CD Package design is a passion of mine. Below is a quick breakdown of some of the steps involved in conceptualizing, comping and eventually designing the packaging for F5's A Drug for all Seasons. I hope you enjoy the peek.

When starting a project like this I'm usually supplied a title or titles depending on how early into the production I'm involved. I ask for mixes to pull inspiration from and lyrics when they are available. In this case the only direction I received were a few titles to start with. The basic idea being that it had to be dark, and metal! Hey I can do dark! I can do metal! yeah!


Preliminary ideas were jotted down on paper and some were comp'ed up in Photoshop and presented to the band. After a little back and forth they settled on a title "A Drug for all Seasons".
Initial designs were scrapped and additional ideas were presented, tailored to fit the new title. Designer Temple Muse came up with the final concept for the cover. I then used the lyrics and music to build on the initial concept and set out to bring Temple's drawing to life.

It's always easier to build towards a target, and having a cover concept down and the band on board, we moved on. Plates were gathered from personal photos, a list of props was nailed down and after a few trips around town a good selection of base images and textures came together. I went with a toned down color palette for the booklet. Using Fall as a season to wrap the design around. I blocked out the pages, then got a feel for how much type the band hoped to include. One thing you have to remember is that bands make a lot of money off merchandising. So any extra places you can have stand alone artwork, the better. It means one more option for shirts, singles, stickers, whatever you can think of. Keeping that in mind I try to work at a higher resolution for everything, so I can supply that art work when it's needed.

The CD tray was a great spot for this. Above you can see how the images were shot, 3D elements were generated and the composite came together. For the organic elements we hit a local nursery and the near by Botanical Gardens.
While this doesn't cover the specifics of the composites, color grading or layout, it does give you a glimpse of some of the steps involved in getting it there. Check out the FEATURES section to see some of the other panels from the F5 CD. And keep an eye out for future breakdowns, including more in-depth shots of how the interior panels were put together.

|F5: A Drug for all Seasons

Credits:
Executive Producer : Steve Smith
Produced, Engineered, Mixed and Mastered By: RyanGreene.com
Assisted By: Erik Toms
Recorded and Mixed At: SJS Studios Scottsdale, AZ
Logo By: Shari Corbett
Inner Sleeve Band Photos By: Nathan Ian Bradley
Illustrations & Design By : Nel Santiago @ ForbiddenSky
Design Photography & Concept By: Temple Muse

Tags: CD Design | C4D | Photoshop | F5 | David Ellefson