CD Packaging Project

EFFUSION - The sun will shine again is a CD for ABET MUSIC. The album artwork implys its possibly an album relating back to older generations. I get this impression because the album is created from what looks like cardboard and string and has a big red wax splodge like an old envelope. The writing also looks handwritten or written with a very old typewriter. Very traditional! The letter appearance maybe appeals more to the older audience who use letters as communication instead of the younger generation using social sites like FaceBook. Also the traditional old style of the envelope encourages that idea because the older audience may have been alive when these types of envelopes were in use. The dull grey colour of the album cover further encourages the sense of older generations.


The album is clearly a lot different to other album covers out these days, in terms of appearance. The cover is quite quirky and interesting and is definitely one that captures the eye. Even if i didnt like the music, if i saw this cover in the shop i would definitely taken a look. It captures the audience no matter what age and what music they like. It makes you question what music it is, it isn't revealed at all by the appearance of the album. Envelopes are usually used to enclose documents of importance so by using the design of this it might give a more formal and valuable look to the album.

This is a album cover for an album called Vonnegut Dollhouse by Rethink. The album is created in a sleeve style, the flaps close and the disk just slides in. This incredible design packaging is both interesting and fun. It is very unusual and peculiar and would be a very rare sight if ever seen in a shop and would definitely be an eye-catcher. 


The album has 6 sides and folds together into a dollshouse like the album title, its a very clever and well thought design. The illustrations show different sides of a room on each of the flaps and it creates a 3D effect to it. On the bottom ( the floor ) there is the CD mount and the flap to open the box shows all the members of the band, in the size of dolls.


The album design gives a great idea of what the album might be about, dolls. It is a perfect way to give across the theme or idea of the album before actually listening, it could very easily attract people of all ages to view the album in a shop, and little girls might be so enticed by the easily assembled doll house that they might buy before even listening.


I think the album cover is probably made out of hard card, so it can be easily folded and assembled in to a dolls house without damaging the CD.

The packaging design here is pretty spectacular, its very different and unique. This type of cd packaging would have had to be thought out very carefully to create the effect of the CD being the mouth. This actually in effect takes the focus away from the imagery, it works well because if you pull on the bottom where the sleeve is the CD will be fed to you. A very clever and creative album cover that will definitely attract the eyes of many. 
The covers are probably made of some sort of card, because its easy to work with and still protective, an intricate tricky little design like this would be very difficult to put together with something like a plastic, simply impossible.

AS-A2 Assignments

                                                                        David McKean

David McKean was born 29 December 1963 in Maidenhead is an English graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, comic book designer, filmmaker and musician.

He uses a range of different medias when creating his work like painting, drawing, photography, collage, found objects, sculpture and digital art.

Recently we have been analyzing Dave’s work including a poster Dave has designed on social care for the Government presumably, the poster was created during the time where social care had been targeted by the press and had been given a bad reputation. Jobs for social workers had been put at risk and there became less and less people trying to work in the industry. The poster is an advertisement to encourage people to become social workers.             

From studying David McKean I know that he does a lot of comic book design work and this is definitely shown through the poster, it is a contemporary piece. I think the title of the piece is ‘people are isolated’, it is the biggest and most bold font on the piece and it is the only bit of writing on the design that doesn’t subject Sonya specifically. It sticks out and strikes the audience from the start. The next picture introduces a character in the comic-styled piece; ‘Sonya is hard to reach’ is what reads on the signpost. The signpost symbolizes that Sonya is maybe lost and no one knows how to find her as she is very insecure about herself and doesn’t want people to find her. The next picture shows an old painting of Sonya when she was young, it makes it very clear that she is disabled with spinal problems and relating back to the signpost, is probably the reason why she is so insecure. We are immediately directed to a photograph, which shows how she is living now. The caption on the photograph is ‘mum did so much for her. Maybe too much?’ this makes the reader ask, where is mum now then? And the photograph shows a very lonely, and unable person. Sitting in the dark shows insecurity and confidence, Sonya is shown to have had the wrong care from a young age and it is now affecting her. Next image shows a graveyard on the map in the background and the caption indicates her mother’s death.

The artwork is proving to show a journey through the life of someone with disabilities, Sonya. The map in the background helps draw out the steps in her journey as David McKean narrates it in pictures. After her mother’s death a door is shown on the poster. This furthers pushes her self-security, a closed door indicates her being hard to reach and extremely low self-confidence. The next stop through the journey of Sonya’s life shows a ‘Coronation Street’ sign, and the caption ‘but your patience and a shared passion helps Sonya open up’ implies that someone has made an attempt to get in and was successful because they can mutually enjoy talking to each other about Coronation Street, ‘Open up’ Refers back to the closed door in the previous picture. The person helping her is a social worker and this is indicating the affects and need for social workers.

After meeting her the social worker encourages her to meet people with the same disability, this is shown through a picture of folders of similar cases. She agrees to meet people but will only do so if ‘You take her by taxi’ as the caption states, this still enforces a sense of unconfidence in Sonya.

The map leads you to a bus with Sonya on, her confidence as risen once more as the captions states’ one meeting leads to more meetings’. By the end of the comic the map in the background is seen to move into a group of dots, which shows a town and indicates Sonya becoming part of society and regaining confidence.

In conclusion, David McKean encourages people to move into the social work industry. The poster is effective because its not boring and very aesthetic to the eye, the poster is colourful especially towards the end, I think David meant for this because her life gets brighter and more interesting when she becomes more confident. The poster ensures a sense of self-esteem in social work, which is definitely needed for people to move into this industry after the press slating the employers.


Billie Jean

The doodle styled illustration above won an award at the EPICA graphics illustration awards. The artwork was by a UK designer called Billie Jean. Billie generally uses biro in his artwork as shown above. Billie has obviously been assigned by Nike to produce an advertisement/celebratory poster for 80’s originated Nike shoes named ‘Vandal’ and then 1985 shoes when the shoes were about. I have chosen to study this piece because I think it’s quite an interesting an aesthetic piece of artwork, biro is an unusual choice of media, I think the piece is very creative and random.

            The use of biro encourages the older audiences to think back to the days where they once doodled images in their study books and scribble carelessly on the work. The artwork in this aspect is perfect for what it is intended to be done as it celebrates the days of the Vandal Nike shoe back in 1985 and it brings the audience back into that time. By including basketball players on the screen and lots of relations to basketball, its indicating that these were the days when hi tops were primarily used for basketball only and created only for that purpose. Nowadays it seems they are of course more of a fashion style and considered a trendy look. The poster also includes an image of a Space Invader at the bottom of the poster, this also influences a sense of past times and a retro look, the game Space invaders was released a similar time as when the artist refers back to. This could even be a ‘big up’ to the Space Invaders creator; maybe he was a big influence of Billie’s.

Jamie Reid

Jamie Reid is an inspiring British artist that specialises in typography and graphic art. Jamie’s work is mainly associated with the 'ransom' style artwork that defined the punk movement, especially with the Sex Pistols. The first thing that comes into my mind when I think of the punk era and especially the Sex Pistols is Anarchy and anti-royalists. This is noticeably has a key involvement in Jamie’s poster as the Queen is positioned in the centre of the poster and has been edited and graffiti is on her face. The title of the work ‘Never Trust A Punk’ tells us that the artwork was probably created or refers back to the late 70’s when Punks were big and famous band The Sex Pistols were around. I think the title is aimed at a punk and is pretty much stating that they are no good. The title’s letters are created out of newspaper cut out letters; this may be implying that there is/was a lot of press about punks and all of it is pretty much bad. The Queen in the middle of the picture is also a cut out of a newspaper and she has graffiti on her face, this is definitely referring to Punks anarchy ways.

Furthermore, the flag, which the Queens face has been put in the middle of, is very tatty and looks like a rushed drawing. This is probably a Punk’s drawing disrespecting the British flag and the Queen’s country. The picture above is the original version of Jamie Reid’s picture and it shows a safety pin through Queen Elizabeth’s lips, I think this is an attack on the Queen and refers to the Sex Pistol sarcastic lyrics, ‘God Save the Queen, The fascist regime’.

Jenny Tran

Jenny Tran is a motivated and passionate web designer, web developer, and photographer in the Sacramento area.  Her passion for web designing began many years ago as well as photography.

            I am studying the piece ‘Intolerance Destroys the Fabric of America’ by Jenny Tran, we have analyzed this piece in our graphics class and I think it’s a great piece of artwork to write an observation about. The first thin you notice about Jenny’s artwork is that its an assault on America. I think this because at first glance at the picture you notice part of the American flag, with a big, black assemble of words and phrases, which create a hole or burn in the flag. The hole symbolizes a sense of corruption upon America; it shows that some Americans are not happy with what’s occurring in their own country. From looking closely at the hole in the American flag, it is clear that the sentences that make the hole are quotes and media statements slamming the country on certain issues. I think Jenny is trying to illustrate America being corrupted by Americans without even realizing it, it occurs every day and it is breaking or changing the country for the worse from the inside.

I think the idea behind the work of Jenny is how America can contain so many types of people and yet intolerance between the people is so common in the communities.

            Furthermore, to further indicate the sense of corruption or change in the country, Jenny has faded the flag on the left side; it appears as if it is worn or if it is diminishing. I think this is a point trying to prove that America is not what it used to be, it is losing its face and how it appears to the rest of the world is slowly becoming worse and more disruptive. I think the poster could well likely be related to war, the strong, red colour could well symbolizes blood and the intolerance could relate to their intolerant ways and how they deal with certain issues. 

Pioneer Advertisement

This advertisement was a very interesting piece created by a team of four skillful designers. The main man behind the amazing piece would be the Executive Creative Director Lee Clow. Lee’s artwork features in many adverts like the Energizer Bunny, Taco Bell Chihuahua, and California Cooler and also has held campaigns for Nissan and Pedigree Petfoods, he is referred to as “Advertising’s art director guru”. Becca Morton took charge of the visuals e.g the imagery and design, Gage Clegg was the copywriter of the advertisement and lastly Jerry Gentile and had also an input as a Creative Designer but not as much as Lee Clow.

            The piece appears very modern so perhaps in the last few years, the advertisement shows a flat-screen television, which is a recent improvement

 In technology and the affects on the image definitely show modern day editing software. It is clear that the artists have used a range of lighting and Photoshop to create and edit this picture. I think the piece is an advertisement to promote Pioneer’s ‘home cinema system’. With this advertisement, I think it is clear that the designers have tried to create a sense of ambiguity and confusion on the audience. Immediately when I look at this poster/advert i notice a hand with an eye in the palm of the hand and ears on the fingertips. The hand is an indication of the 3 most sensitive senses used for a home cinema system. The advertisement implies an ultimate experience for the three senses. It is exaggerated and glaring and expresses the sense of excitement, amazement and shock when seeing. ‘Go beyond sight. Go beyond sound. Enter a world where you look with fresh eyes and listen with new ears. A world where you don’t just see, you feel. You don’t just hear, you touch. You don’t just watch, you truly and fully experience. Introducing the KURO’ This is a quote on the piece by Pioneer.

            In addition, the advertisement uses a dark background in dual context it creates a sort of gothic sense. It creates a sense of witchcraft or super natural energy, the hand and eye can relate to a north African and middle eastern culture symbol of a hand with an eye in its palm called Hamsa. The hamsa is often incorporated in jewellery and wall hangings as a superstitious defense against the evil eye.

Maid In London

Banksy is an anonymous England based graphic artist he specialises in graffiti art, political activity, film directing and painting. His creative street art has led him to become world famous and is seeked out by many, trying to discover his identity. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on the street walls and bridges of towns and cities throughout the world.

I have chosen to study this piece because I think it is an interesting piece to study, I find Banksy’s creations very interesting and the messages behind them sometimes really make me think. The title ‘Maid In London’ has an interesting pun with the use of the word ‘Maid’ instead of alternatively ‘Made’. From this title it is clear that obviously the piece was created in the streets of London, I think the artwork may target maids in London in previous generations. It may be saying that they were abused and not paid but it was brushed away and no one took notice. There was many maids in London where this may have been the case for many. Stepping back abit, I think that Banksy might have just intended to show that many things in this world are hidden and are not spoken of. People are selfish and cruel and hide stuff for the better of them. A maid might be on the wall because they may be particularly vulnerable to being taken advantage of.

This painting was created using stencils and Banksy used a very restricted range of colour, I think he has done this to create a old, dated affect, a time when maids existed in many London households. I think the purpose of this painting was to create awareness to the people of London and an attack on the Government. Quite often Banksy creates quite offensive paintings towards political issues and Government. I think that maybe Banksy is trying to get people to think about these situations and understand the way he sees it, a lot of people have no understanding of what goes on in this world and simply ‘sweep in under the curtain’. I think the story behind the work is how a land can contain so many types of people and yet segregation and intolerance between each different people is so high in American communities.