Learning the ropes: Graphic design for CDs

Sorry I haven't been able to post interesting stuff these past two days -- I've been working on the album artwork! And since I want the artwork to be a surprise, I can't really post pictures or say much of anything about it in a blog post.

I have never designed graphics for a CD before, so I started completely in the dark. I had to learn a lot, including the difference between a face and a tray card. (If you haven't read the first "Designing the CD's look" post I wrote last week, you should read that first by clicking here.)

I have a bit of a graphics design background from creating a few websites for law firms, but other than that, my experience is comprised of me playing around with software and experimenting with different combinations of color, shape, and effects.

Some stuff I have learned about graphic design for CDs:

Always use a professional graphic design program.
I'm using CreateSuite5 Adobe Illustrator that I am lucky enough to have access to through my dad's law firm. The interface is very similar to CS5's Photoshop, for those of you who are familiar with that program, but I would recommend Illustrator over PS for this job simply because I am making art from scratch in this project, rather than importing and manipulating lots of photos. Which program you choose really depends on what you have when you start the project designing process. If you're still on the fence, click here to read an interesting article comparing the two programs.

Hex VS CMYK VS RGB

CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). CMYK is the process of mixing these four pigments in different ratios to achieve the desired color. CMYK is known as a subtractive color model. What this means is that, when mixing the four pigments to achieve a specific color, you input a percentage from 0% to 100%.

Different percentages of the four pigments create different hues.

Hex is a six-digit code used for web design. Every two digits represents a byte of information, and correlates to 24-bit color TrueColor. (A byte is made of 8 bits, and a hex is made of three bytes: 8 x 3 = 24). You can read about the hex color system more in depth here.


RGB stands for red, green, and blue. It is an additive color model, meaning that different amounts of red, green, and blue pigments are combined to yield the desired color.

CMYK is the one you want to use for CD graphic design. I repeat: use CMYK. This is so very important because all major printing presses that will manufacture your CDs use CMYK, and if you didn't design the artwork in CMYK, the art they print will not match the art you created and saw on your computer screen. Avoid bad surprises by always checking that you are using CMYK.

Pick a specific color scheme and stick with it.

A great resource to inspire your color choices
can be found at http://colorschemedesigner.com/ 

Having a specific color scheme is important. A good color scheme promotes unity in your designs. I first went into the designing process this morning with the mindset of, "I like blue, and I like orange, and maybe some yellow..." But no. That doesn't cut it. At all. I found a great website, called Color Scheme Designer 3, that will generate multiple color schemes based on any hex color of your choosing. I recommend using it as inspiration, and then tweaking the colors to your liking. (Hey, since you understand the technicalities of color systems, it shouldn't be a problem, right?)

Upon visiting Color Scheme Designer 3, or any similar color scheme generator, the sharp folks out there will notice that they all give colors in hex because the colors are being used on a webpage. (It only makes sense, since hex is the color system used by webpages!) The easy fix for this is to use this handy hex-toCMYK converter, like I did.

Don't get married to your color scheme.
Yes, I did just contradict myself. But really, just think about it. You don't have to use the same color for everything. Use colors outside of your scheme as accents, or to compliment the beautiful color scheme you have established.

Be aware of your space and boundaries.
As I showed you in this post, the company that manufactures your CDs will give you templates to use to ensure that your gorgeous artwork doesn't get cut off. It seems simple, but there are a few key terms to understand:

• Trimline: where, in theory, the machine will cut the design... only, this doesn't always happen (see next bullet!)
• Safety: the inner-most area on a template. Keep all of the text and critical design elements in this space to ensure that the important stuff doesn't get cut off.
• Bleed: the outer-most area that will get cut-off. It is still important to extend your designs to the outer-most edge of the bleed to avoid white space around your artwork.

Again, read this post and check out the image I uploaded of a template CD Baby gave me... you visual people will thank me.

These are just the very very basics to getting started with designing the graphics of a CD. I am literally learning as I go, as in, I Google something, then execute it. Everything (with the exception of the hex color scheme stuff, which I knew from web design) I just learned a few hours ago as I needed to learn it and use it. If you have any questions or comments, let me know, and I will happily clear things up for you!

PS: I managed to finish all of the artwork for Bits and Pieces AND write this extensive blog post in one night! Woop woop!

PPS: Have you listened to the samples of the songs off of Bits and Pieces? You haven't? Go here and listen. You have? Oh, well, go here and listen again.