If I can lament for a moment, back in the early days of the design studio (2002 – 2007 gulp), the primary workload was creating visual identities (logos) for bands, music management companies, record labels and radio stations. Beyond that, we would art direct a lot of albums, up to 75 CDs (see Compact Disc) a year. For designer – and recovering musician – this was very coveted work. A lot if designers were interested in working at Alphabet Arm specifically because of our reputation as specializing in “music-based-design”.
As the music industry struggled to embrace a new digital medium, new modes of listening, and changing consumer trends, many record labels were forced to close. As a studio, we had to make some hard decisions and shift our business model. That said, I still have opportunities to design and art direct albums. Here are a couple recent covers.
I will will share some process work, package photos and design details on another post, but thought it might be fun to share the cross section of cover treatments sooner than later.
