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These Apps will build on the already hugely successful ‘This Day In Music’ App,
#2 on the UK iTunes music chart (July 2010)
#1 on the Australian iTunes music iPad charts (Sept 2010)
Q Magazine 10 essential apps for Christmas
There are plans for more Apps along the same lines, also band specific, the first releases are Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan with other major band to follow.
“This is a new venture for Blade and we are very exited to be part of such a great project”
Steve Knee
iPDF - is a new kind of all-in-one downloadable document, which can include MP3 music files, embedded or streaming video, web links, lyrics, photo gallery and credits pages - all in a standard PDF file.
The iPDF utilises the latest version of Acrobat to create the iPDF and the latest Acrobat Reader Version 9 (a free download from www.adobe.com) to view the file.
With this leap forward in terminology, it is hoped that we will no longer need to download MP3 audio files and separate visual artwork files of our favourite albums. With iPDF an entire album can be downloaded as one entity - a true digital album. The new style digital album also give you the versatility to add video that can be viewed within the iPDF (no need to play video files in a separate player).
The iPDF also give you the option to extract the MP3 file so you can still play them through your conventional iTunes music library.
One of our all-time favourite musicians - the voice and guitar of Pink Floyd, David Gilmour - kicks off the North American leg of his World Tour this month, and his new album, On An Island, is selling bundles.
This month's Spotlight focuses on the album's packaging (which resembles a book, complete with hard covers, cloth spine, and foil-blocked spine lettering), and gets the lowdown from its designer, Steve Knee.
David Gilmour will always be associated with Pink Floyd and rightly so, but 'On An Island' is a solo album and so, with regards to the artwork, I didn't want to make any reference to Floyd, if at all possible. The album imagery throughout the CD package reflects not only the music, but also the soul behind it. The music is light of touch, soulful and reflective, and this is what I tried to convey throughout the artwork.
The brief was to create a visual landscape that would accompany the music - not to design something separate, but integrate the packaging with the music, for a complete experience. I used uncoated paper throughout, cloth spine and a hardback book format for a more tactile feel, as opposed to a standard 'plastic' jewel case CD.
A number of covers were submitted for David's consideration, but ultimately the final cover was probably the simplest, from a visual standpoint - the lone silhouetted figure of David on an island... on a sea of blue, with the moon behind him. I wanted to convey a feeling of isolation and reflection with maybe a hint of hope, and so a blue and black color palate was used with the off white of the paper coming through as the moon. With the birds, I wanted to play with our perceptions; depending on your point of view, the birds are either flying toward the island (bringing hope) or away from it (adding to the isolation). I guess it depends on your own psyche - is the glass half empty or half full - as to what you see in the cover.
When you hear David's music, the space between the notes is just as important as the notes themselves, and so I wanted to strip down the graphics as much as possible. This is a personal album and I have tried to reflect that in the artwork, with many of the images coming from David's own photo albums. By combining photography with hand-drawn elements on textured backgrounds with a hint of color, I wanted everything to look rough and sketchy, but with a sense of space.
