Better Late than Never

Some of you might recognize the original artwork from Hip Hop Volume 1. At the time, we wanted something simple, yet powerful when we envisioned the cover. Mind you, we had never had a CD in a brick and mortar store. On both counts, we didn't have enough experience or information to have developed a better cover design.

While we were sweating at my brother's hotter than hot BCT graduation at Benning, Sean and I were excited to visit the PX to check out how the CDs were displayed. We were stumped as to why we didn't see any CDs...anywhere. On closer inspection we went into every checkout lane and started pulling CDs out of the racks much to the dismay of the AAFES employees. We found 1 CD in 1 aisle. It was hidden behind Jay-Z and all you could see was the cover's expanse of BLACKNESS. The dog-tags weren't visible, the CD name wasn't visible, therefore it may as well have been invisible. If Sean and I had to go on a Where's Waldo hunt for the CD, a customer would NEVER see it. The design, although it was what we wanted and asked for, didn't work in the retail environment where it had to be noticed in order to sell. Back to the drawing board. This time with a real graphic designer.

Some lessons are better learned late rather than never.