The Art of the Mix: Mix CD covers I designed over the years.

Several years ago, through a former co-worker, I became part of a local New York City music trading group. This group met once a month to trade unique mix CDs that were created by each participating member. Known as the "CD Mix of the Month", or CDMOM for short, the goal of our group was simply to share the music we loved and to help others discover an array of new music. We operated under the premise that music should not be kept a secret. I discovered many new bands and purchased many albums thanks to our monthly trade. The group started as an offshoot of a larger nationwide mailing list, and while CDMOM no longer meets on a monthly basis, reunions are still held on occasions.

For me, the CDMOM group wasn't just about trading music. As a graphic designer, I became really involved in creating eye-catching art for the playlists. Sometimes my mix CDs would have a general theme and the artwork would reflect it. At other times my CD covers were just an idea, and the music within would be a compilation of current hits from my MP3 player. Either way, I must have produced a series of over 30-40 mixes, each with unique artwork.

I decided to dig through the artwork I created for CDMOM and post some of my favorite playlists from the collection. Please be advised that a lot of the stock photography used within these covers were "borrowed", just like the music we used to create each mix.

I decided to do a series of Heavy Metal only mixes. Power Metal was #3 in the series, although
Helloween and Nightwish probably wouldn't be considered Power Metal. As a Kaiju fan,
I had monsters from the Godzilla series grace the playlist.

This is an Old School Hip Hop Mix I Created. From 1998-2007, Hip Hop really sucked in my opinion, so I was inspired to create this. This is was my tribute to the way I remembered hip hop in my youth.

I followed up the previous mix with this one. I was spinning Drum and Bass records during college, so this served as a tribute to the hip hop influences featured withing the genre. In 2005, Drum and Bass was at the end of it's lifespan.

(Click to Enlarge Image) This is a mix of female fronted bands I made. I decided to
alternate songs based on the hair color of each lead singer.
The Archie image fit perfectly for the theme

(Click to Enlarge Image) This mix was created as a joke for Valentine's Day.
The images were courtesy of Google Image Search, and the music was
made up of songs you'd more than likely hear in a strip club.

This is one of the first mixes I made. It's significant because it actually features a photo
I took while on vacation at Fire Island. It's about this time that I became
 interested in Photography.

(Click to Enlarge Image) The title of this mix was borrowed from White Zombie. The mix was
 comprised of only Scandinavian bands. If I could remake this mix, it would have been nothing
but Metal.

I loved  listening to Ambient Trance. It was fuel to my creativity. Stole the image from Kill Bill
of course. This mix was one of my favorites. It's on my iPod and I still listen to it.