Anyone can work with PhotoShop but does this make him or her a good designer? There are all sorts of graphic design qualifications that can be obtained – this, too, doesn’t necessarily mean you are a good designer. Design is being, an object, an organism……an entity.

Graphic design tells us a visionary story. It’s the way we react to it psychologically and the way we associate ourselves with designs by forms and colours. Designs need to communicate and reflect customer’s visions, needs and profile. At the same time, the design needs to separate the customer from their rivals. For example, a when printing onto a CD, the design should be easy to duplicate and reapply (Mass duplicating CD/DVD's with the same image etc).

The customer will submit an outline of ideas of which, a good designer must be creative with. There’s no point in being over creative, designs also need to be put into context. While all this needs to be taken onboard, most importantly, a good designer will have to cope with financial and time constraints. A good designer would have mastered all of these areas.

Customers have control of how their own business works. The customer can always get caught up too much in the thought process, as they are heavily involved in the project. That’s why it’s always good to have someone with fresh eyes to see things that the customer may have over-looked.

“Innovation” is a word commonly used by a lot of companies – either in brochures, magazines or on websites. There’s a difference between being innovative and creative. Being creative means getting the best of the given outlines/constraints. Being innovative means thinking above and beyond the given limitations/boundaries. A good designer will know what vital questions to ask customers. A bond and trust needs to develop between the designer and the customer. Once this has been establish, then together the boundaries can be broken.

A good designer of course needs inspiration, creativity and motivation is also the key. Most importantly a good designer needs to be in touch with what’s going on around. In-tune to what is evolving – this will need to be passed on to the customer who may not be aware. This happens a lot.

A good designer needs to take into account a customer’s strategy, and market position. The design needs to generate sales, revenue and get the point across to their target market. Choose wisely, choose carefully is my advice.

There are a few factors to consider if your design is for a CD/DVD label or, if it’s for paper-based materials. CD printing is a different process to paper or sheet printing. The print heads and inks are different. A CD or DVD usually has a plastic white-faced surface area. The design for a CD label or a DVD label has to account for the centre hole in the disc. Take for example, if a project involves a CD in a colour card wallet. Usually, the designs on both are the same. The designer should point out to the client that the colours will differ on the CD to that on the card wallet

There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing the correct packaging. If your CD or DVD is being used as a marketing tool, then these tend to be handed out for free or mailing.

You may be doing a promotion to launch your product. Say for example an album - you may have an audio CD with a couple of tracks to be sent to a record company – in this case it is standard that a slimline case, with a printed CD front or colour insert would be ideal. If you have an audio album compilation, then a standard jewel case, which accommodates a front booklet and a rear tray liner/inlay card, is the only suitable option. Audio CDs can come in pretty much any of the wide range of packaging options. If you were giving out your music at the end of a gig, then a cheaper, more effective solution would be to hand out your CD inside a PVC wallet with a colour insert to act as a wrap for the CD.

For a software CD or DVD – DVD cases/boxes are more commonly used. These protect the CD/DVD very well and look more professional with a printed sleeve/wrap to act as a cover along with a printed/burnt image on the CD/DVD. These DVD cases come in different sizes, e.g. slimline cases, short-spine cases, multi-way cases (holds several CDs & DVDs and is perfect when duplicating CD/DVD's for mass distribution). DVD cases can hold booklets inside the front cover too. These act as manuals or user guides to accompany the CD/DVD.

If you are handing CDs or DVDs out at a conference or seminar then, the clam/shell cases are more than suitable as they provide protection and can easily be put inside one’s pocket.

If your CD or DVD needs to accompany a manual or ring binder, then one would use a self-adhesive plastic wallet. This would be stuck inside either front or back covers of the finished document.

If you want your product to make an impact and stand out from the rest, then there are more bespoke packaging solutions. A few examples are:

CD/DVD packaging range from card based products which can be Matt/Gloss laminated, varnished sealed, Matt/Gloss UV, Embossed, foil blocked and special die-cuts. There are also many plastic based CD/DVD packaging ideas, which can hold up to several CDs/DVDs, ideal for storing CD/DVD's when copying.

These have come from clients who have products that need to sell or capture the imagination of their customers or target markets. Some packaging are more suited to say mailing CDs/DVDs due to their robust material which protects the CD or DVD and others which are better for display the CD/DVD's printed design and to promote the product. There are plenty of packaging solutions on offer and more are still being dreamt up.

The following are the names and types of standard CD or DVD packaging most commonly used:

The following are special/creative packaging solutions:

The main things to look out for when you are creating artwork, is making sure it all fits according to the printers specifications. The standard size of a CD is 120mm x 120mm. You need to take into account that the disc has a centre-hole. Also, around the edges of the disc, there is a 1.5mm sliver outer rim, which needs to be taken into account. There is a tendency to put text on the design, which follows the circular rim of the disc. Be careful, as this may not print, which means you would have to reduce the size of the design.

CD Booklets – a couple of factors to bear in mind when creating CD booklets. As CD booklets tend to be inserted inside the cover of standard jewel cases, depending on the thickness of the paper used, the limit is about 28 pages. Otherwise, the booklet will not fit. You also have to allow bleed around the edges, as any text that is position near the edges, may be chopped off in the trimming/finishing process!

Rear inlays or tray liners – These are a little tricky, as you have a perforated spine to contend with. This wraps around the spine of the CD jewel case. This is why it is vital to follow any guidelines and use templates (see “Where to find templates”).

Where to find a CD or DVD Templates and Guidelines?

A lot of CD duplication companies display on their websites, how to layout your artwork. Some of them are downloadable for free. However, some require you to leave your details or register before you can use their templates. Other places to find out more about supplying print-ready artwork are local libraries, art and design colleges or your local printers.

Some have templates where you can just import your image or design onto. This will indicate whether you have the correct dimensions. There are PDFs available to download so that you can check you have laid out the artwork correctly. They will indicate how much bleed you will need to add to your design.

Dimensions for CD/DVD printing areas and Paper Parts

A glass master, which is also known as a “stamper” is utilised to stamp all of the data pits into a CD or DVD – this process is called replication. It’s called a “glass master” because a circular block of glass is used, in which the data is pressed onto a special chemical coating. This glass block is actually bigger than normal size CD – 240mm in diameter and 6mm thick. The reason for this is because the discs need to be handled in a way so that the sensitive data area is not scathed or damaged. Even minuscule scratches or scathes can affect the quality of the discs to prevent this the glass master is polished until it’s perfectly smooth.

The milieu in which the glass mastering process is performed in has to be of the highest and cleanest quality. The room itself is a “Class 100” clean room (this is up to 12 times cleaner than an operating theatre). This room is designed not to allow more than 100 particles per cubic foot of air. Your typical working surrounding or office building consists from 500,000 to 1,000,000 per cubic foot of air – very interesting I hear you say! The main particles that can affect the quality of the glass master are dust, pollen and smoke particles.

The replication process takes a lot longer to complete than the duplication process. It is a cheaper but re-assuring method of copying discs. The duplication, although quicker, is dearer and not as quality assured as the replication process.

Some people like to email or upload data to duplication or replication houses for it then to be created as a master. I would strongly recommend against this as there is potential for the data to be corrupted during transfer. This may not be picked up until it gets to the end user. The duplication/replication house will then be held responsible for faulty data.

When dealing with audio masters you will find that production/record companies prefer to finance the creation of masters. This then becomes the property of the record companies. They tend to have an interest in building their catalogue of albums. They even go as far as not taking on independent artists if they have financed the creation of their master themselves. This deal between the artist and the Production Company is called a “spec” deal.

First of all, when choosing the right supplier it is important to understand the difference between CD duplication and replication. Both processes offer very similar end product, however, from a technical point of view, they are very different. The choice is mainly determined by the quantity of discs you need to produce. If you need to have done anything between 1 and 1000 copies of a disc, duplication is the best method of doing this. It is a process where data from a CD/DVD is copied and burned onto the surface of a recordable disc. However, if you need more than 1000 copies then the replication is the better choice. The replication process uses glass master copy to stamp data onto discs.

Secondly, when choosing CD/DVD company, you should make sure they can fulfil your requirements from start to finish, at the right price for you. Most of the time, CDs and DVDs are accompanied by various packaging and suitable paper parts, such as covers, inserts, inlays etc. Ideally, you should try to find a supplied that can do all these under one roof. This way you will save time and money, cutting out the “middle man”. You will also receive valuable advice when choosing the right, most cost effective way of presenting your product. It would be a bonus to find a supplier that can also do CD and packaging design along with the CD/DVD printing etc. Again, this would avoid the need to find a graphic designer separately to do the artwork for you.

All in all, it is best to keep the whole production process under one roof using one company.

Happy searching!