Assignment:   Design and Produce a CD Cover for your Class Documents (CD...get it?)

Goals:             Design and produce a CD cover using Adobe Photoshop

Tools:              Adobe Photoshop

 

For the next class day, bring in an actual CD cover as a sample for your rough draft. This is worth 10 points on this assignment's final grade. Your final CD will NOT look like your sample...but you will use it as a guide.

 

Instruction:    

PART 1: Set Up

1.      Open Photoshop and create a new document with the following specifications: Name: CD Cover, Width: 9.5" (make sure the unti is inches...not pixels), Height: 4.75. Resolution: 300, Mode: RGB Color

2.      Turn on Rulers, Ctrl + R. Drag from the left ruler (vertical) a guide wire to the halfway point at 4.75. (Be sure to click in the white area of the ruler...NOT on the edge of the ruler.)

PART 2: Design

1. Design your CD cover in Photoshop using YOUR OWN original art or art approved by your instructor. Keep it clean. If you did not bring your own CD example, or your CD is not sufficiently complex, you will need to use one of my covers. Remember that the contents of the CD are going to be your class documents: i.e. Autobiography, Drawings (Paint.net), Notepad, Posters, Greeting Card, Photos, Magazine Cover, Photoshop Montages, CD Cover, Power Point Pres, Focus, etc. However, you may change the name of the title.

2. Design your CD cover keeping in mind that it will be folded down the center: therefore, the right side of the CD layout will be your front and the left side will be your inside cover. When folded, the right side will be the outside cover, the left will be the inside cover.
3. Your name, the class name and school year must appear on your CD cover somewhere, front or back. Example: The name of the CD is your name. And then, somewhere else you can have "Photography 2009-10". You may change this up. Like, you can use Comm Graphics, Communication Graphics, Photo or Photography I, or something along that line as the title of the class.

 

Design Tips:

• If using a white background (front and/or back) consider putting a black border around it for trimming purposes (see "The Regaldo" below). Also, make sure that the front art does not cross the center guide. If it does, you can either trim it with a selection tool (or use an eraser) or cover it with a white box.

PART 3: Final CD Cover Assessment:

You will need to bring in a blank CD and an empty jewel case. You will then print your CD jewel case cover, fold, and turn in for your grade. The CD and Cover will need to be kept here until we burn your CD at the end of the year. You will also enter your CD into the Year End Contest at ParkDale Mall (if finished).

Printing your CD Cover

1. Print with Preview (ALWAYS print with preview from Photoshop)

2. Change the page setup, if necessary, to landscape.

3. Do NOT scale to fit media.

 

 

 

Steps for Burning your CD:

1. Make sure everything is in your P drive and that the P Drive window is visible on your screen as a window.

2. Insert your blank disk and wait for the wizard appear. Choose the option "Open writable CD folder using Windows Explorer".

3. Drag the contents of your P Drive (Ctrl + A) to the CD Drive Window (the empty window). Then click "Write these files to CD".

 

 

Student Samples:

 

 

 

Note...the front cover should consist of some variation of your name, the class name, and the year, despite that the samples below that do not have these items. These are nice covers, but they were done a number of years ago before this project was refined to include a few extra details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commercial CD Samples:

 

 

 

   

 

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