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Disc Design Critique
Ani DiFranco: Little Plastic Castle
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| The disc design for Little Plastic Castle is nice enough on it's own: The orange monotone tropical fish swims in a solid aquamarine sea, with the type curled up around the bottom. The contrast between the type and the background isn't great, but it doesn't have to be great - just good enough.
However, when you look at the disc in context, you see that the color of the disc and the color of the paper products clash unpleasantly. I can guess what happened: the designer selected a Pantone ink for the disc based on one of two things: the screen display, or a digital color proof whose color accuracy was less than ideal, such as a Canon Fiery or an Inkjet proof. Choosing a Pantone off of a Matchprint or off of a print sample from the actual run would have gotten them closer
But why go to the effort to match the color at all? Eliminate the blue background altogether, and you've got yourself a minimalist disc design that preserves the spirit of the original while removing the possibility of conflict. Since the disc and the paper products are printed at two different places using two different printing processes, it's advisable to adopt the mentality that "the disc and the booklet have to complement each other" in lieu of "the disc and the booklet have to match." |
Original design:
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Pass#1: PMS 3125
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Pass#2: PMS 137
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Suggested revisions:
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Pass#1: PMS137
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Ani DiFranco: Up Up Up Up Up Up
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| DiFranco's next record, Up Up Up Up Up Up, was released a year later. The design is very similar to Little Plastic Castle - a solid background color, with clipped, screened images knocking out to silver, and artist, album title, and copyright info in a curve that hugs the outside edge of the disc.
Note that all of the problems from the earlier record are absent from its follow-up. There's adequate contrast between dark brown, overprinted type and the mustard yellow background. The disc color is a perfect match with the color of the type in the folder - even if it wasn't spot on, it wouldn't matter a lot, since mustard yellow isn't the dominant hue in the paper products. From a technical standpoint, a flawless design! |
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