This is the artwork for my latest DJ mix, Deep Down Inside.

This mix was a lot darker than my previous summer mix so I wanted to reflect that in the artwork. I only used 3 pieces of stock imagery for this, the Clown, the border and the paint brush splash as a holder for the text mix description. I added noise as well as an overlay to add contrast and a rough, dishevelled style to the clown that would match the font choice and borders.

For the first time in a while I decided to print up some labels and cover notes for the latest DJ mix I’ve put together [Summer 2009 by Martin Lucas]. Being a summery house mix I wanted the cover artwork to continue the vibe.

I started off with a sunset photograph from stock.xchng, and proceeded to add layers in Photoshop for the illustrative parts. I also used a flat black coloured layer over the original photograph and set this to a 25% overlay in the layer opacity options – this boosts the contrast and saturation, burning out whites, strengthening colours and darkening blacks. I used non-descriptive curls and swirls to fill in empty areas of the photograph, a banner – again from stock.xchng to use as a place holder for the descriptive text and finally a handful of butterflies and stars in the foreground to bring additional focus to the summer. The image wraps around half of the back of the sleeve, then fades into black to give a background for the tracklist and my contact details.