 | |
 | 0 | | Jacket
design is an integral step in marketing yourself within the industry. It's serves
many purposes for the artist. It's not about putting your face on it, its about
enticing listeners and buyers. Imprinting your mood and setting an attitude to
reflect your music. Thousands of CDs have landed on the desks of record execs
or programme directors and have never made it out of their celephane shrink wrap.
This is reality, your CD arrives in it's protective bubble envelope, eagerly it
waits inside, the envelope is opened, your CD is given a 10 second once over,
front and back, the impression is made and bam, it's in the garbage. Why was your
CD's immediately discarded? Simple, the jacket lacked panache, no actually, it
sucked! It failed to impart a feeling of what's inside, it offered no intrigue
or motivation to go the next step and give the music a listen. Even though we've
been told not to, we still judge a book by it's cover!
We spoke with Rodney
Bowes in Los Angeles, who has designed jackets for Lou Reed, Shania Twain,
Holly Cole and The Crash Test Dummies among others, who shared his views of "packaging"
an artist. From what I gathered, there are no tried and true rules but there are
things to consider. | Jana:
As a designer, how much of the inspiration for your designs stem from an artist's
music?
Rodney: Most of my work comes through the record labels.
They sign the artist, send me over the music and either send me the pictures or
ask me to arrange the photo shoot with whom ever I think will give me what I want
for the design. In a lot of cases the label and or the artist already has a concept
for the design and I execute it with my own interpretation. | 
| |
I
do listen to the music so I get a better feel for what I am packaging, but when
an artist is signed, the jacket design isn't going to make or break them. You
could have a picture of anything on the cover, if the music is great that's all
that matters.
Jana:
For a lot of independent artists, the jacket is very important because it often
creates the first impression. A successful design must encourage someone to want
to listen to the music. What makes a jacket do its job?
Rodney:
I was told, a long time ago, that the jacket design created 2% of retail sales.
If the jacket motivated the buyer to actually pick it up and turn it over, you
increase the chance of a sale to 10%. I think that 2% number is bulls#!T. If you
were looking at boxes of chocolates you would buy the box with the best looking
visual of chocolates on the cover, one that made you want to open the box, pull
out a chocolate and taste it right? That's what packaging is all about, and the
music does influence it. A good design imparts what's inside, I mean the mood
and the attitude of the artists' music should be reflected on the cover. I don't
believe jacket design is about capturing the artist; it's about capturing their
music. If you look at "the Velvet Underground" jacket with the Banana image, bought
from Andy Warhol, it has nothing to do with Lou Reed or the band, but it does
relate to the music's attitude. Same goes with the Stones' Sticky Fingers CD…
the crotch shot with the zipper?...well that's all about "How rude can we get?"
It's their attitude which is on the cover. Design is more oblique than obvious.
| Jana:
What Jacket are you most proud of as a designer?
Rodney: I really
like the package that I designed for Lou Reed's "Between Thought and Expression".
I love Joe Sealy's "Africville Suite". Both these packages really represent the
music and the attitude of the product.
Jana: In todays cross over music
markets, do you find jacket design less genre specific?
| | Rodney:
I don't think that there is such a thing as a Rock album cover or a Country cover.
It's about the artist and the music. Country covers used to have a dude with a
cowboy hat, that showed it was a country act. Today, an artist like Shania has
the same graphics as Madonna or Sheryl Crow.
Jana: Do you encourage
artists to participate in design concepts?
Rodney: I very seldom
work with the artists personally. You hire a designer because you have looked
around and decided you like his or her design approach. In fact, I once called
up an artist, whose label had sent me some stuff, and I wanted to ask him about
it, and this artist said " Hey, do I call you up to come in and help me with my
guitar solos?" Point taken! You do your job I'll do mine.
Jana: What
is a common design let down... meaning, when does a jacket not
do its job?
Rodney: Well what immediately comes to mind are the "vanity" jackets.
It's like they did a fashion shoot instead of a photo session and all they want
on the cover is this glamour shot of the artist which has nothing to do with the
music. It's not about getting dates, its about getting heard. Having a sexy image
might make people want to have sex with you but will they listen to your stuff.
You are not packaging yourself, you are packaging your music. Unfortunately it's
a common theme.
Jana: Do you have a favorite jacket from another designer
and why?
Rodney: Sticky Fingers is great, it's got all the attitude
of the Stones. I love Sergeant Peppers' cover because it was the first concept
album cover ever. Packaging always had a photo of the artist on the cover. The
Beatles with Sergeant Peppers created a bridge between the image and the music,
turning album graphics into art.
Jana: Got a least favorite?
Rodney:
Actually yes! The worst design I have ever seen is an album called "Electric Sky"
where the image on the jacket was of a sky with an electrical outlet in the clouds
with a cord plugged into it and the wire coming down to earth. It's obvious and
dumb. People don't need to be led by the hand. Everyone will have their own interpretation,
which is important. One of the best things that I have heard an artist say was
Bruce Springsteen speaking about how he hated concept or literal videos of his
music. He said that in one of his songs there is a line "the screen door slammed"
and that the video director wanted to show a screen door slamming. Bruce hated
the idea because he knew that everyone who heard this lyric would have a specific
screen door image that is their own and not necessarily the directors. He was
so right because we all see things differently from each other. This is what makes
all music and art so personal.
If you would like more info or to contact
Rodney, you can find him at www.rodneybowes.com
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Past
articles~ Licensing Songs :: Sales
& Royalties | |
|
|
©2005-2006
thesongbridge.com |
