"Back To Square One" Album(s) Artwork

[PooF]

I like the idea of the album covers on the page. And the general layout idea. I reduced the full-size image to about CD booklet size and you're right it is hard to read. Maybe if the background image was faded or washed(?) a bit it might allow the text to stand out.

My bias is toward a more severe look. What do others think?

[oz1701]

looks pretty good AT - i think the album in the bottom right can move away from the right bottom corner a bit and maybe be a little larger as it looks a little lost in the far bottom right corner.

[Annoying Twit]

looks pretty good AT - i think the album in the bottom right can move away from the right bottom corner a bit and maybe be a little larger as it looks a little lost in the far bottom right corner.

OK, I'll do that in the next prototype. Do you think the drop shadow on the album cover is OK? I'm wondering about it, maybe no shadow at all or a vastly reduced one.

I'm still wondering if the "credits" text on the right could be modified considerably. How about if it where vertical, starting above the bigger album cover and going up. It could also go up in wavy lines or something like that. That way the (more important, I think) lyrics could be left alone (and readable) while there is still some slight weirdness (is this what PooF means by "more severe"?) added to the text on the page.

[Annoying Twit]

The next prototype. I increased the size of the album cover, and removed the drop shadow. I've darked (and played with contrast) the background image. I've changed the "credits/info" text so it's now vertical, and wavy. The text now stands out better, but I think we need a more appropriate font or fonts. Readability seems to vary considerably with fonts.

I would prefer that Duckboy comment on what we're doing. I'd prefer to only fool around with other people's stuff with their explicit consent.

I think DB posted a sufficient number of "covers" so that we could have songs and song information on facing pages, while the blank pages are some of the other images. Perhaps we could use the lighter images on the back pages, either unadorned, or with more abstract images or symbols added. I'd like to see some Hipgnosis consistency. One thing I thought of was to collect photos of the hands of people associated with the project. You can do a thing with the Gimp (and presumably Photoshop and other software) where you partially cut the hand (or other things) out of the background, and it appears to be coming "out" of the photo. Small instances of these over the mainly abstract images might work. Otherwise, normal objects cut out and turned into small "etched glass" objects over the original images may also work.

Comments?

[Annoying Twit]

Different font here. I haven't done the "wavy" credits because it's a fair chunk of text just to try a different font. Though at present I do like the wavy credits.

I tried downloading some more fonts from the net, but none work too well for lyrics and credits. This font seems to be OK in terms of suiting album lyrics. But particularly when reduced, it isn't very readable. But handwriting font seems to work, so perhaps going through other handwriting fonts is the way forward.

At what size should the lyrics (etc.) be readable. If we're reducing to CD jacket size on a computer screen, then that's not much resolution. Printing on paper would have far more dots per inch, and therefore maintain better readability at a smaller size.

[Annoying Twit]

New font here. This is a handwriting font that seems more readable at small sizes, called "Bud's Hand". "Credit" text should be wavy.

[oz1701]

i like the idea of a handwriting font AT - not sure about aligning the credits vertically instead of horizontally.
the larger album cover in the right corner is much nicer.

[Annoying Twit]

i like the idea of a handwriting font AT - not sure about aligning the credits vertically instead of horizontally.
the larger album cover in the right corner is much nicer.

Horizontal credits means either less column width for the lyrics, or a very narrow column width for the credits. I'm concerned about readability.

[Annoying Twit]

Can we use something like this somewhere? A larger font will be possible. The "changing colours" wouldn't have to be so dramatic. If there was a song with short lyrics, then alternate lines could be in different colours. Or perhaps for something like Hourglass suite, there could be the title, credits, and list of people providing the additional voices. (If not too long).

It's just an idea, but I've saved the .xcf version with the spiral path for future use.

[oz1701]

it took so long for the reply box to come up i forgot what i was going to say, oh yeah - the spiral is cool but a bit awkward to read AT.

[Duckboy]

i dont reallly have time at the moment to be doing the artwork but im happy to keep letting people play round with i really like the spiraling font its hard to read but it seems to suit it

[Annoying Twit]

We could use the spiral for something that doesn't need to be read so often. What, I don't know.

By what process will it be decided what text goes onto the pages? Where will the necessary information come from?

[Duckboy]

well we'll need:
title
(writers credits)

lyrics








copyright info

thats the essential stuff
so i guess we will be relying on the actual band members for these

[Annoying Twit]

well we'll need:
title
(writers credits)

lyrics








copyright info

thats the essential stuff
so i guess we will be relying on the actual band members for these

It might be better to have the copyright info including writers credits on the right hand side (whether horizontal or vertical) as that would leave more space for the lyrics to be expanded up in size. Which they will need if they're to be readable at CD jacket size.

[Annoying Twit]

What a brilliant photo. Isn't there some way to use it?