Another challenge for the fun of it...

In the Talkgraphics.com '3d Graphics' forum there is a poster named 'RJ Swift' who is very interested in the graphics style used on the cover art of many hip-hop/rap cd's. In his thread many have suggested Xara X as good software for designing cd cover art.

I thought it might be fun to post a challenge. The idea is to design a hypothetical cd cover - using yourself as the recording artist. You don't have to use your pic if you don't want. Please don't post anything using actual band logos etc. - make up your own and have fun!

My quick example hopefully expresses the idea adequately. Please rise to the challenge and post your own imaginary cd cover...

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

In the Talkgraphics.com '3d Graphics' forum there is a poster named 'RJ Swift' who is very interested in the graphics style used on the cover art of many hip-hop/rap cd's. In his thread many have suggested Xara X as good software for designing cd cover art.

I thought it might be fun to post a challenge. The idea is to design a hypothetical cd cover - using yourself as the recording artist. You don't have to use your pic if you don't want. Please don't post anything using actual band logos etc. - make up your own and have fun!

My quick example hopefully expresses the idea adequately. Please rise to the challenge and post your own imaginary cd cover...

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

Hi Ross. I hope you don't mind, but I used MY real band's CD cover, with our real logo, which I designed with.....yup! You guessed it, Xara X! Xara made it easy to do revisions, and there were quite a few before we decided on a final.

Danny Huff
http://www.asherrocks.com
(I'm the guy who USED to have a lot of excess hair)

My point about not using real bands and logos only related to copyright issues. If it is your own band I doubt there could be any problem. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

I still haven't figured out which guy in Asher you are. There are two guys with much hair...

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

Danny, is that 100% Xara, or did you sneak into Photoshop for lightning and lens flare?

Marcus Geduld
{ email me } { visit me }

..they weren't made in Xara, either.

Marcus, that lightning and lens flare are 100% REAL, and the background image of the CD cover was a photograph my drummer took, I believe, in South Dakota. He was less than 100 feet from the nearest lightning strike (on the right side of the pic) when he took that pic. I thought it was a stunning photograph so I suggested we use it for the cover, with some resizing alterations. It was actually a much wider shot that I squeezed on the x-axis and stretched on the y-axis, to get it to fit where I wanted it.

Xara was used for designing the logo, and the overall layout of this cover. Unfortunately, I didn't need to use many of it's wonderful illustration qualities for this project. I even had to redo everything in (gasp) Illustrator(and version 8, at that(errr.. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]), for the sake of the printer making the film.

When the CD's were produced, they came out considerably darker than the original image, but I was still very happy with the result.

Danny Huff
http://www.asherrocks.com
(I'm the guy who USED to have a lot of excess hair)

A bit of this and a bit of that.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

... entries guys!

Ross - I love your shimmering eyes! They make me feel all tingly inside! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Danny - Fantastic image! What was your friend doing next to those power-lines in a thunderstorm?!

Gary - I can tell from the faint background image that the album cover is from your younger days!

I would buy a Album by the Crystal Balzak - from the name alone! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Risto

risto@ristoklint.com

Visit my web site!

Ross - I like the filaments flowing through your image. Are the balls a tribute to "Sing-a-long with Mitch" from the 1960s? Follow the bouncing ball ;-)

Danny - a very impressive CD cover.

Gary - is your photo from the days when you still had your guitar?

Soquili

Come on guys. It's fun and it's a learning experience.

While this is not as good as I would like, I have got to get back to MY reality.

Just for the record, that IS me. It was taken at the SF International Gay and Lesbian Parade this last year.

The horns exist too. They are attached with a stretchy invisible wire. There is a web site, I will post the link in case any one is interested. There all all sorts of sizes and finishes. They are really lite and sturdy.

Now you know what the Wolff looks like [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Hope you like the cover.

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

... from way back - when I was the king of tango.

RAMWolff is a fraud! - I invented the horns and the cool leather shorts combo - when I was known as the Finnish Tango King!

... or something like that... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I just don't have the pictures to prove it... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Risto

risto@ristoklint.com

Visit my web site!

A HAPPY VALENTINES DAY IN ADVANCE

My kind of cover......

Rgds
Paul

Here's something that I did. I know it's GRADE SCHOOL compared to you guys. Don't be too hard on me please. I know it's not good but I'm addicted to this stuff. I'm even making more as we speak. I'll show you soon. Thanks.

Risto.........fraud?? Me?? A Wolff never lies about such things [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] No pictures to back up your claim??? Poor baby. Sorry dude, I do, lots and lots of them!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Covers:

Ross: You are one strange dude. I would love to talk to you some time and see what makes you tick. What an imagination (re: previous posts too) Don't get me wrong, talented as all get out, but strange none the less. It's OK, strange is good in my book [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Danny: I might have known you were behind the design of Asher's music cover. Right on and even if it's not ALL Xara, it's still KOOL [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

Gary: What can I say, it's strange, but many covers these days are like a kaleidoscope of images and colors. Very nice. Is that you lurking in there??

Soquili: Nice moody cover. You must be into modern jazz. Reminds me of a meditation CD cover. I like it!!!

RAMWolff: OOPS that's me [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Risto: Love your cover. Tango and Jazz all the way.

Quaker: Ah, we have a lover at heart here [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] Sweet and nice and soft. Makes ya want to snuggle. Ummm, don't take that personally [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

pcoleman: HMMM. Nice and colorful. Acid trip dude?? Kidding. Actually it reminds me of a CD that I own called "Freaky Chakra". Most interesting "music"

RJ Swift: Can you say S A T A N ??? (Church Lady)
Actually I think it's DA Bomb! Quite creative. Don't put your self down about the quality of the composition. The only thing I see is the spelling of Rhyme (rhime), but that may be on purpose.

Nice bunch of covers people. Keep it up [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Wow.. so much talent in the group!

Here is my attempt at it..

Alan

Pure and simple.

Hi Alan and welcome here!

Which 3D program did you use for the landscape? Bryce, Vue, Terragen ???

Kindly,
ivan

Be simple, re-invent the Rose.

Welcome to the conference and thanks for sharing your interpretation of Ross's excellent challenge, although I think that Ross must get some kind of royalties from that image. Is it just me or have we seen that image before Ross?

Great images everyone. RamWolffff, great outfit--I love the horns! The guitar went long ago, Soquili.

The image hidden many layers down in my cover design(actually two images flopped and joined at the head Siamese twins style) is from an old Corel Magazine (Germany) article (back in the days when they were still paying their writers and not stiffing them like certain USA magazines of the same name). It was an article on plug-in filters.

Thanks for the challenge Ross. What a great thought starter.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

I guess I'm from a different era. I thought of "Doug and the Slugs" and decided to do "Neil and the Eels" only I found there's a group called The Eels. So I changed the spelling to "Neil and the Eils." Here's my effort anyway. - N

Thanks Ivan and Gary,

Actually I'm not sure where I got the image from,
it may have come with Pixia or The Gimp or maybe a older version of Corel Draw that I have.

The original image is a little different than my version, I used the Trasparency tool to add some "fog" and "mist" to the image to try to give it more depth.

Alan

Another one from another Wolf ...

Yes, it's me too on the picture, no it's not my guitar. The title happened just because I chose blue for the background color ...

Thanks RamWolff for the jewelcase-idea, even though yours is better!

Wolfgang

Hey,

Thanks for the compliment. I like that dark sinister look to my attempt at making images. About the spelling, yeah, the spelling IS supposed to be that way. As far as hip-hop artists go, it's pretty much the norm to make their own spelling. I like ALL these covers, I got a few offers to do some covers for some artists here, so, you might see more. thanks again.

RJ

Everyone has posted some very nice CD covers!

RAMWolff said my other post suggests modern jazz, so I thought I would post another that is more like another music form I enjoy also ;-)

Soquili

HERE. (This thread is getting to bandwidth intensive so I've started a 'continuing' thread).

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

Hi, Soquili,

Country Jazz???? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


Like the hat, did you create that??

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]