Todd Ellison's Writer-Designer Examples: Design for Music

	This puppy for acoustic guitar guru Phil Keaggy and longtime friend, LA studio pro Mike Pachelli, came together in a matter of days. Phil liked the "fun, 60s vibe". The music cooks, by the way.
	Of the various packages I've created for two-time GRAMMY winner Laurence Juber, this has to be the most fun. The 30's flavor reflects the contents: a collection of classic Harold Arlen tunes, deliciously interpreted.
	Best known for his laid back melodicism, GRAMMY winner Ed Gerhard's Sunnyland is different: it's blues, through and through. So naturally, there's only black, white and red in the packaging.
	Brooks Williams has a bundle of classy singer-songwriter CDs to his credit. Guitar Player shows off another side, his classy picking chops, which are noteworthy indeed. Nice guy to work with, too.
	Every so often a pair of CDs comes up as part of the same package design project. Memory & Praise had been on another label while Tumblin' Gap was a fresh title. Solid Air wanted to release both at the same time so we went with a similar graphic vocabulary for both titles to help create a sense of brand. Alec Stone Sweet is one of the modern masters of a style of playing known by the picturesque term, clawhammer.
	Australian fingerstylist Nick Charles is a subtle, classy player. If you saw the whole package, I'll bet you'd agree that it visually reflects Nick's nuanced fingerstylings.
	Best known for his Celtic stylings in ensemble settings, GRAMMY winner Al Petteway was once a rock'n'roll lead guitar player. This solo fingerstyle outing shows off his bluer side. Yeah, I couldn't help doctoring his spectacles.
	Another pair of CDs for simultaneous release that were given similar graphic treatment. Jim Tozier is a talented player who recorded these tasties in Al Petteway's studio. Not surprisingly, Celtic Guitar is a collection of classic Celtic tunes. Solo Guitar is a collection of Jim's own melodic compositions.
	For this GRAMMY WINNING collection of Henry Mancini faves by killer solo guitarists, I had to digitally pinkify a perfectly blonde guitar. Since we couldn't use the Pink Panther himself, we used his pawprints on the tray card and elsewhere.
	Clawhammer is a style of playing, not something you beat a recalcitrant instrument with. Click here to see more on this project, how it came together and why.
	Bought the guitar, painted it a la Jackson Pollock, set up lights and digitally photographed it, then made a cover out of it. All in one day. Whew! This package was for David Cullen and Jill Haley doing a series of guitar and woodwind duos.
	A tie-dyed guitar? Sixties rock typography? What could be more suitable for a collection of Grateful Dead classics performed on steel string by David Cullen?
	GRAMMY-winning former guitarist for McCartney's Wings, Laurence Juber wields a big stick. The strong photo intentionally dominates the understated design. Read this article for more.
	For jazzy Manhattan Transfer fingerstylist Wayne Johnson, we wanted to create the mood of old BlueNote jazz lp covers, but with a dimensional twist.
	Sometimes typography and "found images" are all you have to play with. An antique metal cookie box from a clip art collection provided the background Santa scene for this Steve Baughman title.
	This package for Masa Sumidé was fun because we had some lively photography to work with. Not always the case. Masa, by the way, is one hot grooving player.
	For a while we were thinking of calling this duo project for GRAMMY winners Doug Smith and Mark Hanson "Joined at the Neck." A guitar photo and Photoshop...voilá!