Conventions of a CD case

In order to create a good album case, we felt it necessary to look into the specififc conventions of CD cases...

Front Cover; We noted that front covers usually have the artists name visible within the frame, making it obvious who the artist is which will attract their fans straight away. Most text fonts used are unique fonts, making it distinctive and so more recogniseable for the public. Front covers also tend to have the artist name in the top third of the cover to make it clear to see. Another aspect that we noticed is that the album title is often in a different font style to the artist name, distinguishing the difference between the two and their importance. Lastly, we felt that the genre of the music is generally hinted at by the cover art.

Back Cover; The back cover on the other hand, tends to feature more specific information such as Label's name, catalog number, barcode, website URL, social media sites, production credits and producers name. In addition it obviously has the track titles on it too - this font typically links to the front cover in order to create that clear link, showing a strong sense of continuity.

Disc; The disk is most probably one of the most important features of the entire album. The artists name is normally on the disc alongside the album title however, artwork is optional - many artists leave their disk blank to be 'artistic'.

Inside; The inserts in a CD case are normally thank you letters, lyrics or pictures of the artist - this needs to show a clear link to the rest of the album's artwork on both the front and the back covers for it to be continuous.

Spine; The spine typically includes both the artists and album name, alongside the label's logo.

All of the above are the basic elements of a CD case and we are going to think carefully about what we have found out within this research when we are designing our digi-pack.