It has been quite a learning experience working on the final details for the album cover.
Artwork for a CD is complicated. It involves designing the layout; choosing how much and which part of a photo to crop; and figuring out what size and how much type to include on the cover so that what's inside -- the music -- is enhanced rather than distracted by the artwork and text.
For someone like me, not the most computer-literate person in the world, it has been a very steep learning curve. I have had to make changes from my original vision so that everything that really made sense would fit onto a very small cover. (CD packaging is not terribly big, and type has to be large enough to read, especially for those of us who now use, um, bifocals!) In the end, I was forced to leave lyrics and acknowledgments off the CD cover because there was simply too much text for all of it to fit!
(It's all here at the site, click on the heading "Ten Miles" to see it.)
I am fortunate that the folks I am working with over at SuperDigital have been so helpful and patient with my learning process. Rick has explained how things work and has been patient with my stumblings. And whenever I've needed to come by in person to hammer out a detail he has always been available to answer my questions. There are details to be worked out about color saturation, text size and placement, pixels, and so much more. There has been lots of back-forth-emailing of questions and answeres and sample artwork, all of which takes time.
What this process means is that it has taken quite awhile to hammer out the artwork for the CD, which has meant a bit of a delay on top of the already-anticipated delays for the December holiday season. Today, I am hopeful that the artwork, which I signed off on before the New Year's holiday, will finally go to the printer. After the covers are printed, they will be combined with the CDs, which are already being made, and everything will be packaged together to be ready for distribution. I am still hopeful for a January release but cannot determine an actual date until I have the finished CDs in hand.
I appreciate your patience with this process. As the Sondheim song says, "Art isn't easy." It takes a lot of work, and a lot of detail-wrangling. I am grateful for the help of everyone involved in the wrangling, and thankful for your patience. I know that it will be worth the wait!
It's happening. And as soon as the CDs arrive I will package and ship out the advance copies folks pre-purchased last spring, and announce a date for the Portland release party.
Thanks for your support, and for hanging in there with me!