CD-9
Instructions: Please read all of the following information carefully:
Create a new folder on your “My Documents on daisy” student folder, call it “lastname_final.” All of the work for this final will be saved into this folder and the folder will be submitted for grading. Download the file called "CD_Cover_Template.PSD" and save it into your Lastname_final folder. Open this file in Photoshop.
This final is a “mini project” which will allow you to demonstrate
all of the skills that you have learned over the year. It is primarily a “Graphic
Design Process” exercise, but please make sure to incorporate as much
of your learning as you can into the project:
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Filters • Blending Options • Fills
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Layer Blends • Attach Text to Path • Cutting Objects from Backgrounds
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Shapes • Strokes • Image Adjustments
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Patterns • Gradients • Transformations
In addition, I would like to see evidence of the various Visual Communications exercises which we did this year, as well as some of the “History of Graphic Design” problems completed this semester.
THE PROJECT:
You are a graphic designer and you have been given the opportunity to create the CD graphics for a new album. Before you get started, you should review the following information regarding your album:
| Genre: | Rock |
| Artist: | Levon Helm |
| Album Title: | "Dirt Farmer" |
| Short Review: | Levon Helm is listed as 'Americana Roots' in some music charts. That is the perfect description of his music. This CD celebrates the American Way and Levon's roots in his music. A member of The Band, all those years ago, that glorious group that made the music we would sing, dance and love to. When I hear 'the Weight' I think of Levon, it is really his song, no matter whose name is on the label. Levon Helm lives in Woodstock, NY, and this is where he makes his music. He has a home and an old barn that he has converted into a stage, where he and his friends sing. Every week he has what he calls a 'Midnight Ramble'. I receive his monthly mailings and one of these days I will see Levon in all his glory. Levon has recovered from throat cancer. It has been a struggle. For a while it was questionable whether he would ever speak or sing again. He has made it and this CD is a celebration of his recovery and his roots. His voice is throaty but it is Levon and his music. His daughter, Amy has been the driving force behind this CD, and she and Larry Campbell both contributed in voice and music. Levon Helm has dedicated this album to his parents. Levon, the only real American in 'The Band, was born in Arkansas and started his career in the South. He met up with other musicians on the road, and they came to form 'The Band, and the rest is history. Levon is my hero. Nate Chinen says, In singing the song 'Wide Rover To Cross' "I've come a long, long road," Mr. Helm sings in the chorus of that song, "but still I've got some miles to go." Coming around to the point -- "I've got a wide, a wide river to cross" -- he sounds like the voice of experience, humbled as well as emboldened." Several of the songs on his CD, 'Dirt Farmer' are from his childhood. 'False-Hearted Lover Blues', 'Single Girl, Married Girl' and 'Blind Child'. 'Dirt Farmer' title song is a story of a farmer who has lost his crops and can't pay off his loan. He only is able to make stone. It has a Cajun beat and we can feel the misery and loss in the voice of Levon. He has the weight of the world on his shoulders. 'The poor old dirt farmer fell off his tractor and it rolled over his head.'He ain't got a loan and he can't grow no corn'. He sings about 'The Mountain' and 'The Girl I Left Behind'. 'Cavalry', Anna Lee' and 'Got Me A Woman' are the songs of life and love. 'Feelin' Good' is one of my favorite tunes. It seems to set the stage for the philosophy of the CD- and a tune to go out into the night with. "Dirt Farmer seizes the southern pastoralism that always lurked in the Band's music and blows it up full size, in all its gritty, rollicking, joyous, melancholic, and even absurd wonder." Richard Marcus This is a remarkable CD and is a rolling stone for the American south land and the roots of Levon Helm. |
| Sound clips from your album: | -Clip #1: False Hearted Lover Blues -Clip #2: The Mountain |
| Song Listing: | 1. False Hearted Lover Blues |
| Production Company: | ©2007 Dirt Farmer Music |
NOTE: I HIGHLY recommend that you do not look up the actual graphics of this album, or if you are familiar with the album, put the graphics out of your mind, as preconceived notions will make this assignment MORE difficult, not easier.
To start, download this template file for your CD graphics and save it in to your “lastname_final” folder. You will be creating your CD cover on this Photoshop file.
You will be creating the following for your CD graphics:
1. A nice typographic representation of the Group or Artist’s name, as
well as a typographic representation of the title of the Album (these SHOULD
NOT look the same!) Create these two graphics on separate files and copy them
into your final project when needed. Please save these two files as .JPGs into
your “lastname_final” folder.
2. Graphics for the front cover of the CD (and possibly continuing onto the
back cover, as well) which fit the mood and theme of the Album. This is where
much of your Graphic talent with Photoshop will come in. Use your blending,
cutout and filter skills here! Feel free to get images from the Internet, as
needed, to bring about your graphic. Remember, the Template is the outside
border of your CD, do not go over it!
3. Text for the spine of the CD which includes the Group or Artist’s
Name and the title of the CD.
4. Graphics for the back of the CD which follow a similar theme to the CD.
On the back of the album, you will include the Song Listing.
5. Include the production company information on the back of the CD as well.
6. Place your Artist and CD Title graphics onto the cover of your CD as you
see fit to enhance the look of the work.
When you have completed your design, please save the work as a .JPG file and
place it into your “lastname_final” folder. Using “My Computer,” COPY
your “lastname_CD” folder to the class drop box on the M: Drive.
(If necessary, see highlandtechnology.org FAQ page regarding this step)