Template for Sheet Music Covers

[jlinds72]

Forum UserID: archive
Type_Of_Contest: Print Design
Title: Template for Sheet Music Covers
Deadline: 1st September
Prize: $25

Company: The Archive (website under construction). We sell high quality editions of early (pre-1750) classical music to specialist professional performers & academics.

Colors: Has to be black and white only (no shades of grey, no colors)!
Style: Minimalist. Clean. To-the-point. Elegant, but very restrained. Not at all elaborate.
Comments: The winner fo this (hopefully simple!) little project will, if the work turns out to be good, be offered serveral other projects based upon this one. I know this prize ($25) is small, but it's just the first of several. You are designing a "template" front cover for a piece of sheet music, size A4 (210x297mm). In the end it will be printed on a slightly-off white stiff paper, possibly a little textured. You need to leave a space for our logo (approx 4cm x 2cm), and the majority of the page needs to be blank, leaving room for an image that is just under twice as wide as it is high. You will not introduce any graphic elements except, if necessary, the most simple (perhaps a line or two, just to break up the text). ABSOLUTELY no musical symbols at all, please! You will concentrate your efforts on choosing one or two really fine fonts, and on placing & sizing the supplied text in a really balanced, elegant, distinctive way. Always think "minimal"! Fonts: Nothing fancy. No calligraphic fonts, nothing "curly", nothing with shadows. We're looking for straightforward, clean, legible, but still elegant. The image needs to be able to shrink down to approx 4cm x 6cm with most of the text still readable. The image needs to shrink down to thumbnail size with the composers name and the title still pretty much legible.

Here's the text (comments, not to be included in the design, in square brackets): Charles Bâton [the composer's name, the most important bit on the page] (died after 1754) [the dates need to be positioned close to his name, but can be smaller] Suites, opus 1 [this title is the second most important thing on the page] Volume 1 duet suites without continuo, for two hurdy-gurdies, musettes, flutes, recorders or oboes [this subtitle can be borken up into two parts, if you like...."volume 1" and "duet suites..."] BN001 [this catalogue number can be very small and need not show up on any of the reduced versions] Have fun!


**Please note - the prize funds have been guaranteed for this contest. Normally we will not guarantee a prize under $50, but since the funds were already received, I will personally be holding the prize funds for this contest. Please make sure that if you win, you will be able to receive the funds through Paypal, as that is the only transfer service available for this contest due to the low prize amount**

[ibrad]

Is this contest still open, and has anyone replied? If a cover template is still required, please e-mail me.

Brad

[jlinds72]

Yes, this contest is still open - and please thoroughly read through the contest requirements, as it states that it is open until at least September 1st.

Just so you know, we do not allow private communication between the contest holders and participants during an open contest, so you will have to post any questions to the contest holder in this thread. Thank you

[ibrad]

Thanks for letting me know. I just thought it was strange that no one had responded to the thread. I'm new to the site, so please excuse my ignorance.

Best,

Brad

[archive]

Hi iBrad,

I hope you decide to put a design together! It's eerily quiet so far .....

Richard (contest holder)

[Neupix]

Hi Richard,

Just so you know, I will be entering something tonight

[ibrad]

Alright, I think because this was such an easy task, it seemed to be much harder than it should have been. Please be gentle with you comments, I'm very fragile this time of day

Here it is: The Archive #1

The fonts I've used are generic, and can be easily read. I've left adequite, I hope, space for your images and logo. Please let me know if there is more needed or if I'm totally off track.

Best of luck finding a design,

Brad

[archive]

Hi Brad,

Great start to the contest! I think you're right - I think the task IS simple, but it does require really good taste (which you obviously have). You are certainly thinking along the right lines and not at all "off track". However, I think you missed something in the brief (sorry it's such a messy pile of information!)...."The image needs to be able to shrink down to approx 4cm x 6cm with most of the text still readable. The image needs to shrink down to thumbnail size with the composers name and the title still pretty much legible." Your text is really too small.

I wonder if it's worth being a little bit more adventurous about text placement. Everything's left-justified - not necessarily a problem, but it might be worthwhile trying out other solutions. Maybe aim for something a little more distinctive? Also, the font for the composer's name and the main title looks a little bit....mmm...stern? Authoritarian? I'm not sure how to say whay I mean.

It's OK to have no graphic elements at all, but do feel free to use a line/border or two if you want.

Many thanks for posting, and I really hope you keep working on it!

All the best,
Richard

[archive]

Oh, one other thing, Brad, I think I could use more blank space for the image. Thanks.

[ibrad]

The Archive #2

This font is much better suited for this application. After reading what you wrote I agree that the last font was much too strong.

I hope that by increasing the distance between the authors name and the title you will have enough white space now for your images. I also added one line to break things up a little.

I look forward to your comments,

Brad

[Imagenesis]

Entry #1

Here's something I came up with. I hope you like it, any feedback or suggestions are appreciated, Goodnight!

It's created in vector format so it's very resizable...

[bigyou]

Here's my entry.
http://www.grabugegraphique.org/design/baton/

Hope you like

[Neupix]

Ok, as promised here is my first entry.

I went with a sort of grunge/distressed look in order to represent the age of the music. I also published it on a cream colour, as you said you were going to print it on off white paper.

Let me know what you think.

http://dcimages.penguinpedia.com/archive1.gif

[archive]

REPLY TO EVERYONE WHO'S POSTED SO FAR....

WOW! This is amazing. I'm absolutely bowled over by the quality of the submissions here, so a big "thank you" to all of you.

I've had an idea. If we can settle on a fixed place and size for the logo then there's nothing to stop me awarding $25 prizes to more than one person at the end of this. Sorry to be adding a new bit of brief, but this way more people win and I get more designs!

From now on, lets say you have to leave space for a logo, 7cm long and 3 cm high (yes, I know that's different from what's in the brief), dead center, at the bottom of the page, 1.5 cm up from the bottom edge.

Generally speaking, everyone's text can be a bit bigger. Try to find ways to make the text as big as you can so it looks as good as possible on reduced versions.

Also, could you make "volume 1" more prominent than "duet suites....etc", so that it shows up on the 4x6cm version. Thanks!

Now, on to individual comments. Because, in the end, I think I'm going to award more than one prize, try to keep your designs different from each other's. All of you are doing great work so far, so keep developing the ideas you've presented so far.


So, apart from that....

Penguin - absolutely stunning. I'd never have thought of it, if you'd have described it to me I'd have said "Eeuughh!", but it's FANTASTIC. I love the RH / LH justification...what can I say? It's wonderful!

Big You - again, fabulous. A really different look to the one Penguin's doing, but equally good. Very creative positioning of text - keep going with that idea!

aEcoma - I like the line, it really gives the page some form & shape.

Brad - very "to the point". Nice!


Many thanks for your efforts so far!

Richard

[archive]

Oops, I seem to have hit the "paste" button twice or something on my last post. As you can see, comments on individual's work are at the bottom.

Thanks

[symTIC]

http://members.lycos.nl/symtichost/charles.jpg

Hope you like it.

[archive]

Hi Symtic,

Thanks for the entry. I like the fonts, and the dividing line at the bottom is quite nice. The black doesn't work for me, and the flag type thing at the top is really too elaborate. Also, I need more space for the picture - like the brief says, most of the page should be blank.

All the best,

Richard

[symTIC]

Ok, thanks for the quick feedback.

[symTIC]

http://members.lycos.nl/symtichost/charles2.jpg

[browncat]

Here's my entry (done in Illustrator 10):

Music Cover Template