Art For a Retro CD, Year Three

Every year I do a retro CD for the holidays that goes to friends and family. Whatever expertise in popular music that I do have is from the late seventies to early nineties, so I go forward one year each—that means that this year I'm doing 1990. There's a story behind every year's CD, and this one involves mixtapes. So, I decided I would draw the particular cassette tape I used.

November 29th: luckily, I found out several years ago that there's a precise specification for what was originally called the Compact Cassette. I downloaded it, launched Adobe Illustrator 2020, and started drawing. My experience is that the best thing to do is to get something I can look at and compare with the original. The style for this art over the years has always been a head-on view, and I followed that sense this year.

Two hours in and only the absolute basics. Slow going as I learn and relearn Illustrator. Red lines are guidelines.

Three hours in. Almost recognizable as a generic cassette.

Five hours in—lots of progress. Added a light gray background, so I'm making sure I'm seeing the layers correctly. Yes, the tape will be Maxell's awesome XLII-S; near metal performance at half the price.Thus, most of the basic lettering is now included. The sprockets are in—the dashboard work a few years ago helped.

November 30th: I feel like I got a really good start, so today will be all about refinement and added detail.

As promised, the detail at seven hours in. All five screws are in view, along with the direction indicator and the outline for the tape label. The "just kill me now" ridges on the bottom of the transport are about halfway done. The cassette body is also darker and the lines in general are more refined.

Lettering is better and the transport gets more definition. Respectable, but the screws need alignment, the ridges have to get done, and some of the fonts are still sketchy,

December 3rd: tick, tick. A lot of things to fix and refine.

Nine hours in. The cassette body wasn't dark enough—fixed. Those ridges are 99% done. The lettering color matches the body—doh! And the screws are aligned and have the correct varying rotation. Unnecessary outlines have been removed.

Ten hours in. Mixtapes need labels—done.

December 6th: mixtapes also need a J-card, so here comes a second illustration.

Even more boring than the cassette—the absolute basics of the J-card.

Slight updates to the cassette: the gold on the label was way too bright and the light gray background can now go.

At twelve hours in, a quick comp of the on-CD print gives me an idea of where I am. I haven't yet decided between mix tape and mixtape.

The J-card is getting there, with enough detail to be recognizable and some actual data.

December 9th: ooog. Time to get at least respectable. I have locked down the song choices, so that helps.

Well, that's much better. We'll see how it looks on the comp.

Better. All the elements are in place. Now, some refinement—tomorrow. We're thirteen hours in.

December 10th: Still seeing new things.

Color is once again de-saturated and the handwriting fonts match.The XLII-S font is still wrong, but the label is closer to the correct size.

Now fourteen hours in, the XLII-S font is better—but not correct.

December 16th: just returned from a short vacation and time is getting tight. I'm hoping to go into production within two days.

Lettering is better and more standardized. My wife prefers declarative to questioning, so the question mark is gone.

Fifteen hours in. The J-card get more detail and more handwriting.

December 17th: hopefully, we're coming down the homestretch.

Better, but still not great on the XLII-S lettering. Barely seen—but still there—is the actual tape visible through the guide holes. We've decided on mixtape.

The J-card is finished, with all the correct logos, lettering, and handwriting. The fonts on the card are different than those on the cassette—because Maxell. Sixteen hours in.

December 18th: we're supposed to go into production today—we'll see. Things still feel unfinished.

Better scale and lettering on the top of the J-flap. The font for the A and B sides is now more correct.

Seventeen hours in and basically done. A complete revision of the XLII-S font includes some cheating—Maxell mixed serif and san-serif fonts. The tape window is taller. The color of the handwriting is now consistent and the noise reduction indicator on the label is a more correct size. Finally, the spindles get more attention and the side A indicator font in now correct.

A final comp as printed on matte silver CD media. I'm pleased and only see a few small things that bother me.

Postscript

Of course I wasn't really done, despite having gone into production. Two more revisions came on December 20th and December 21st and were introduced as running changes.