, and featured 2 of my favorite guitarists from previous bands.  Ivan Pongracic was previously the leader of THE SPACE COSSACKS, while Patrick O'Connor was in DESTINATION: EARTH!

THE MADERIA:  DESERT SPACES  (March 2013)

I got to see THE SPACE COSSACKS from Washington D.C. twice before they broke up. In that time they became my 2nd-favorite surf band (right after LOS STRAITJACKETS).  Ivan Pongracic actually helped me when I was putting together a collection of non-album tracks by supplying me with several i was missing.  What a guy!

THE SPACE COSSACKS:  ORBITAL PLANETARY STRATEGIC COMMAND
     (December 2005 / February 2006)

INTERSTELLAR STOMP  (1998) was one cool album, and TSAR WARS (2000) is, simply, one of the most astonishing surf albums I've ever heard. But the text on the back was hard to read.  I fixed that...

THE SPACE COSSACKS:  INTERSTELLAR STOMP  (May 2007)
THE SPACE COSSACKS:  TSAR WARS  (September 2007)
Here's a various-artists comp I put together of various rock tunes & soundtrack excerpts, all celebrating the theme of "GIANT MONSTERS".  The cover art was by Steve Ditko, done for an old Charlton comic, GORGO #4, and reprinted on THE STEVE DITKO READER (2002) from Greg Theakston.

Professor H's MONSTER RALLY 2003  (2003)

More as I go!

All Artwork Copyright (C) Henry R. Kujawa