Sqwink Album Art Blog

I can remember the last couple of albums that I designed, where one place where accuracy is paramount is placing text and logos in the CD spine.

You literally have less than 1cm to squeeze all the elements into this thin strip of CD ‘real estate’—the dreaded spine of the album’s artwork. As any good designer will tell you—if there’s ever a place to concentrate your efforts whilst designing a band’s album, it’s here.

Well, as 80% of all music is now purchased online, this small segment of album artwork is seldom seen in the online world. Artists and bands alike often release two versions of their CD art—a booklet for the physical world and a digital-booklet for online use.

The production of physical albums is by no means dead (and neither should it be), but as time goes on, and more artists choose just to release digital versions of their music—album artwork may no longer have any backbone.

I can remember the last couple of albums that I designed, where one place where accuracy is paramount is placing text and logos in the CD spine.

You literally have less than 1cm to squeeze all the elements into this thin strip of CD ‘real estate’—the dreaded spine of the album’s artwork. As any good designer will tell you—if there’s ever a place to concentrate your efforts whilst designing a band’s album, it’s here.

Well, as 80% of all music is now purchased online, this small segment of album artwork is seldom seen in the online world. Artists and bands alike often release two versions of their CD art—a booklet for the physical world and a digital-booklet for online use.

The production of physical albums is by no means dead (and neither should it be), but as time goes on, and more artists choose just to release digital versions of their music—album artwork may no longer have any backbone.