Now that my front cover was finished, I could start work on my back cover. Using the techniques I used on my second test piece, I had added the noise to the back cover in order to make it look old and worn. It also made it look slightly darker as well, which I was pleased about as without the noise the image was too bright.
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As on all back CD covers, there were a few things that I knew I had to include. These were a track list, a barcode, a record label (name and logo) and copyright information. Without these things the cover wouldn't look realistic, taking away from the success of the overall digipak, which is something that I didn't want to happen.
BARCODE
As a staple for a CD cover, I have included a barcode. I feel that this adds to the realism of the piece and ensures that it looks professional. I decided to place the barcode in a similar place as all of the other album covers I've looked at; the bottom left underneath the strip of pattern. This left me plenty of room to fit in everything else that is required on a back cover.
RECORD LABEL
When looking at my own CDs for inspiration, I noticed that each of them included a logo of the record label that the artist is signed to. Knowing that I couldn't use pre existing images on my cover for copyright reasons, I decided to design my own record label logo for use on the back of the CD cover, as well as the spine, the disc and the magazine advertisement. I wanted it to be a simple design, such as the Island Records logo. This was a logo that I actually took a lot of inspiration from, as I noticed on one of my own CDs that although it may appear its traditional yellow sun with a black palm tree on some covers, it was actually a black sun with a transparent palm tree, allowing the red colour of the background to come through the pattern. I really liked the effect and decdided that that was what I wanted to create.
The name of my record label was quite easy to come up with, as I simply used my own initials, 'GH' and added 'Records' to the end of that. I feel that it sounds professional, as many businesses simply make use of their founder's initials for their company name. Using Photoshop I drew a simple vector circle and coloured it black. In then removed a section of the bottom of the circle where I then placed the word "RECORDS". I used a very simple typeface called 'Orator Std' which I had used on previous pieces of work and liked how it looked. I then added another text layer and using a second quite well known typeface called 'Broadway' to type the lower case letter 'g h' and fill them with white. I altered the point size so that the sides of the letters spilled over the edges of the circle, making the letters look like they had been cut out. As a final touch I added a trademark symbol which, like the barcode, adds a sense of realism to the cover and makes it looks professional.
I realised that I may want to have the record label logo the same colour as the text on my cover, so using the dropped tool I took the same shade of blue/purple from the text on my front cover and used it to fill my logo, giving me the choice between the two when it came to putting them onto my back cover.
OWNERSHIP AND COPYRIGHT INFO
Another crucial thing that I knew I needed to put on the back of my CD cover was a small paragraph detailing the copyright and ownership information of my CD. This, again like the barcode and record label logo, gives the album cover a formality and makes it more realistic. I basically just looked at what is included on the CD covers that I have at home, and tried to replicate that using my record company name. I used both the copyright symbol (C) and the sound recording copright symbol (P) to meet all of the expectations of a CD cover's copyright protection. This was the final paragraph:
Adding all of these elements together on the back of my CD cover gave this end result:
I'm pleased with how all of the items came together to give me a professional 'formalities' section of my CD cover, making it look not only as realistic as the albums I own, but making it look believable as a professional CD cover that ticks all of the boxes.
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