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CD Cover
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Detail of CD cover
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In 2001, Nashville Fats released the "Wasteland" CD cover and commissioned StringStudios to produce a cover. The only design parameters were to make it appropriate for the music. The title song deals with a post-industrial society that is living in the "wastelands". The song brings forth images of closed factories and abandoned buildings. Another song, "Pray for America", addresses the plight of the farmer and layed off workers from the lumber mill. I decided the themes could be combined for a cover. The title, Wasteland, would appear as graffiti on a wall. But not just any wall, the wall would be the side of an closed, rural hardware store. So now the concept was complete: "wasteland" spray painted on a brick wall that has the faded remains of of the sign "Hardware - Farm Supplies && Lumber" .
Creating the brick wall was easy enough using a small brick sample and letting the pattern tile. Once a font was selected that looked like something a sign painter would have used 60 years, the hardware lettering was created and the brick texture applied to it. Then the opacity was reduced to give it the washed out look. An appropriate font was selected for the graffiti and after it was created the blue shadow was added. Once the graffiti was completed, the brick texture was applied. The graffiti was then positioned so the mortar lines were aligned between the brick wall and the graffiti. The end result is the appearance that you are seeing paint on top of the brick.
The "Nashville Fats" name was plain text converted from a vector to a raster image so the bevel tool could be used to give it the 3D look.
After the CD cover was finished I tried to make a 70x70 thumbnail but it was pretty much unreadable. Instead I created a special image using just the graffiti. Since the aspect was not square I split wasteland into two words, one on top of the other. The end result was a very readable image that still retained the feel of the CD cover.
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