38. THE DESIGN STUDIO AT DISC MAKERS
Recorded in an all-night café, the Steven Courtney Band’s album 25¢ Songs seems to place its listener in the role of the now-absent live audience, not only singing along to bonfire guitar melodies, but even compelled to cheer and clap in between tracks. To accompany the feeling of sitting in a local bar listening to a jukebox—which nowadays charges a dollar rather than 25 cents—the band wanted a package that was evocative of a time since passed.

“We have an archive of old photos, fonts, and diagrams that I felt would work well to communicate that idea,” designer Justin Kay explains. “The client’s selection of the vinyl CD reinforced that choice, and as a whole the package feels like it could be an old 78 record sleeve that’s been taped up to keep it from falling apart.” As part of a one-stop-shop CD manufacturer, delivering basic layouts and low-cost printing for DIY publishing, The Design Studio offers musicians in any genre an extra design service, while aligning with its recognizable “What you see is what you hear” mentality.
Inge Hoonte