PLEASE NOTE: All CMIT modules have now been withdrawn,
and are unavailable for the 2010/11 academic year
These web pages and lecture notes are left as reference for those students
requiring CMIT modules to complete their programme only, and are not an
indication of modules currently offered.
CD Design Task
The Task
Design the printed material and packaging that accompanies a CD and what is to be printed on the face of the actual CD (e.g. track listings, performers etc.).
The material on the CD can be either music or a spoken book. You choose the music or book and performers.
You can either adopt a traditional design approach of a rectangular plastic case with booklet and back cover/spines or adopt a more unusual packaging design - basically anything goes provided it is appropriate for the market.
If you are producing a traditional plastic jewel case, the printed material must consist of the back sheet, which gives details about the tracks and also forms the two spines of the CD case.
Whatever the nature of the packaging, you must include a booklet, pullout, foldout etc of some form, with more than four pages. If you are designing a plastic jewel case, the booklet or whatever will form the front cover of the CD case (if a booklet, remember your design must be in multiples of 4 pages for binding purposes; and if a pullout there must be multiples of 2 pages).
The booklet or pullout must have a reasonable amount of text; i.e. it cannot be largely pictures, so if for a 'pop' CD include, for example, lyrics (or a selection of them) or biography of the band and its members.
If you are using a 'traditonal', jewel case form for the CD design:
- The dimensions of the booklet/pullout are 120 x 120 mm.
- The dimensions of the back sheet are 118 mm high x 138 mm wide.
- The spines are 118 x 7 mm and are attached to the sides of the back sheet.
The number and type of pictures are up to you.
The nature and length of the text in the booklet is up to you. Include what is appropriate for your product.
A barcode must be included on the tray sheet. A suitable .JPG file can be downloaded by right-clicking on the image below and using the option Save Picture As...
Other copyright and performing information can be included, e.g. a P in a circle for performance copyright date (there is no convenient way of getting a P in circle in PageMaker or InDesign other than drawing a circle and placing a P inside it).
Submit sheets of camera ready copy with cropmarks on, and a mockup. The mockup can be black and white or a photocopy to save printing costs.
The critique
A critique of your design etc must be included. The critique can be of any length, but a guide length is about 2000 words. You can certainly write more if you wish - the longer the critique the better, as it usually shows you have really thought about the problems.
Do include illustrations in the critique if you wish. Illustrations can be particularly useful for presenting more meaningful analytical discussion of the original design of the CD packaging (if you are creating new packaging for an existing CD) and of any visual material you may have used.
Use the critique to state the source of any textual or visual material, not your own, which has been used in your design.
The critique is to be word processed for the initial submission, but will be typeset in PageMaker or Indesign for the portfolio re-submission. You can of course also typeset it for the initial submission if you wish.
The critique should include (though not necessarily discussed in this order):
- An analysis of the intended market and how your design is appropriate
- A comment (brief) on the type of music and how your design is appropriate to this
- An analysis of any existing marketed forms of the CD (include illustrations of these, and these can be at a reduced size from the original)
- The CD's market stance - what sort of 'culural' or 'quality feel' does the CD need
- The type of packaging (e.g. jewel case or other) and why this was chosen
- The sizes of the margins and why these were chosen
- The typography (typeface, size and leading) and why these were chosen
- The reasons behind the choice of visual material
- A bibliography of material you have read in connection with developing the design
- Justify what you have done, bringing out the good and bad points of the design
- ... in effect sell me (the CD company) your design.
Marking Criteria
The things I shall be looking for when marking the CD design and critique are available as a Word file.