Custom Doctor Who DVD Covers

[Deputy-Assistant-Second-Prime]

This thread is for displaying and discussing custom DVD cover designs for Doctor Who. If you would like to share some of your designs or just comment on what others have posted, this is the place to do it.


My Design Philosophy for the Covers
Although I liked the Region 1 and Region 2 covers, I preferred to design my own. I have a different philosophy about cover design for the series.

The style should evoke a feeling of that era with backgrounds and logos. In the case of the B&W episodes, color tone was more important than the base color.

The front cover should simple: the logo, the title, and a single large picture to draw one's interest.

The back cover should show a series of television clips, the summary, cast & crew, and other descriptions.

The spine of the cover should contain the title, a couple reference numbers for quick sorting, and the image of a companion in that story.


Tools
I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to design the backgrounds and logos.
Then I laid out the cover with Adobe InDesign.


Selected Covers
Attached is a sample of a cover from each era.

04C The Power of the Daleks represents my designs for Seasons 1 through 4.
06B The Mind Robber represents my designs for Seasons 5 & 6.
10B The Carnival of Monsters represents my designs for Seasons 7 through 10.
13C Pyramids of Mars represents my designs for Seasons 11 through 17.
19D The Visitation represents my designs for Seasons 18 through 23.
26C The Curse of Fenric represents my designs for Seasons 24 through 26.
27A The Enemy Within is my design for the 1996 Movie.

[Metarock Sam]

Wow these covers are very good. However I still prefer the region 2 format. I love roundels !!!

[creed462]

They do look good

[Deputy-Assistant-Second-Prime]

Wow these covers are very good. However I still prefer the region 2 format. I love roundels !!!

Thanks. I like the roundels in the Region 2 and the black of the Region 1.

They do look good

Thanks.

[Deputy-Assistant-Second-Prime]

I should have probably mentioned that I wouldn't mind any criticisms of my cover designs as well.

The hardest part was finding good quality images. That was the most disappointing part in many cases...the lack of image selection.

[Metarock Sam]

Well no offence but they arent the best ive seen I mean the whole circular picture at the front just doesnt do it for me.

[Flyboy]

I like them, they are pretty good. However, I still prefer the Region 2 covers, I like the uniformity, the roundals and the bit at the bottom with the doctor on it. I do commend your design however for fitting them in with the new series covers.

[Rowana]

I like them. Very well done!

[Deputy-Assistant-Second-Prime]

Well no offence but they arent the best ive seen I mean the whole circular picture at the front just doesnt do it for me.

I'm not offended. I just wanted your honest opinion. Art is subjective.

IMO, I like focusing the front cover on a single element, although not necessarily with a circle. I simply used a circle to allow me to see more of the background.

My main source of frustration was a lack of decent images. Very difficult to make good covers without good images from that story.

Now, IMO my covers are better than many Region 2 and most Region 1 covers. But that's only my opinion.

Now here's my question to you...how what kind of layout would you have preferred? In other words, how could I have made it better? Or is it just so bad, that I should start from scratch in your opinion?

[Deputy-Assistant-Second-Prime]

I like them, they are pretty good.

Thanks.

However, I still prefer the Region 2 covers, I like the uniformity, the roundals and the bit at the bottom with the doctor on it.

Yeah, I do like those aspects of the Region 2 covers myself.

I do commend your design however for fitting them in with the new series covers.

Wow, I never thought of that!

The cloud backgrounds were created in Photoshop, using the Clouds Filter.
The star backgrounds were also created in Photoshop.

Seasons 7 through 26 were supposed to look somewhat like the opening sequence, at least color-wise. In the opening sequence, the title is in the center, which I couldn't do for the cover, so I gave up trying to reproduce the exact cloud designs. Also, the colors changed rapidly in the opening sequence, so I just picked a color.

Seasons 1 through 6 were B&W, I just picked cloud colors I didn't use in the other seasons.

It all made sense then, but maybe I'll try making new backgrounds to see if I can bring it closer to the series.

I reproduced the logos as best I could in Illustrator. That was probably the best part of the whole darn thing.

[Deputy-Assistant-Second-Prime]

I like them. Very well done!

Thank you.
But please don't feel like you have to hold back any criticism.

Part of the reason I posted them was for people to give an honest critique.

Now after reading some of the comments, I'm thinking about trying something different.


And remember...anyone else can post their designs here too.

[Flyboy]

It's not direct feedback, but the better Region 2 covers are not just a screen shot from an episode, they are a wonderfully put together selection of images, but not quite to the extent as the Region 1 covers. The Genesis Of the Daleks cover is a prime example.

[Deputy-Assistant-Second-Prime]

It's not direct feedback, but the better Region 2 covers are not just a screen shot from an episode, they are a wonderfully put together selection of images, but not quite to the extent as the Region 1 covers. The Genesis Of the Daleks cover is a prime example.

Maybe I should experiment with that.

I happen to have the exact opposite opinion. I liked The Robots of Death and Spearhead from Space covers more than Genesis of the Daleks.

Good job creating that cover image for Genesis of the Daleks, though.

However, I felt the rectangular image didn't always work in every Region 2 cover. In the case of The Robots of Death, the background behind the robot was painted a shade of "blah". Maybe I could experiment with removing such backgrounds.

And I felt the roundels worked better on the back cover.

Thanks for the feedback.

[creed462]

Not bad I like the circle images, except for Pirimids of Mars and The mind Robber I thought the picture you chose fit the ep.

[Deputy-Assistant-Second-Prime]

Not bad I like the circle images, except for Pirimids of Mars and The mind Robber I thought the picture you chose fit the ep.

Thanks.

Well, my Pyramid of Mars cover did have a pyramid, but what kind of image do you think would have fit better? I have a lot of images to choose from for that particular story.

For The Mind Robber, I didn't want to give away the identity of the bad guy. Do you think I should have put the Master of the Land of Fiction on the cover? Or perhaps another image?

Typically, I avoid putting the villains on the cover if I think it might spoil the surprise.

Now if any monster or villain is introduced in full view in the first few minutes of the story, I'll put them right on the front cover.

If their name is in the title and it isn't their first appearance, I'll put them on the front cover.



Last night, I was working on my cover for An Unearthly Child and I couldn't find a good picture of Susan for the spine, but I found a good image of her for the front cover. I normally don't use main characters for the front cover, but in this case, the story title was referencing her. Very frustrating when you can't find the images you need.