A terrific little design exercise for your enjoyment
Yeah, yeah; Just what we need. Another Facebook meme. We said the same thing when we saw it Sunday afternoon.
But this one is really, really cool. We promise.
You have to design an album cover. But you don’t get to pick the name of your band or the name of the album. You don’t even get to select your cover art. All that is randomly selected for you!
You’re totally on your own. You rock — or you suck — based totally on your ingenuity. That, plus a little luck.
Here are the rules:
1. Select the name of your band. To do this, go to Wikipedia and hit “random article.” The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2. Select your album title. To do this, go to Random Quotations. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Select your cover art. To do this, go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days.” The third picture — no matter what it is — will be your cover photo.
4. Use Photoshop (or whatever) to pull it all together.
5. And then, of course, post it into your Facebook photo gallery, cut-and-paste these directions into the caption field and then tag the friends with whom you want to play.
This is what some of us were messing around with last night while some of the lesser, boring Oscars were being doled out. Click any of them for a larger view…
Below left, Nicole Bogdas, Orlando Sentinel
Below right, Martin Gee, Oregon Business magazine
Below left: Carrie Hoover, Portland Oregonian
Below right: Kevin Hand, Newsweek
Below left: Gregory Hedges, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University
Below right: Daniel Hunt, Wilmington, Del., News Journal
Below left: Craig Lancaster, Billings (Mont.) Gazette
Below right: Megan LaPlaca
Below left: Jim McBee, Eli Research, Fayetteville
Below right: Michelle McCleary, P.R. professional, Hartford, Conn.
Below left: Miranda Mulligan, Virginian-Pilot
Below right: Sara Quinn, the Poynter Institute
Below left: Ron Reason, consultant, Chicago
Below left: Darren Sanefski, Syracuse, N.Y. Post-Standard
Below left: Ernie Smith, D.C. Express
Below right: Anders Tapola, Smålandsposten, Växjö, Sweden
Below left: Paul Wallen, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Below right: Charles Apple, unemployed bum, Virginia Beach
By now, you’re logging into Facebook and coming up with your own album covers.
Tag us. Send us a jpeg. We’ll post more.
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UPDATE: 8:30 P.M.
Here’s another batch…
Below left: Tony Briggmin, Bellingham Herald
Below right: Dana Fasano, Blissink Studios, Orlando
Below left: Charles Gooch, Kansas City Star
Below right: Elizabeth Jackson, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Below left: Chris Lee, Eastern Illinois University
Below right: Chris Morris, Las Vegas Sun
Below left: Bridget O’Donnell, University of Michigan
Below right: Caity Pelliccia, University of North Carolina
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UPDATE: 10:30 P.M.
And one more round…
Below left: Dennis Bolt, Dennis Bolt Studio, Sebastopol, Calif.
Below right: Kyle Ellis, Ball State University
Below left: Joey Kirk, Arizona Republic
Below right: Francie Krantz Williamson, Quad-City Times
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UPDATE: MIDNIGHT
And three more…
Below: Denise Covert, Florida Today
Below left: Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press
Below right: Jonathan Kleinow, Wisconsin State Journal
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UPDATE: NOON, TUESDAY
We’re still receiving a lot of great album covers. And we hate to split them all up between posts, so we’ll continue to add them here…
Below left: Colin Bridge, University of New Mexico
Below right: Allisence Chang, Arizona Republic
Below left: Chris Kirkman, Swarm Interactive, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Below right: Lauren Kuntz, Times of Northwest Indiana
Below left: Wes Rand, Hartford Courant
Below right: Chelsea Schneider, Arizona Republic
Below left: Todd Trumbull, San Francisco Chronicle
Below right: Roger Winstead, director of photography, N.C. State University
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UPDATE: 8:45 P.M., TUESDAY
Gorgeous work still rolling in. So we’re still adding them…
Below: Beto Alvarez, Philadelphia Inquirer
Below left: Konstantinos Antonopoulos, Exedra, Athens, Greece
Below right: Marin Devine, The National, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Below left: Autumn Heep, Free-lance designer, Brisbane, Australia
Below right: Kevin Hessel, Marin (Calif.) Independent Journal
Below left: Hillary Ruffe, University of Michigan
Below right: Tiffany Schwartz, Baseball America magazine, Durham, N.C.
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UPDATE: 2:30 P.M., WEDNESDAY
Another batch of cool album covers. Note the duplicated art.
Below left: Tracy Collins, Arizona Republic
Below right: Will Wooten, Miami Herald
Below left: Chris Courtney, Chicago RedEye
Below right: Jennifer Enfinger, Dallas Morning News
Below left: Allie Ghaman, University of Michigan
Below right: Dawn Jehs, St. Petersburg Times
Below left: Matt Mansfield, Northwestern University
Below right: Robb Montgomery, VisualEditors
February 24th, 2009 at 1:03 am
I really enjoyed doing this and looking at the ones others have come up with! You should post more of these types activities if you come across them / have an idea for one!
February 24th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Now I know I have to do this!
Even if Martin showed me already that I suck, before I even commit mouse to computer.
February 24th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
i love how this has taken off amongst creatives. it’s important to do exercises like this to improve your software prowess, integration of type (please kern!) and idea generation. break free from the limitations and “rules” of newspapers. push the space. explore! play!
i used to design mix-tape covers and liner notes when i started learning quark. then i moved on to cd covers. anything and everything. personal projects always help you grow. make up your own “meme.”
doug: we all suck. some just suck more than others. =P
February 24th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I wanted to just let you know that I’ve run across this from a friend getting tagged to do this on Facebook, and I’ve enjoyed it as a diversion. And for your perusal, here are the ones I’ve done so far.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=104189&id=738826065&l=606b5
February 24th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I’d love to add, that Chelsea Schneider (above in the mix), who is my fiancee, is also a reporter out here for the Republic. She is talented not only in writing and reporting, but often makes me look silly with her design skills. She’s amazing.
February 24th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I’d like all your folks to add their covers to the collection I’ve started on Facebook. I have a few of the ones above that showed up in my feed and they are credited to the party that did them but I would prefer that the folks who did them post their own on the group site. Anyone who isn’t on Facebook can email me a copy of the cover and I will upload it.
aldyndskies@yahoo.com
February 26th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Charles, this was a lot of fun. I hope you don’t mind, I used this as a homework assignment for newspaper design class I teach at Bradley. I really think the students had a lot of fun doing it. More importantly, I think they’ve learned a lot. Thanks again for posting this.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Of course I don’t mind, Chris — it’s not MY exercise. It was floating around Facebook for a few days before I got tagged. Nicole Bogdas was on it before I was.
I agree — it’s a terrific class exercise. I think Darren Sanefski said he might use it in his classes at Syracuse, too.
Best wishes to the young news designers at Bradley. Go Braves!