We're done recording, we're done mixing, we're done mastering. We are currently finishing the art and then it's off to manufacturing. I wanted to share the cover with you and get some outside opinions about something.
This is the original concept. I love it. I love everything about it, really. The dimensions will have to change to fit the digipak format but what I really want you to look at is the text. It's a little smaller but I feel like that puts the focus on the picture where I feel like it should be and seems very elegant.
Now here the picture has been cropped to the proper dimensions for the digipak and the text has been enlarged. To me, this doesn't seem as balanced, almost crowded or overly busy. I like albums where the artist and title aren't even featured on the front, because I'm cool and indie like that, but some of the other guys feel like having our name bigger is better for marketing purposes. What do you think? Which is cooler, is really all I'm concerned with.
It also just dawned on me that "Quiet Company Presents..." isn't grammatically correct. It should actually be "Quiet Company Present..." Is that awkward sounding to anyone?
None of this is terribly important, I guess, but it's the little things, you know...
Last night we all got together and filmed ourselves talking about the new EP (recording process, songwriting, instrumentation, whatever, etc). Our friend Justin, who did the video for "On Modern Men" is going to edit it down and we're going to start putting out a small intro video to coincide with a streamable track from the EP once a week until our release show on May 7th. So if you care about that stuff and want to see us being awkward, self congratulatory, a little pretentious, and very occasionally, (possibly) funny and/or strange, it will be available next week...I think.
If anyone is in or around Denton tonight, please come to Hailey's and see us play music at you.
I think that if you recropped the image so that more of the wall was visible and made the text smaller again, that would capture the feeling of the original image a little better.
ReplyDeleteHm, yeah, I'm definitely partial to the first one.
ReplyDeleteAs for the grammar, I'm not sure. "Present" sounds awkward to me. I always thought that if you were using a proper name like Quiet Company that was singular, even if it represented multiple people, you used the singular version of the verb. I'm also totally pulling that out of my ass but the other way just sounds wrong.
That's why the Safelite jingle bugs the shit out of me.
"Presents" is grammatically correct because Quiet Company is a collective and technically singular. "Present" would be grammatically correct for bands with names like The Beatles, The Ramones, Bad Brains, etc.
ReplyDeleteIf we're going to talk about grammar though, I have a bone to pick with you. I've noticed a lot of "[name] and I's." It's "[name] and mine" or "[name] and my".
I guess it's not a big deal. But it makes me cringe a little bit.
This makes me sound like a jerk.
Looking forward to the new EP, honestly!
Man, what an ass...Just kidding.
ReplyDeleteI've always heard that even though a band is a collective you still treat it as a plural group. Like you wouldn't say "Radiohead is going to rule." You would say "Radiohead are going to rule."
I could be wrong but I don't think I am. Are there any English teachers around the joint?
I'll try to work on my "(name) and I's"'s.
I think the font size should be a little smaller, but not much. Also I dig the font. Very Wes Anderson-y. I also think it should be "Presents." This is based solely on an album that came out a few years ago, "Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew..." but i also think it sounds better that way.
ReplyDeleteI always think of it like this. Quiet Company is a band. So you should be able to replace "Quiet Company" with "band" and it'll make sense. "Band Presents" makes much more sense than "band present."
ReplyDeleteI'm also more impartial to the first.
"Quiet Company" while a name for a group of people represents a single entity, and my official English teacher ruling would be that "Quiet Company Presents" would be appropriate. Also I'd say "Quiet Company is playing" rather than "are playing" unless I were to say "The guys from Quiet Company are playing."
ReplyDeleteSound good? :)
I like the font on the first one (small) and the cropping on the second one (close).
The British Council's Learn English website informs me that both versions are correct. Collective nouns are singular in American usage and plural in British usage.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! No one was incorrect.
English grammar is tricky.
Also: I prefer the small font. And I agree with the person who said it's reminiscent of Wes Anderson.
ReplyDeleteI too like the 1st one now that I see them side to side.
ReplyDeletefirst one, big time.
ReplyDeleteI love the first one. The second one to me seems kind of awkward, the first is so beautiful! I love the colors lettering etc.
ReplyDeleteanother vote for the first one!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely like the first one. I'm really proud of you guys, love the cover. It's intimate yet classy, and will really draw people in. I mean heck, Bill frickin' Murray was at your show. Isn't your career complete now? ;) Can't wait to hear the new stuff.
ReplyDeletethe problem with the cropping is that you lost the elbow, and thats vulnerability. The smaller text looks nicer.
ReplyDeleteI like the cropping of the first one (more wall, screw the elbow) with the smaller text of the first one.
ReplyDeleteI don't think potential fans of your music would like having big text shoved down their throats. They're part of the demographic that's wary of being advertised to and prides itself on seeking out the obscure. Smaller text would appeal to those sensibilities.
And it's "Presents."
Sorry, I meant the cropping of the second one, not the first.
ReplyDeleteIt is the plural form of the verb "present."
ReplyDeleteWhy not take it out all together? Avoid the confusion. Avoid the mess.
The only people who will miss it are you and those who might have seen it here. In grammar and life, people don't miss what they didn't know was there in the first place.
In that case, I'd go with option two sans "present(s)".
JW
First one is absolutely perfect. Second one, no way!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not an English teacher, but I do put words together for a living, and I believe "presents" is correct. Quiet Company is singular, no matter how many people are in the band.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I vote for the first version of the artwork. The lighting on that shot is wonderful.