Abduzeedo has added an awesome post about a fun, creative way to create a CD cover. After i read this post i got addicted, neglected work, and did about 6 of these things… 3 of which actually came to fruition.

Here’s the steps….

Do you know when saw that new band cd and thought: “how in the world did they think of that”? Well, someone out there figured out the equation, and man, it’s really fun.

And what equation is that? Simple:

1. Click HERE. The random article title will be your band’s name.
2. Click HERE. The last 4 words of the last quote will form the name of your album.
3. Click HERE. The third picture, whatever it is, will be your cd cover.

Done! Now you got the formula to make some funny, yet great albums. I’ve actually made about 6 last night, and my favorite, by far, is this one.

So. following these easy steps, Here’s what i came up with.
PLEASE feel free to follow these steps and submit your own. it’s addicting, and fun! see what kinds of covers YOU can come up with!

Title: OC METRO BUSINESS Hot 25 2008 Logo Design

Client: Churm Media, in association with OC METRO BUSINESS

Program(s) Used: Illustrator

Time Span: 10 hours (Concept, client revisions, completion)

About: Every year OC METRO BUSINESS host it’s annual Hot 25 Event. the event honors hottest 25 people of Orange County, not a beauty contest. This includes entrepreneurs, business executives, managers, or just anyone in general making huge waves in Orange County. Every year the event is themed, and has to do with the new directions that OC METRO BUSINESS is going. This year the event, and the company, is completely rebranding itself as a web and digital entity, hence the theme “Hot Goes Digital”. The client’s idea was to show how OC METRO BUSINESS is moving into the 2.0, very web friendly.

Designer Notes: My original concept for this logo was to incorporate the feel of web 2.0. Very glossy, colorful, reflections, clean, simple and sleek all into one logo. After showing a first round of designs and color combinations the client didn’t want to stray from it’s branding and the logos went through a revision and font change. The end result is what you see above and a bit different that the original concept, but what the client wants, the client gets.

Yet another great tutorial by the talent at PSDTUTS. Brush manipulation, typography, visual design, layer blending modes, this tutorial has it all. A great place to start for beginners… now i know that might seem a little scary, but the best and only way to learn is through immersion, right? I say you just load up this tutorial and jump both feet forward and don’t look back!

How many steps do you imagine it would take to get tot his final product? i’m not going to lie. i thought at LEAST 25. Well, PSDTUTS did it in 16 steps. Now of course a step counts as a whole portion, but still. that’s pretty effing amazing if you want my opinion, and since you’re on my blog, i’d say so. haha.

For me, the tutorial really grabs hold at around step 8 up until the conclusion. The process of adding the flame and the particles with the brush manipulations are brilliant. Grab your stylus and start making pretty things, because really, we’re designers… that’s what we do!

Create a Spectacular Flaming Meteor Effect on Text
In Text Effects by Fabio

Take typography one step further by having text falling from the sky in a burning inferno. Yes, this is the text-on-fire tutorial to end all tutorials. It uses a little Illustrator for the text and a lot of Photoshop to burn up the screen!

In previous tutorials you’ve seen two smoke effects that I’ve created, but let’s face it, you can’t have smoke without a fire somewhere. So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a fire effect similar to when a spaceship or comet enters the earth’s atmosphere. The image we’ll be creating is inspired by a Nike Ad I saw some time ago. I’m not sure what the URL is, if anyone knows it, please link us up in the comments.

It’s always a good idea to keep your eyes open for inspiration for effects and designs no matter what you are doing. Graphics are everywhere and you can learn a lot by looking at what other people do. Now on to the tutorial!

Follow the Trackback to PSDTUTS for the full 16 step tutorial.

Big Head Design has a great article up on his design blog site about the powerful use of typography. It’s amazing to me how typography alone can bring an entire project together. The example above is just one of thousands that demonstrate this concept to perfection. It’s Clean, Simple, Elegant, and, as Justin at Big Head Design puts it, “green…..it’s so HOT right now”.

Thanks Justin for another Great post.

Read more from Justin after the jump…
GO!

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