The finished cd package design for the alternative British rock band from the UK came out just right. The cd album art was inspired by the album title “This time it won’t be forever”. The cd cover design, illustration took some time to develop but working closely together with the art director helped to acheive the optimal result. I changed the castle into a titanic looking ship that’s about to be engulfed by a title wave, tsunami I designed. British rock cd design is a genre all it’s own differing from American art in it’s attitude.
I carried the cover design theme through out the rest of the packaging- and I’m quite happy with the results. I used a combination of adobe photoshop, illustrator, and inDesign to layout this artwork. Feel free to voice your hatred or love of my work by leaving a comment. Enjoy.

Fernando Medina, Aurora, IL 60504. United States. Graphic Designer

Greetings friends, here’s my latest masterpiece. It’s an album cover for an alternative rock band in England. This cover design was a play off of the album title “This Time it Wont Be Forever” as you can see this castle will not last forever because the gigantic wave is about to demolish it. Stay tuned for more artwork coming soon.

In honor of America’s 2008 Presidential Campaigning going on now- I thought I’d post up this piece I created of a Patriotic Spider Web. I created this using oil pastels (crepá) and an x-acto knife to scratch in the web. Rock the Vote!

The name of this album is “View from Hear”, there’s a play on words so I tried to do the same visually- the client and I went through various drafts before deciding on this design. The genre of music is Christian Rock, the goal was to not hit people over the head with Christian symbolism so I approached it with a neutral design first and then sprinkled subtle spirituality through out- Vuala. Below are a collection of stock photo’s I used to create this piece.Also below are other cover designs created for this project that didn’t make the cut. They were all created using photoshop. As you can see they all use a similar color palette which was specified by the client- I think that they’re all very nice but of course I have a bias. Greatness!
© 2009 Fernando Medina- Graphic Designer and Illustrator. CD Design- Christian Rock.

At long last the most anticipated video game in the history of all time ever-ness… has finally begun development, of course I’m talking about the one and only “Street Fighter 4″. I created this photo collage in commemoration. I pasted the faces of myself and of some good friends of mine on to the bodies of these street fighting titans.

I’ve titled this piece “Dragon Smoke”. It’s a cd cover design for an Asian Music Composer, his music is used in several movies, documentaries, and tv shows. I created this dragon by collaging various smoke images and painting in the smoke where needed. The goal of this design was to convey a modern, sleek, and sharp look with a hint of mystery.

I got this tattoo while I was locked up- serving time for ripping the tags off of bed mattresses (it’s against the law you know). Just kidding- I’ve never broken a law in my life.
Graphic Designer & Illustrator. Chicago, IL, Suburb Artist, graphic artist. Fernando Medina © 2009.

Squaring the circle is considered to be one of the most impossible mathematical conundrums in history. It is the challenge of constructing a square with the as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge.

This cd album cover is titled just that “Squaring the Circle”. The music genre is new age ambient instrumentals. This is my first attempt at designing the cover, I used a combination of photoshop and traditional drawing skills to create it. I drew inspiration from movies such as “A Beautiful Mind” and “The DeVinci Code” with the glowing type flashing through the cover. The text is a combination of mathematical equations and geometrical diagrams. The design looks pretty busy because that was the goal, to create confusion, frustration, and repetition. I’m pretty happy with it but the client felt that it was too futuristic looking, so I went back to the drawing board and created a second cover design.

For the second cover design I took photo’s of a coworker in the office and then added the background, robe, beard and more by digital painting and overlaying textures via photoshop.

The idea is that this philosipher guy is stressing over “Squaring the Circle” and there’s his thumb holding the same paper he’s holding, etc, etc… A never ending cycle with no solution, depressing? yes. But it makes for good art.

In the words of Vanilla Ice “Go ninja go ninja go” If you haven’t already, check out the hilarious askaninja.com site for all your ninja know how. This logo was for a rap group called “fusion of the elements”- similar to the well know rap group “wu-tang” also known for there martial arts prowess. I turned this pencil sketch into a vectorized master piece using my wacom ninchucks.

CD cover illustration design for a hip hop rap artist based in New York. This cd cover illustrates a character representing the rap artist’ persona. A custom cd cover illustration takes considerably longer than a cd design based on the musicians photographs because it requires composeing the cd package design entirely from scratch. I completed the illustration for this star wars/hip hop cd cover. I used adobe illustrator for the color and line work, and added some texture in photoshop. The client was very happy with it. I’ve never really illustrated anything in this particular style- but I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. It’s another notch in my arsenal of styles. Notice the Darth Vador silhouette in the background.

Once upon a time… in a Galaxy far far away, there was an illustrator who dared to combine the forces of Star Wars and Hip hop. This is a fun illustration I’ve been working on. Below is a preliminary pencil sketch for an album cover playing off the theme of Lucas’ Celestial Opera- as you can see he’s reaching for his mic which is his “light saber”, getting ready to slash somebody creeping up behind him- he’s also sporting a jedi cape and in the background a little green dude (Yoda) is rocking the turntables. I’ll be posting the updated artwork soon- stay tuned.

© 2009 Fernando Medina. book illustrator, cd cover design, cd design, cd designer, cd illustration, chicago graphic design, children’s book illustrator, cover design, gangsta rap cd design, graphic designer, hip hop art, Hip Hop Rap CD Design, Illustrator, Rap CD design.