Hyperactive monkey sketches.

For my cd packaging, I wanted to meet some specific requirements that I decided upon after doing a bunch of research.
• The packaging had to be uncoventional, made of a biodegradable material. No simple straightforward jewel case. The reasons for this are Pearl Jam only used the jewel case format for their first 2 releases. The rest are cardboard foldout type things. I mentioned this in a previous post but they do this because they are very eco-friendly, and also because they like to be different and experimental.
• The packaging also had to be uncoventional because the band likes to push the limits with their cd design. Previous releases have very interesting concepts. 'Vitalogy' is supposed to look like a book from the 1800s, "No Code" features collectible polaroids with liner notes; the cd flaps unfold to reveal a bigger picture. Whatever design I came up with had to have some kind of interactive quality to it, some kind of puzzle for the viewer to solve and appreciate.
• A Hand done quality. In the band's posters there is all sorts of interesting hand done type and imagery. Almost all of the cds feature some kind of hand done element, in the forms of sketches and handwritten lyrics. I wanted to bring that handmade element to my piece.

My orginal concept was that this is a compilation of outtakes, B sides, and rarities. It is made up of tracks that were cut from other albums and songs that are hard to find. My goal was to figure out how to derive the style directly from the substance. Since the compilation is made up out what was cut out, I thought it would be really cool to have 4 flaps with interesting cutout shapes, that when folded together read "Lost Dogs". Essentially, the negative space, that which is not there, comes together to form the words "Lost Dogs", just as the random cut tracks come together to form the compilation.
Here are some of my rough drafts that I mocked up to help me figure out the kinks.

First I sketched out a design and then traced it in illustrator.

A mock up to figure out what the hell I am doing.

Mockup; detail.

Ideas for liner notes.
Please note the colors featured are arbitrarily chosen, I haven't worked out a color palette yet.

After mesing around with this idea for a while, I have decided that it isn't going to work. There are just too many kinks to work out. It was hard, but I decided to let it go and try something else.

I came across a new idea I like much better. It is a slight modification of the old idea, but it is cleaner, more streamlined, easier to execute. The concept behind this is "Random elements coming together to form a whole." This is what I am attempting to do with the text: create it out of elements that make no sense on their own, but come together to create a larger idea. This is one of my first drafts of this idea, this is just a sketch that has a ways to go, but I think its got a LOT of potential, and I definitely excited about exploring all the possibilities.

Fold flap A over flap B and get . . .

THIS!! (Again, this is one of the first drafts, the type is going to be much more considered and interesting. Also, I still haven't picked a color palette and am just using these colors in the meantime.)

I would like for the pattern on flap B to form either an image or some other type, but I would be happy to just create in interesting abstract image if thats my only option. I have figured out other details for the cd which are too hard to explain in blog form so I will show them in class. My goal by Wednesday is to have a more finalized version of this.