STYLOROUGE: Designing CD Covers

Rob O'Connor of Stylorouge.

Success in the music business is, as everyone knows, as much about packaging as it is about content — but it can be hard to find the right look for your CD, especially if you're working on a tight budget. Debbie Poyser gets some advice from one of Britain's top professional sleeve designers.

If you read SOS regularly, you'll never be short of good advice on arranging and recording your music. But if you take the next logical step and bring your own CD to market independently, while talent and knowledge should be able to ensure that your music stands comparison with signed artists, there's still a yawning gap between you and them: the look of your product. They have the resources of experienced designers and marketing professionals to call on. You, on the other hand, unless you're a graphic designer as well as a musician, or have enough money left after recording the CD to consult a pro, are on your own when it comes to this important aspect of your musical project.

Many studio musicians have access to a computer these days; scanners and quality colour printers are increasingly affordable; and even modestly priced graphics software is often very capable. The tools, therefore, need not be a problem. Deciding what to put on your CD cover, however, might be. Help is at hand, though, thanks to Rob O'Connor. The founder and head of Stylorouge, one of the UK's foremost companies specialising in music business design, has agreed to pass on some of his vast experience in this field to SOS readers.

Rob began his illustrious career working in the design department of Polydor Records at the end of the '70s, leaving in 1981 to set up his own business. From early commissions for such artists as Level 42 and Siouxsie & The Banshees, O'Connor has picked up more and more big‑name work over the years, including Jesus Jones, George Michael, Squeeze, The Lighthouse Family, Kula Shaker and Blur, with whom his company had a relationship lasting five years. Stylorouge now has a staff of 12 and has diversified into non‑music‑related work, including advertising visuals for Ted Baker clothing and web sites. Check out the full story at their web site, www.stylorouge.co.uk.

Think Professional

Some of the artwork created on the 'nice girl/nasty girl' theme by Stylorouge for the promotion of Geri Halliwell's Schizophonic album and 'Look At Me' single.

Though you can never achieve the same distance from your own music that professional designers can from the projects on which they work, their methods can neverthless be adapted for your own use. Pros use methods that allow them to turn their thoughts and feelings about a CD into visual impressions, organise them, and refine them through experimentation and consultation with the artist or band who created the music.

After being approached by a record company with a proposed project, Stylorouge meet the band or artist, attempting to set aside preconceptions they might have if they already know the artist's work, and listen to the album, trying to "get inside the personality of the music." They're not looking for an over‑literal interpretation, as Rob O'Connor explains: "The words can create images, but I like a more lateral approach.

We put together the cover for Chris Rea's album On The Beach, which ended up with a picture of a beach on it [Chris' choice], but I'd prefer to be a bit perverse and make sure that a beach was the last thing we'd consider in that case."

The next step — which someone designing their own artwork can emulate — is assembling "a collection of things scrapbook‑style in a loose‑leaf book. You might have a page with one flat colour or a texture from a photo, or something that just has a mood, and juxtapose it with some typography, bits of art from magazines, screen grabs off the telly — anything that feels appropriate."

Meetings then allow all parties concerned to give their reactions and help Stylorouge narrow down their range of approaches. If you're in a band, one member could take the designer's role, using the rest of the band as a sounding board — though you should try to avoid designing by committee. Even if you're a solo artist, your friends or musical colleagues might help you with this step.

When an idea has been decided upon, Stylorouge organise the practical aspects of making it a reality — setting up photography, commissioning an illustration, or doing such artwork in‑house. Of paramount importance are the feelings of the artist or band: "What we strive to do is make covers that look like they've come from the band or artist themselves. The key word for us is personality. Not our personality — the artist's."

Colour Factory

Having got some idea of how the pros proceed ona design job, we can try to establish some of their guiding principles. Are there are any special rules regarding colours, for example? Perhaps surprisingly, Rob doesn't think so. "You should go with what you think suits the flavour and atmosphere of the music." But from a fairly basic point of view surely a potential purchaser's eye is more readily drawn by some colours than others? Rob concedes that "you don't want to lose your product in amongst the pile of others." So how can you make yours stick out? Rob warms to the theme with one possible approach: "You've actually got some advantages doing your own cover. I'll bring it down to the concert‑level advertising I remember when I was in college. Richard Clayderman or someone like that might be booked in at your local theatre. His posters go up. They're all four‑colour pictures, overprinted with logos of this and that, and right next to them is a poster of the Snivelling Shits, the local neo‑punk band, and that's just printed black and neon pink. Which one works best? The punk band have actually got a big advantage over Richard Clayderman. Most people do have four‑colour printing these days because it's quite affordable, but you can choose not to use it.

"The major record companies don't like to move outside their set ways of working. Whether for reasons of finance or convenience, they can be a bit lazy. And if you're going to a local printer and you can say 'I want my cover printed in day‑glo pink, green and yellow', you're already at an advantage in a way."

Just Your Type

Typography is another major consideration in a CD design. Readability is foremost, as Rob emphasises. "There's a lot of exciting typography about at the moment that's difficult to read. Although I admire Raygun [trendy music, film and lifestyle magazine], I've never tried to read it because it irritates me. What is the point in trying to communicate with words that you can't read?"

The type you choose must convey information, then, as well as looking stylish and appropriate. But it's not necessarily a big advantage to have hundreds of typefaces at your disposal. The distinctive look Stylorouge created for the Trainspotting publicity material (shown above) relied heavily on the basic Helvetica typeface, in bright orange against black‑and‑white photographs. Rob: "Lots of the best‑known designers only work with half‑a‑dozen typefaces. And if you do want something a bit unusual, there are web sites where you can download free typefaces. Font Fairy [www.printerideas.com/fontfairy/] introduces you to type design companies that sell fonts, but as a loss leader they give the odd one away. Some of them are really good.

"But you don't have to have lots of fonts, and I don't think you have to be too big and crass. Also, if you're not a typographer and you're designing something, it's always good to get the advice of someone who might know better than you. You don't have to accept it."

Rob's of the opinion that you don't have to 'write big' on your CD cover, but on the flip side many of us have observed annoyingly small type on CDs. Presumably this is something to avoid? "As a practical tip, if you're reversing type so it reads white on a full‑colour picture, don't go so small that you can't read important stuff, like legal things which are your protection, or contact details. Be sensible. Make sure you get proofs done as well. Never be told by a printer that they can be a couple of days quicker if you don't have a proof, or a bit cheaper. That's a false economy. And if you're worried about small type reading, proofs are your final check."

The question of typography leads on to logos. We all know the impact a logo can have, and its role in reinforcing a band or artist's identity. Take Blur's logo, for example. "The Blur logo was designed to look like a friendly piece of corporate branding, and indeed was compared with Bounce [washing consumable] and Brother [typewriters]. These similarities definitely weren't deliberate, but the style was set to market Blur less like a band and more like another British high‑street product. Just the choice of a typeface, if you stick to it, is a logo, although it's then more difficult to copyright or trademark. An example of a logo that's nothing more than the regular use of an existing typeface would be that which Travis have used on the campaign for The Man Who."

Is a logo something we all need? Rob is ambivalent. "I'd say assess the stage you're at. If you've recorded something to sell to your live audiences, but also as a tool to advertise yourselves to a record company, don't try too hard, because the most important thing is information. These are not people in the street with £15 in their pocket trying to decide which album to buy. They're hard‑nosed businessmen. If they're excited by the look of something and put it on, all they really want to know is the band name and their phone number. And don't try to create something unique at the expense of legibility. Say you draw the band's name as a logo and it's not legible, but you convince yourself you can read it because of familiarity. You could be making a big mistake.

"If you want something elaborately hand‑drawn or unique, avoid it looking amateurish. If something looks amateurish — and you may not be the best judge of that yourself — it'll do you more harm than good. And if you're designing a logo you want to use everywhere, make sure it reads well on the CD spine, or use a really legible typeface on the spine, because in specialist stores sometimes you select from the spine. Some albums never get played in my collection because I can't read the spine. Travis is actually a great example. I love the album but every now and then I lose it on the shelf because the type is so small. And even more particularly to people who read this magazine, they're going to want to have their album played on radio. It will be sitting on shelves in front of DJs, and if they can't read it, it won't get played."

Anyone who's messed about with type in a graphics program can attest to the fact that you can have great fun manipulating words and letters. Rob is very cautious about such methods: "Opening out spacing is fine, but if you start stretching letters about it looks very amateur. When it first was possible to do that, lots of respected professional designers were doing it, just to experiment. It didn't last long. The really good designers dropped it very quickly."

Picture This

Great graphic design needn't be complex, as Stylorouge's campaign for the film Trainspotting demonstrated.

One of the thorniest questions you'll encounter when deciding on a look for your artwork is that of photography. Specifically, should your ugly mug be the enduring image taken away by someone perusing your CD? It's time for some soul‑searching, as Rob explains:

"There's nothing worse than when someone says 'We want the band on the front' and you look at them and think 'Well, what is there to recommend them over any other band?' It's a horrible thing to admit, but if you're going to sell something on the way you look, there's no point if you're not photogenic or characterful. I can't remember ever buying a paperback novel with a photo of the author on the front. Why would I want to see what he or she looks like? It would put me off half the time.

"Are you a good‑looking band? And I don't mean traditionally handsome or pretty. Do you look interesting? Does the way you look carry with it some kind of attitude that people are going to be enfranchised by or understand? You have to be very honest with yourself. If you're selling to an audience that's really into alternative rock music and you're clearly older than your market it could do you harm to look too old. Just don't bother. Don't try and play the game that other people spend fortunes on. The Madonna angle is the pinnacle of that kind of approach — keeping healthy, being retouched, spending loads of money on stylists and hair and make‑up. If you're not that person, don't try it yet.

"You can go the other way; you can be a lad and wear stripes and look like a street kid, which costs nothing, and come across looking like you don't give a shit. That's valid. On the other hand, if you're going to look like every other band who've come off a housing estate, why bother? One advantage of a band photo is that it shows people you're a real, working band and not one or two people twiddling knobs in a bedroom somewhere.

"If you look great and sound great, I think you should go for it. But make sure the pictures do you justice, because it takes a lot to compete with the Madonna level of image manipulation. And if you've spent weeks in the studio, don't expect to look great in a photo right away. You'll have a studio tan, and you may have been living on junk food. Take a break, get healthy, whatever it takes to look good in the pictures. We're often asked to set up a shoot with a band that's just finished the album, and they look like extras from Night Of The Living Dead. If they want the Velvet Underground look, great, but if they don't..."

Bearing in mind that when someone has become interested in the music on an album they're often curious about what the artist looks like, we asked Rob about incorporating an image of the artist or band somewhere in the wider album design, even if a photo won't be the lead image. He concedes that "It could be worth putting a pic of yourself somewhere inside. But again, you have to ask yourself 'Is it doing me any harm?'"

A completely unscientific five‑minute survey we did in the local HMV confirmed that certain sectors of the music industry feel it's of utmost importance that the face of the artist adorns the CD cover. Some 26 of the top 40 albums were designed in this way — though the majority of those were from artists being sold at least as much on the strength of their images as on the quality of their music. Mel C, Geri Halliwell, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, and various boy bands fell into this category. But there are many examples over the years of 'thinking' bands and artists who have eschewed photos and have arguably fashioned a more interesting image as a result. Blur are a good example — Rob declares that "their only stipulation was that they were never seen on the front of their packaging." And Dubstar's 1996 Disgraceful album has no band pictures anywhere, even though they were fronted by a pretty female vocalist: "That album is an example of images doing a very good job of selling the character of the band." Rob goes on to point out that photos can have an additional negative effect for female artists. "You can end up looking like that's all you've got to offer. And there's not a pretty girl in the music business that hasn't been criticised for not having any musical talent but just looking good."

So even if you look fantastic, photos are a double‑edged sword. Marketing people clearly think it's good to sell on looks, but to be taken seriously you might prefer a cover which evokes a personality and atmosphere for the music that's more than skin‑deep. Rob's a great believer in trusting the intelligence of your audience. "There's a whole market of people who are really into music, who love the whole concept of being made to think about what's in front of them. They don't want to be patronised. Although pop music tends to be denigrated as not being particularly high art, at the same time it's someone's expression, and it should stimulate individual reaction."

Then of course there's the approach taken by Roxy Music, who used pictures of stunning female models on all their album covers, at the same time creating a very individual identity for the band. If you don't look spectacular, you could always find people that do!

Pack It Up

The physical reality of the CD format is yet another thing that has an impact on an album's look. Fortunately there's more than the standard plastic jewel‑box on offer. The cardboard 'digi‑pack' we've all seen and probably bought (see The Eels's new album for an appealing example) is an alternative which can make a CD feel more like a satisfying and collectable artifact. Self‑produced projects seeking something unusual for their packaging can once more be in a better position than signed artists, as Rob — who hates plastic packaging — explains: "As I said earlier, the major companies have parameters they don't like to move out of. And some have a fining system, under which the artist could be billed for the extra cost of special packaging

"If a major is pressing 100,000 singles, the difference between the nice, tactile cardboard pack and plastic might be enormous, but if you're only pressing 5000 of an album it could be worth spending a bit extra to make it really nice. We've designed covers for a band who press their own albums, and they made that decision about three albums ago. They discovered that it isn't such a big deal to swap over. [Estimates vary, but a simple cardboard pack probably costs around 50p more than a plastic pack on runs of at least 1000. Cost increases with complexity.] When you're packaging a CD without big record or distribution company backing, the first thing to do is find more than one manufacturing company, to compare prices and get samples."

Even if you don't go with cardboard, Rob points out that "You can still make a CD package feel like a gatefold in terms of collectability. We did a CD with the look of a games compendium for a band called Octopus. It had lots of colour and a large flower‑fold insert which opened out into a board game you could actually play. Inside you could cut out counters and pieces, and a little spinner that was a dice." Such sophistication of packaging doesn't come cheap, but CD makers on a budget could use their imagination to substitute for lots of cash. How about inserting a set of postcards, stickers or temporary tattoos in your CD case, or getting balloons printed and giving them away with a CD? (Watch out if you're producing a single aimed at the charts, though, as there are rules governing what can be given away.)

The Bottom Line

"Britishness became paramount to the Blur ethos. Neither we nor the band were concerned about crossing barriers of visual taste to develop their look. The deliberate misappropriation of readily available imagery created an almost serendipitous visual direction for Blur — whatever we found that suited the personality of the music and their developing image was acquired and adapted. It was often the visual that got the biggest laugh in our meetings with the band that became the chosen sleeve."

Given the choice, of course, most of us would prefer to have our albums designed by professionals like Stylorouge, but we assume their services are way out of our league. You might be surprised. The man at the top of Stylorouge suggests that "You shouldn't be ashamed to phone a respected practitioner and say 'I'm going to be totally upfront with you: I've got this much money to spend, maximum.' But don't try and barter to see how little someone will charge you, because that's rather disrespectful.

"Sometimes the designer might just say 'Can I hear the music?'. If a band came to you tomorrow who were fantastic and you really wanted to work for them, and you knew you could do something really good for here [thumps his portfolio], you'd be mad to not consider it."

Finally, do not all phone up at once and make Rob O'Connor wish he hadn't been so open with his advice!

Snap Happy

Can you get away with using an amateur photo on a CD cover?

"There are really good amateurs about, some of whom would love to do a photo session with a band, though I'm very down on asking favours, especially from friends, because you could be heralding the end of a beautiful relationship. The best thing is to find someone, perhaps from a local college, for whom it would be as useful to do the job as it is for you to have them do it. A photographer who's aspiring to build a portfolio, say. There's a good reciprocal deal there. The photographer would at least need to have their expenses paid, which is a small investment for you. Look at their portfolio first, even if it's a friend, and if you don't like the pictures don't just say you'll give it a try."

One more note on photography: don't assume that affordable digital cameras necessarily produce top‑quality images: "If you want to use lo‑fi as a deliberate look, fine, but don't use something that's essentially like a TV picture and expect it to look glossy. Exploit the fact that it's lo‑fi, like photocopies in the days of punk."

Rob O'Connor's DIY Design Tips

• Try to afford the services of a professional design company if possible (such as Stylorouge). There's a well‑established organisation of music industry designers, aptly called the Association of Music Industry Designers (AMID). Their web site can be found at www.form.uk.com/amid. Failing that...
• Make notes of ideas and keep a scrapbook of anything visual you see that you like, for future reference.
• Keep in mind the purpose of your package. Is it for retail distribution? Selling at gigs? To get the interest of A&R people? Gear your design accordingly.
• Think carefully before recruiting visually talented friends to 'do you a favour' (how well do you value your friendship?!). If you do follow this route, make sure that they are graphic designers or at least understand the medium. Agree to pay them something. Ensure that they will also benefit from the work themselves — for example, by adding the work to their portfolio. You'll get a better job.
• Look at portfolios of previously produced work before commissioning anyone.
• Establish a budget at an early stage. There will be expenses, however little you have to spend.
• Try to be objective about your visual ideas. Ask people whose opinions you respect.
• Avoid design by committee. In a band, appoint someone as project manager.
• Don't steal or copy other people's work. It's not cool and it can be very costly!
• Seek the advice of someone with artwork/repro experience.
• Choose a printer/manufacturer carefully, and use their expertise to help you with artwork specifications.
• Check the Internet for places selling royalty‑free images. They may not be exclusive but they can be very useful and economical.
• Don't feel obliged to use a photo of yourself or your band as a selling point unless you're confident that this will benefit you.
• If you do take the band shot approach, try to be original.
• Try to be original anyway!
• Try to convey the personality of your music, not just suggest its style or musical genre.
• Include a copyright notice to protect the artwork as well as the music. If anyone is in any doubt about the copyright law they can get a copy of it for around £15 from HMSO.
• Don't risk legibility of the artist's name in the name of art.
• Remember that the simple ideas are often the best.
• Offbeat, intriguing, eccentric, original, unfashionable — all OK (conspicuous by its absence from this list is amateurish).