Final Draft
 
Things were starting to get tight. Mixing on the tapes was nearly done, almost ready to send off to Oasis for manufacturing. Fortunately, the guys were pleased, and only suggested a few minor changes.
 
Since they were a trio, they wanted to reduce the number of figures on the cover to three. The title of the CD had changed from the working title of Panabaj to Paths Unknown, so the reference would not be as strong, and the four distinct figures seemed confusing under the word “Trio.” (It’s odd how, even in such an abstract state, three smears of color can still be recognizable as human.) I had to agree, so did a little erasing and shuffling and came up with the arrangement above.
 
The original grouping with additional figures added to the background was used on the inside spread.
 
I laid the whole thing out, made some final adjustments, and fired off a proof to Scott for proofreading - last chance to catch any typos. A few text changes and, all done, off went the whole package to Oasis with proofs, instructions, etc..
 
Here’s where the panic comes in:
 
It’s like 24 hours before the final deadline if the CD is going to ship in time to make the Festival in New York, and Scott gets a call from the rep at Oasis. The quote he’d been given for manufacturing included full color printing, but only for the case - not the CD itself.  The package they received from me contained a full color design for the CD imprint.
 
Comme Ça:
 
 
OMFG. With some fast and furious reworking, emails and PDFs flying about, Scott and I worked out a variation that required only Black ink printing over the bare silver CD base.
 
 
Not only was this design a lot less expensive to produce, but we thought the effect could be pretty cool, with the shiny reflectance of the CD corresponding to the the wet sand and sky in the image. Sounded good, in theory; but neither of us knew for sure if it would work out that way in practice. CDs are silk screened - a process which is not only limited by resolution, but by the number of colors or grey levels it can reproduce, as well.
 
We crossed our fingers and sent the new version off to Oasis.
 
 
Panic at the Deadline