I Hate Jewel Boxes

[brian beattie]

I picture the engineers who designed the first jewel box. They just got their first prototype. They're holding it up to the light. They're opening it and shutting it. One guy fumbles, it falls on the floor, on the corner, and the hinge piece breaks. "God, what a shame" one of them says. " but what are the chances of THAT ever happening again ........."

[DUC]

CDs are so clumsy. The only cases I liked were the cardboard-foldout ones they used to make.

I always liked the phyical design of cassettes and vinyl. Cassettes were so portable and punchy sounding. Vinyl is just beautiful.

[wing]

hehe.. i bought 1200 jewel cases from a dude at a garage sale who used to be a wedding DJ, for just $4 total!! i don't think i'll ever run out. it's kinda funny how little you care then how much they break, heh.

but in any event, i agree with duc. vinyl is beautiful, and i love sleeves. i love their size and how beautiful the sleeve art can be, and how the record is stored inside, and everything. there is just something nice about the size and the way the art can be so big on it!

[bobbydj]

Definitely. 12" LP sleeves are just in a different universe to cd art. The latter are wank, end of story. But I was thinking, cds could be improved 100%+ if manufacturers started copying the way DVDs are packaged. Even though it still wouldn't get close to the greatness of vinyl sleeves, it would surely be better than the jewel case format thing. I mean, where's the incentive to make a killer sleeve if it's just going to be 4 inches square, whatever. Taking a cue from the DVD package format might mean designers feel inspired to do some great work again. Dunno. Of course, prices would probably go up then. Who knows.

[DUC]

As a designer I have to say that DVDs do not lend itself well to artistic compositions in general. Square compositions are more aesthetically pleasing. Cassette cases are slightly better, composition wise, than DVD cases.

I remember Sting's Soul Cages and U2's Achtung Baby had really great cardboard CD cases. They were very well designed. Way better than today's DVDs.

Graphic design today is more concept (novelty) orientated rather than visually orientated. And contemporary design is so sloppy and lazy nowadays.

Also, people now tend to design with CDs in mind first, then vinyl, tapes, etc. So the designs don't translate very well going from small to large. But this is all about design.

There is also an over use of computer aided design. Physical cut and paste is the way to go. Vaughan Oliver used to do this in 4AD with LP art for the Pixies and Lush among others. David Carson was exellent with computer aided publication layout, but his sensibility did not work in smaller formats like CD art and whatnot.

[bobbydj]

It's weird that you should prefer the square format in some ways. I mean, traditionally art has been about rectangles - landscapes one way, portraits the other. And with a rectangle you can get a golden section. Can you have one of these in a square? I dunno.

[DUC]

Rectangles tend to force it's shape on the composition. Squares are slightly harder to design with, but it is more generic and visually free. But the aspect ratio of DVD cases aren't as nice as cassette tapes for some reason. It's probably just off by a bit. It's all weird and hyper-sensitive.

[cwileyriser]

I've dabbled in linocut printing over the years (to make posters and for T-shirt artwork, etc.). I've always wanted to do a CD release that had hand-printed artwork.

Does anyone know of a source for blank CD DigiPaks? I would think they'd be good media for that kind of thing. Plus I like DigiPaks way better than jewel boxes.

A lot of the deluxe jazz reissues (Giant Steps, Out to Lunch, Mingus Ah Um, Moanin', etc.) are beautiful. I like when the sleeve that holds the CD inside the package is a replication of the original LP cover. The Revenant packaging is amazing. The Dock Boggs disc on Revenant is packaged in a hardcover CD-sized book that's gorgeous. The American Primitive compilation on Revenant looks great too.

[pandafresh]

Does anyone know of a source for blank CD DigiPaks? I would think they'd be good media for that kind of thing. Plus I like DigiPaks way better than jewel boxes.

http://www.discmarket.com/cgi-bin/web_s ... p&cart_id=

you can get them in case's of 200..

this is the only place i know of who has them..

-trevor

[leigh]

Thanks for that link. Curious, the pricing there, for cartons of 200, it's $50 for Digipacks and $56 for plastic jewel cases. Last time I looked at prices at CD duplication plants, the Digipacks were more. Probably has to do with the difficulty of printing onto a Digipack, rather than onto a little piece of paper that later gets slid into a jewel case.

Leigh

[Larsen]

WOW!

Thanks Pandafresh! I had no idea you could get blank digipacks.. That opens up a whole realm of custom CD packaging ideas. They are even cheaper than I thought. I always wanted to get digipacks duplicated, but they were always amazingly expensive.

[JES]

So how *would* you print onto them? I could imagine some kind of DIY ink stamping method, but that's about it.

--JES

[marqueemoon]

So how *would* you print onto them? I could imagine some kind of DIY ink stamping method, but that's about it.

--JES

My girlfriend got me one of these for my birthday. You make a photocopy of your art, and it burns a silkscreen for you. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I'll post a report as soon as I have.

http://www.gocco.com/prod.HTM

[pandafresh]

you can also get stickers made.. and slap them on. like a 2x4 duotone sticker [on white background.. for the white digipak] slapped in the center. or top center.. or left/center.. etc.. nice n' clean..
use a custom rubber stamp [20 or so bucks-ish] to stamp on the CDr.. silver/silver CDr's.. it atleast wont look like poo..

or you could get a set of color sharpe's and hand do every case.. very DIY indie cute..


-trevor

[Larsen]

So how *would* you print onto them? I could imagine some kind of DIY ink stamping method, but that's about it.

--JES

There's lots of cool things if you put your mind to it. Xerox transfers are pretty cool. You have a xerox made of your graphic or text, then use xylene solvent on it. You can literally rub the image off onto almost any paper. I've even done it on to copper.

Hell, you could silver leaf the things...hand paint each one...cut holes in them...You can get custom hole punches with your band name on it, and just pop out the letters....burn the edges...glue fabric on them...Polaroid transfers...

Some ways are more tedious than others. But, it's pretty cool to have a "one of kind" CD. A friend of mine's record label HUSH does a lot of that sort of thing...