Vinyl or CD?

And now the time has come where I should choose a product route to go down with to illustrate for. This is a very important factor, due to the size differences between CD and vinyl.

http://carlosbongiovanni.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/88-big-PLUNK-VINILO-PLUMAS-FRONT-960-940x676.jpg < image reference at this link.

http://www.coverarts.com/images/content/classic-rock-album-art.jpg < image reference at this link.

Vinyl record album covers have an upside over CD, by offering more 'canvas' space to work with, this gives the ability to produce larger designs, which in the end may be more eye-catching to the viewer, of course this depends on the content.

CD based album covers have no real advantage over vinyl, other then CD covers being small, so they perhaps would be more suiting to smaller designs.

(An example of a 12" album template below).
The site where I found this template was very handy. it featured an assortment of templates, and they are all at a professional standard. Interestingly they already include the bleed on the documents.

http://www.rainborecords.com/temp.htm#12l < image reference at this link.

http://www.rainborecords.com/temp.htm#12l < I found this great template with bleed, at this link.

When taking the development of a CD cover into consideration, I must remember to include the flaps on the back section of the sleeve, as my design needs to be professionally presented via a digital format, at an industry standard level. The same of course goes for vinyl sleeves.

I must also consider the bleed, in the last module whilst studying narrative illustration, every final illustration that I submitted needed to have a 5mm bleed.
This is the industry standard bleed measurement.

http://www.rainborecords.com/temp.htm#cd < image reference at this link.

http://www.rainborecords.com/temp.htm#cd < image reference at this link.

Kate Bush's first album was released exclusively on the vinyl format, of course later being re-released on CD.
As a homage, I could look into developing my illustration with the intention for it to be featured on a 12" vinyl sleeve.
As well as this, I just think larger vinyls, display cover art much better than smaller CD's.

Below is Kate's debut album, 'Lionheart', on 12" vinyl.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Kate_Bush_Lionheart.jpg < image reference at this link.

The second smaller image below is the same identical album, but on CD. 

You can clearly see the size difference between the two.

http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/m/mCw51cdWH54uRRZDWE2wlHA/140.jpg < image reference at this link.

I think because vinyl has so many important advantages over CD, I will opt to choose vinyl as my format to illustrate for.

The cover size will be 12", as this is stated on the brief criteria.






Thomas.