Custom DVD Covers

Other than the Xbox, which does make an excellent election-eve distraction device, I've been busying myself with a rather geeky hobby: creating custom DVD covers. There is a whole community of DVD fans and artists on the web creating their own covers for their favorite DVDs, and they've largely been driven underground by the movie studios and their threats of copyright actions. Nonetheless, the community is thriving and I've gotten a lot of tips from more experienced hobbyists. Anyhow, for my first try I decided to take a shot at the four DVD volumes of Futurama, my favorite cartoon. I don't like the boxes they came in, either in form (several thinpaks within a box covered by a slipcase) or appearance (rather random and frenetic artwork). Not to mention that they don't match each other, so even if you have them all lined up it doesn't look very attractive.

Here's the original Volume One design:

And here's the rough draft of my design (in an unusably low resolution to avoid a nasty e-mail from Fox):

None of the graphics are originals, but the design is mine. I'm still working on the spine, as I'd like for the four boxes to create one single image when they're all on a shelf next to each other. Otherwise, this is the basic design for all four volumes. It's been a fun little project, and I look forward to continuing this hobby. It lets me enjoy my DVDs in a slightly more creative way, and anything that give me a chance to be artistic is a good thing.