priceless. say "aaah" you son-of-a...

a few weeks ago, during thanksgiving, my sister was over my place and pulled out a bunch of childhood photos of her and i. amongst the stash of photos, lay the hidden treasure of the bunch... my kindergarten class photo! well, i finally got around to scanning it (i am one lazy s.o.b.) and i thought i'd share it. i am the suave-lookin 5-6 year-old with the pimp red shirt with blue pockets. the late 70's-early 80's were a mess me-thinks. or maybe it was just me -- because everyone else looks damn cute in that photo except for yours truly. another pointless blog, eh?

now i am not one to criticize someone else's art or direction, but this latest britney spears album cover has made me cross my self-imposed boundries. it is absolutely atrocious! after checking out the album recently, i noticed that there was some terrific photography used in the promotionals, singles as well as the accompanying booklet. how ms. jackie murphy (art director of the project) decided to go with the cover that they did is beyond my scope of reason. now i am sure there were other people involved and i dont want to point the finger solely at ms. murphy, but seriously... is this the best you can come up with? it bothered me so much that i took the liberty of spending the last 20 minutes (thats right, MINUTES), whipping up what i thought might be four sweet alternative looks for the cover art using the aforementioned fantastic photography. i am also not one to boast about my abilities as a designer, and i know there are legions of graphic designers out there that are much better than i am -- which brings me to ask them, "do you feel me on this one?" but i was still compelled to put these out as a challenge to ms. murphy because it absolutely pains me to walk through a record store and see this atrocity on display.