another nice looking submission came in last month from designer Paul Zdon, this Downtown Struts Lp on Pirates Press Records that he did the art and design for really surprised me. i like the approach he took with the illustration for the cover art. by splitting the image into 4 squares he was able to create a lot of interest in the design that would not have been possible to do with a straightforward illustration. that one pop of white really helps bring this design to life as well...
these covers were 3 color offset spot printed (mint green, black, and a clear gloss varnish over all the black and white areas) on a heavy matte cover stock and glued. the spot gloss looks really nice when you are holding the record, i am always a huge fan of contrasting textures in print design.
here is a shot of the back cover, basically just hand-set song titles framed within a thin black border similar to how the illustrations were framed on the front cover...
this record also has an inner printed dust sleeve which adheres to the same black, white and green color pallet. this panel is where the record starts to feel like a tight package to me, with all the typography and colors from the cover sleeve being carefully utilized in an effective way.
on the flipside of this inner sleeve is the lyric sheet, beautifully written out with neat and clean penmanship. i mean, really, really, neat and clean. look at those perfect columns of text! i spent an embarrassing amount of time squinting at these tiny-ass letters searching for signs of it being a font, but it really is all hand written. damn fine. also, it's worth noting here that it is on this panel that we are able to see the full front cover illustration unrestricted by the cropping and moving into squares....
even the vinyl was well thought out for this record, as the A and B labels (not to mention the vinyl itself) tie back to the same 3 colors and typography from the rest of the layout...
but wait, there's more! a folded 2 color offset poster was also included with this release, and it's another fine example of Paul's perfectly rough and tough illustration skills. i guess what i am trying to say is that it's been refined to a point where it looks very presentable, yet still retains its raw brush and ink characteristics. cool looking poster for sure.....
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