Sample Project 2 Design Plan 1
Design Plan for CD Package
The CD compilation covers an wide range of music. The unifying feature is that all of the music has been selected by college students. Because of the eclectic mix of tastes on a college campus, this campaign targets students through a familiar yet hip retro/futuristic theme, which covers a broad spectrum of tastes.
The CD cover label features a collage of flowers, bees, and anthropomorphic creatures playing music in outer space. The anime-flavored look of the package was partially inspired by the electronic/dance band Daft Punk, who uses similar cartoonish imagery in its videos and packaging to target a modern collegiate audience. This kind of nostalgic imagery allows the design to build upon familiar images while offering something new. This mixture of old and new gives the design a retro/futuristic feel that is similar to the aesthetic of other demographic-popular works like Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.[1] The interior of the case continues this mingling of old and new through a pop art image that makes subtle intertextual references to the classic film Pulp Fiction and the modern cinematic adaptation of the comic book Sin City: two movies that have been successful with college audiences. The retro/futuristic style also indicates to the potential customer the broad time period covered by the compilation, which features both older songs and modern ones.
The logical deployment of the CD would be primarily in campus music stores. Visually, the design uses bright colors to create a feeling that is fun, fresh, and exciting to connect the variety of music on the CD with the excitement of a college campus. This will help the package stand out amongst other CDs and represent the diverse college atmosphere. The CD title appears cleanly on the front cover and the back cover presents a track list, but text is kept to a minimum to keep emphasis on the imagery. By utilizing a retro/futuristic style, the CD package attempts to target college students by offering both familiarity and novelty.
[1] See the New York Times article “At Last, Television Ratings Go to College."