David Bowie LP - Final Images and Finished Outcome

 When finishing up the final sleeve designs, I copied the same background for the back of the sleeve, however I wasn't sure if it might look better with inverted colours? The next three pieces were the different ideas I had. The first was just a plain black to match the front cover and inside design.

(Additionally I added the copyright information of the back of the sleeve that was on the original Lost is Love LP for a realistic look) 

I then inverted the colours, turning the black to white. I quite liked this look as it was something different but not so much as to look out of place. However, I then added a boarder as I felt the white seemed to wide and unfitting. The boarder I added was the same thickness as the top black boarder from the front cover of the sleeve. Even after this I still preferred the original just black design so that will be used as my final piece. It was good to see what it looked like inverted, as I did like the look of it, but just overall felt like the black cover looked better than the white. 

The Final inside cover was a simply mirror image of the boarder around the lyrics sheet. This was simple enough as I wanted the hole for the vinyl to be the focus of the right side. The design of the sticker will show through and look much better behind a plain sleeve design.

So the final design is as followed -

               ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To make the final preparation easier, I then made a new template, one that was 2 by 2 squares, each 18.4 by 18.4 in size. Each section of the sleeve was then dragged on to make the final piece that would then be printed out and folded over. Tabs on the edges of the top side and one closed edge would make gluing the piece together much easier and neater. No tab was needed on the size for the record as to allow the record to slide in and be stored in the sleeve.

( <--- To make sure I knew how the final layout should look, this was the rough copy I had to double check with)

The final image fit comfortably onto an A2 sheet, this also allowed enough room to fit the stickers as well.
All that was left to do was cut out and fold together!

Firstly, using a ruler and a bone file, the folds were scored to allow folding the sleeve to be much easier and accurate for the final outcome.

The best way to then cut the sleeve was to use a ruler and a craft knife. Using the fold lines that I left just around the edges of the design, I could cut a clean straight line that would fit perfectly. Also, not forgetting to cut around the tabs as well! For the circle shapes, this cutting tool was used to get a perfect circle as opposed to using the craft knife by hand. This tool was also much quicker in creating the clean circle cut.

The best way to fix the LP sticker to the vinyl was using stray adhesive. It's easy to apply and sticks to pretty much any surface. Finally, all that was left to do was glue the tabs and fold the sleeve! 

       ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This was the finished sleeve. Complete with vinyl! 

     


                   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I was really pleased with the outcome of this. I wasn't sure how happy I would have been with the outcome as I was working on it, mostly because I've never really done a piece so heavily themed with digital work. Even though the digital aspects were a little bit of a challenge and something new for me, I really enjoyed working with photoshop and Paint.NET.