By: Erik Vlietinck
Wed, May 07, 2008 - 7:01:00

http://www.jewelboxing.com

With DiscLabel 5.2.x and Disc Cover 2.x being released, we decided it was a good moment to review these two applications and simultaneously ask an objective designer who has a lot of know-how in disc labelling, what he thinks of these applications, the market, and what designers want and need. The people at Jewelboxing were the first we thought about. They’re specialised, they’re experienced and they’re well-known. I had an e-mail based interview with Bryan Bedell. I asked for his Skype handle as well, just in case something wouldn’t be clear, but that proved to be unnecessary; the answers below speak for themselves, I think.

IT Enquirer: What in your opinion, should a designer use for disc labelling?

Bryan Bedell: There are a lot of options out there, but I’d rather work with the software I know and love (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc) rather than buying and learning additional proprietary software that’s been “simplified” for consumers. There may be disc labelling software that can compete with professional design software, but we haven’t ever seen it, and even if it could, why bother with it if you have something already that works just as well?

IT Enquirer: Do you think many professional designers use dedicated labelling software for the job?

Bryan Bedell: There is a market for simple disc labelling software that includes clip-art and “whimsical” pre-designed layouts, but people with a background in design or photography are probably not using software like that, they want detailed control of type and colour, and they want to work with a format that’s compatible with the design they’ve done before and after they’ve worked on the disc itself (photography, posters, advertisements, websites, etc).

IT Enquirer: How well do these applications, in your opinion, support the design process?

Bryan Bedell: To be fair, we haven’t examined them much, the way we see it, aside from LightScribe compatibility, there’s nothing they can do that pro design software can’t do better. To put it another way, if you’re a chef at a restaurant with a brick pizza oven and a pantry full of fresh vegetables and gourmet meats and cheeses, you’re not going to microwave a frozen pizza for your customers.

IT Enquirer: How important is it—for example, are there many designers using a system like Jewelboxing for their mock-ups?

Bryan Bedell: Most professional designers mocking up commercially-printed CDs would use templates provided by the replication factory or printer, or make their own templates.

Bedell then went on discussing how Jewelboxing came about. “We started Jewelboxing when we came across the Super Jewel Box. We loved it but we couldn’t find perforated templates (the SJB tray is nearly impossible to cut out by hand) and we couldn’t find anyone selling the cases in small quantities. We bulk ordered some cases and created a full DIY kit including the distinctive Super Jewel Box cases, custom-made quality pre-perforated paper, and full-featured templates compatible with common design software.”

Bryan Bedell says it’s a great system containing everything a creative pro would need to create really impressive cases, whether it’s a client presentation, a portfolio, or a mix tape. A couple of years back we reviewed the system ourselves and found it incredibly flexible and plain nice to work with.

“Someone expecting pre-designed backgrounds and layouts may find it a bit intimidating, but many non-designers use the product with Adobe Photoshop Elements or iWork Pages and find it less limiting than proprietary solutions, and like the control it gives them. That said, it’s not for everyone, there are a lot of packaging solutions out there, depending on your platform, your level of skill or creativity, compatibility with your favourite cases, etc.,” he said.

We finally asked if there is an evolution such as Print-on-demand in the printing world, where labelling occurs as short runs for a limited number of media (but more than 1 --e.g. small quantities of the same content; stuff for collectors, etc.)?

Bryan Bedell: “Some of our customers use Jewelboxing to perform that service on a very small scale (wedding photographers, artists, etc), but as far as I know, there’s no one doing it on a large national or international scale, because it’s so easy to do at home, with professional-looking results. No one would think of printing and binding their own books at home, it’s too much work and requires cutting and binding equipment, but anyone can make a CD case.”

“Once you’re getting into 500 or 1000 pieces, disc replicating companies offer very reasonable rates for professional printing and packaging, for projects like http://www.dcddiscs.com/ and http://www.pixiesdiscs.com/, we had discs professionally replicated and printed. For Dead Can Dance, we used Jewelboxing cases, and had the inserts digitally printed with sequential numbering. The Pixies wanted to use Digipaks, so we designed them in house and had them printed at the factory.”

Personally, and based on my own experience with disc labelling, I still stand by my review rating of the Jewelboxing system. I do think the chaps at Jewelboxing should think about replacing the Canon printer they are offering now by a Dymo DiscPainter because that gives much better results, and I also believe that --if you’re serious about professional-looking sample discs-- you should definitely use Verbatim’s silver-printable discs. These discs are normally reserved for the professional market and have a shine that is hard to describe, but the results you can get with them are simply superb, and much better looking than anything else I’ve seen so far.