This weekend my parents were in town and we ended up talking about music. My dad was lamenting that no one bought albums or non-digital music anymore, which got me thinking about how much I miss record and CD packaging. My first job out of college was with a small record label in NYC and I’ll never forget how excited I was to attend a meeting with one of our artists to brainstorm CD packaging ideas. We went through stacks of inspiration CDs, dug out boxes of crazy materials being considered (a faux-fur cover was on the table- yikes) and wrote down page after page of artists that could be good to work with for a custom design. The sky was the limit and it reminded me of all the times I bought tapes and CDs when I was younger and how the artwork excited me as much as the music.

It feels like those days are all but gone, but thankfully a few bands haven’t given up on artwork. D*S reader Tyler sent over this link to an amazing video showing the band Field Days as they make one custom (the word ‘custom’ barely seems to do this amount of work justice) CD for their album ‘Projector‘. Everything is handmade here, from the CD sleeve (which is made by staining paper with colored water) and outer track listing to the artwork on the cover. Some of my favorite bands are still committed to this sort of DIY spirit and I’m so glad to see Field Days is as well. I was just typing the sentence “this makes me want to order one of these” and stopped myself. In between this sentence and the last I went to Field Days’ site and ordered one of these gorgeous handmade CD packages. The artwork alone is worth the cost and I’m so excited to listen to the music. If you’re up for some great new music and supporting a band that’s so dedicated to beautiful custom artwork and a handmade experience for its fans, click here to order a CD ($14.99) or album ($19.99). Thanks to Tyler for passing this on and thanks to Field Days for keeping the relationship between art and music so strong. xo, grace

With two issues under their belt, Wrap has already interviewed a slew of talented artists and designers and, with their latest issue, they decided to make the magazine itself part of the design process. Each issue can easily be taken apart and used as wrapping paper, which I love. It’s fun to tear things out and save it, but if you’re like me and end up with a stack of already-read magazines, it’s great to know that this can easily be reused. Wrap even perforated the back cover so it turns into eight note cards to coordinate with featured prints in the magazine. You can check out (and order) the issue right here- thanks to Polly for the tip! xo, grace