Design CD template

When initially considering CD design templates to base my album covers on, I decided that I would not use a traditional CD Jewel case as it was too conventional, and not outlandish enough to fit in with our bold and unique genre.
I therefore was going to use a cardboard CD sleeve, as it is more unusual and therefore fitting with the indie-genre as well as the fact that it is becoming a more popular design to distribute CD's in and used by many indie-electro bands.

Examples of sleeves used for Indie-electro Band

However, this was before I had drawn up any concepts which I may use as my design, and although I was uncertain as to what exactly my front and reverse panels may be, I had decided that I wanted the inside of my panels to my a long wide shot image of Holly walking down a street, and therefore contemplated a multitude of templates which would be slightly less conventional in design, and suited to my idea. Through my research of CD designs, I narrowed it down to four possible templates.

The first template was similar to my initial idea of a cardboard sleeve, but instead it opened out, and was a four panel CD design. Although I liked the design and layout of this CD case, I decided that my wide shot image would not have the desired effect spread across two panels. In an attempt to develop the idea, I contemplated adding a fold out leaflet, a common feature of a CD, which revealed the long shot of Holly on one side, and perhaps lyrics or band details on the reverse. However, I decided that I wanted the wide long shot of Holly walking down a street to be my main focus image for my inside panels, and  I therefore decided that my design required at least 3 panels on the inside to accommodate this.

The second design I considered was a 6 panel CD case, which folded out to have the CD situated onto the folding panel. Although I again liked this layout, I thought that having a CD obstruct the last panel when in place, would make it essentially appear like a two panel shot, which again was not the effect I was hoping to achieve.

My third CD design consisted of an extra panel, making it an 8 panel template design. However, when experimenting with putting my image across a four panel photo on photoshop, I decided that it looked too 'overdone' and the image lost its aesthetic appeal. This made me confirm my belief that 3 panels were the suitable amount to have for the inside of my CD design, but that I would experiment with different compositions.


The final design which I explored and decided was perfect and entirely appropriate for my CD design was the 6 panel CD design, but with the CD situated in the center panel, so that it did not merely seem to crop the image, but simply mildly disrupted the flow of the image, whilst still making it visible that the entire three panels are one stretched picture. It was from this template which I centered around the rest of my ideas from, as I wanted an alternative theme to the urban street with Holly as a focus, as the whole concept would seem too overplayed if they were to continue across 3 exterior panels as well. I shortly came up with a concept which I felt would work for the front of the CD cover, and the reverse, a floating red umbrella and its reflection continued onto the reverse panel. Nevertheless, after I decided that this was what I would have as my other two panels, I realised my design required another, and after much consideration, decided to keep a simple colour manipulated image of a river to continue the theme on the exterior, and to also provide a contrast when folded, to the interior location of an urban area.