Volunteer CD Covers!

designcrit · Post by **designcrit** » June 3rd, 2006, 6:14 am

Hello LibriVoxers:

I've just discovered your site by tripping through links from other public doman audiobook sites, and I'm excited about the work you are doing. Sort of an audiobook version of Project Gutenberg.

I teach graphic design at a community college, and am always looking for good projects. I've been assigning book designs with PG text for awhile now. You can see a few of these at my blog (see sig line).

I'd like to assign CD cover designs to my students in the fall, and make the results available in PDF form. The idea is to design a CD folder, label, and tray card for your CD burning listeners. Also, the cover JPEG could be dragged to iTunes and video iPods.

We are looking for an outlet for our students. I would check the results and could nix any covers the group feels are off base in a big way. I have a cover I'm working on now for leaves of grass from Literal Systems. I'll upload the results to the blog soon.

GordMackenzie · Post by **GordMackenzie** » June 3rd, 2006, 7:33 am

Wow!

What a cool idea!

I didn't know that Literal Systems had Leaves of Grass done. I know they have some selections from "Song of Myself"... I would be interested in listening to it if they have the whole Leaves of Grass done, and comparing it to the full unabridged version that we recently completed.

Let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

kri · Post by **kri** » June 3rd, 2006, 12:49 pm

That is a really amazingly cool idea

Have fun with that and please keep us posted of their progress if you can when they start their projects. I'd love to see

designcrit · Post by **designcrit** » June 3rd, 2006, 1:09 pm

Actually it is incomplete since it is only selections from Song of Myself. I've just uploaded the draft version of the cover design to my blog ast http://designcrit.blogspot.com/2006/06/little-summer-grass.html Take a look and tell me what you think. If you like it, maybe I could make it a cover for LibriVox's Leaves of Grass instead...

a.r.dobbs · Post by **a.r.dobbs** » June 3rd, 2006, 1:44 pm

wow, that's gorgeous! each image is beautifully treated, mysterious.

Reading your first post, I thought -- whoa! students might want to offer designs here for LV and actually place them in the public domain! How cool would that be!? 8)

Then looking at your design I realized, there could be copyright issues for all sorts of things ... type faces, for heaven's sake

... etc. etc., rather tangled, so...

But even without the PD graphic design gifts idea going anywhere, the notion of looking at the designs is quite a TREAT!

[btw, i don't suppose you want to hassle with it, but that wikipedia text has many, er... little errors in its punctuation ... should you want a copyedit on that ... would be glad to ... ]

cool cool cool!
anita

Stephan · Post by **Stephan** » June 3rd, 2006, 3:31 pm

Hello Todd,
this is great. I think few here know how overwhelmingly great it is to see the final or even intermediate results of a design class, when every single great idea hangs next to each other. To see that - always amazing. You have to know, i just finished studiing design here. Guess we will be having a little design exhibition here soon. Cool.

Another semester you can let them design a series of posters. A good everyday exercise. Or harder, let them come up with a design principle that would work for a complete series of titles. Say, all Tolstoy-Books, with a common theme, yet each one different.
Or even harder: a common design that spans all Librivox-publications, and within these designs of series for different authors. Then you?d simulate the problem that good book publishers face.

Does your school allow the students to give away their work? Our university in a way kept the rights to the works of the students that were done for school. I don't know the details, as i was never confronted with it, but it could be a problem if the works shall become public domain.

designcrit · Post by **designcrit** » June 3rd, 2006, 3:36 pm

Thanks Anita! Glad you like the design, and thanks for catching my crappy editing

. I have to step lightly among real writers, editors, and readers. This is just a draft. Thanks also to Gord and Kri for their enthusiasm.

HERE'S MY PROPOSAL:
My students choose a long work or a group of short works by an author. They design CD packages under my supervision as a class project. I address copyright issues (fonts are OK, images must be original, in PD, or have permission of creator, and finally students must license their work for free disttribution.) I would critique their work at the draft stage to make sure they don't embarass themselves. We upload the "final draft" for copyediting and comments. Students will make corrections and upload the "final final" version to my blog or wherever LV chooses. Then (hopefully) the LV gurus would put thumbnails and PDFs up with the other files for a given text.

The final designs WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOADS and students will use a Creative Commons license that only prevents derivative and commercial use. Bottom line concern: I don't want my students' work ending up in a store without their being paid. These kids will make their living creating intellectual property, ya know?!

This is a whole new idea, and I don't know how the LibriVoxers will feel about it. But if you folks are OK with it I think it could complement your work by "adding value" to classic literary texts. And it would THRILL my design students to have their name on some work that's out in the world.

Check out my proposed cover draft at: http://designcrit.blogspot.com Scroll down for four student text designs under the title "Student Book Designs." I'm looking for a place to post these ebooks as well.

So there's the idea, folks. What thinkest thou?

Post by **hugh** » June 3rd, 2006, 4:42 pm

hi todd it looks great, i don;t see any prob with cc license for deisgn work - our recordings must stay PD, but other stuff, CC is fine.

a.r.dobbs · Post by **a.r.dobbs** » June 3rd, 2006, 5:04 pm

W O W

This is a whole new idea, and I don't know how the LibriVoxers will feel about it. But if you folks are OK with it I think it could complement your work by "adding value" to classic literary texts. And it would THRILL my design students to have their name on some work that's out in the world.

I think there's going to be serious mutual THRILL going on!

This CD cover / iTunes graphics idea is . . . phenomenal! . . . to be precise about it.

anita :stunned:

harvey · Post by **harvey** » June 3rd, 2006, 5:50 pm

Pointers to the CD covers and associated JPEG photos would likely be
stored in the catalog database so its design needs to reflect this.

designcrit · Post by **designcrit** » June 3rd, 2006, 7:14 pm

Hugh: Thanks for understanding about the CC licensing. How are things in your lovely city? I tool a book design workshop at McGill there in '99. Danced in the rain at the jazz festival. What a place!

designcrit · Post by **designcrit** » June 3rd, 2006, 7:27 pm

Anita:

My students will be excited about getting their work out--thanks for your enthusiasm. The first batch of student woirks will not be available before the end of the year, unless I get moore flattery like this and do a couple myself.

Harvey:

I don't follow the techie stuff in your post--sorry. Are you asking for a URL in the PDF files or what? I was imagining a JPEG thumbnail, possibly with text links underneath. You'd need one to get a larger JPEG, and one to get the PDF CD design. The credits on the PDF could include a clickable link to LibriVox too.

a.r.dobbs · Post by **a.r.dobbs** » June 3rd, 2006, 7:49 pm

designcrit, if we respond honestly to your gorgeous graphics work, you might design some CD covers for LV yourself? [this could get ugly --

-- a dozen titles crowd my thoughts that really should be the First One to be illustrated, as it were. You accept bribes?] No really,

... seriously, this is just a whole new dimension to LibriVox fun and generosity.

But I'm sure you'll want to consider Ulysses. 8)
did I say that out loud?

I think...

Pointers to the CD covers and associated JPEG photos would likely be
stored in the catalog database so its design needs to reflect this.

...the syntax suggests that the catalog database design will need to adjust a bit, but I'm maybe clueless.

kri · Post by **kri** » June 3rd, 2006, 8:41 pm

a.r.dobbs wrote:designcrit, if we respond honestly to your gorgeous graphics work, you might design some CD covers for LV yourself? [this could get ugly -- -- a dozen titles crowd my thoughts that really should be the First One to be illustrated, as it were. You accept bribes?] No really, ... seriously, this is just a whole new dimension to LibriVox fun and generosity.

But I'm sure you'll want to consider Ulysses. 8)
did I say that out loud?

I think...
Pointers to the CD covers and associated JPEG photos would likely be
stored in the catalog database so its design needs to reflect this.
...the syntax suggests that the catalog database design will need to adjust a bit, but I'm maybe clueless.

What I'm thinking is that it would be added into the description perhaps. As long as the database input system (whatever it is) allows us MCs to add HTML tags to certain areas. Then we wouldn't have to create a new place in the database.

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » June 4th, 2006, 10:07 am

Oh, I'm a little late jumping in here.... but I want to let you know that I think this is a great idea!

I have been thinking about burning discs with LV books to donate to our local libraries, but what holds me back is how to package them... with PD CD covers for these works, I think I would move forward with this project (as I am not motivated enough to create my own covers =)

Thank you in advance... I look foward to seeing the results =)