Features

Iluvatar — A Story Two Days Wide

The Art Corner was a series of articles by graphic artist Mattias Norén, who was part of the DPRP team and designed the layout we had at the time. In this series, Mattias reviewed the artwork of albums. The series started in January 1999 and ran for about 18 months.

The original introduction of the series is included below and will tell you what it was all about. This category no longer runs, so information about submitting an album for review has been removed, but we're keeping the archived articles as a separate series in the Features category.

Check out Mattias Norén's company website: ProgArt!

Dear visitor of The Art Corner!

Some people say that it's just the inside that counts, but I'm actually one of those men that cares much about the outside as well! :-)

The Art Corner only concentrates on the outside. What I think about the inside, the music, I'll keep for myself in this case.

Each album has been given 1 to 5 points in seven different categories.

  • Design / Composition: Is the idea and layout good?
  • Technical skill: Is the artist good at what he is doing?
  • Connection to the music: Is the artwork inspired by the music, album title and the lyrics? Does it feel good to look at the cover at the same time you listening to the music?
  • Logotype: How good is the design of the logotype?
  • Typography: How good is the typography? (cover and backcover)
  • Booklet: How good is the typography, artwork, layout and paper quality?
  • Disc: How good is the typography, artwork, layout on the disc?

Mattias Norén

Iluvatar — A Story Two Days Wide (Kinesis - KDCD 1026, September 1999)

Design

Artwork designed by Dennis Mullin

CD layout and production by Scott Kirby

Scores

category score
Design and composition
Technical skill
Connection to the music
Logotype
Typography
Booklet
Disc

Score: 2.5

Comments

After the brilliant artwork for Children, this was a real disappointment. This time, one of the band members has done the artwork by himself, and he is indeed a much more professional musician than cover artist.

The typography is not bad at all and the booklet is OK, but the cover is a real disaster. I really hope that Iluvatar brings back Tito Salomoni, the man behind the cover for Children, for the band's next release.

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