Have you heard the old saying "Image is everything" or that "You've only got 15 seconds to make a good first impression"?
As superficial as that may sound, in many instances it is absolutely true. Everywhere we turn we're being bombarded with advertisements, slogans, and messages, so we have become very adept at tuning out what isn't meaningful to us or doesn't impress us.
So what does that have to do with your upcoming
CD duplication project?
When a complete stranger first looks at your freshly manufactured product what will they see? You notice I said "what will they see?" and not "what will they hear?" because it's your packaging and the
graphic design that people see first... and judge first. For some people, if they are not suitably impressed with what they "see" they'll won't bother getting to the "hear" stage of it.
Who are these nasty pre-judging people? Don't they know that it's all about the music and that the graphic design and CD packaging is just window-dressing?
Well, from countless interviews, discussions and articles that I have been privvy to, a significant segment of these pre-judging people are the very industry professionals you should be trying to get on the good side of - such as booking agents, reviewers, program managers.
These industry pro's are inundated with submissions from artists or bands just like you, with everyone wanting a piece of their time and crossing their fingers for a favorable review or opportunity.
When it comes to this visual pre-judgement, the comment I've heard most often goes something like this, "I've been doing this long enough to know that an amateurish looking package or graphic design generally means amateurish music. There aren't enough hours in the day, so if there's no immediate wow-factor for me I move on to the next package."
In short, what these people are looking for is professionalism. Professional attitude, acting professional, professional performance, professional merchandise, professional look, etc. etc.
At the end of the day, impressing people with some visual wow-factor is going to get you a lot further ahead than saving a few bucks by doing the graphic design on your CD duplication project yourself. Do what you do best - and if that's not graphic design then don't be too shy or too proud to hand it off to someone who can make you look good! :)
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CDwest.ca provides factory-direct
CD manufacturing and duplication with a wide variety of the most popular eco-friendly print and packaging options.
Professional graphic design services are also available. From our offices and replication facility in Surrey, BC (a suburb of Vancouver), we ship to clients throughout Canada and the United States daily.
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