120 [m ] - Adventure Two Timer

With the no-surprise success of the first season DVD compilation, Cartoon Network had the no-surprise eagerness to follow it with the second season DVD compilation, also to be available on Blu-ray disc.

With this and the Ben 10 Ultimate Alien DVD’s I became involved with DVD packaging and menu production to a deeper level than the illustrations I had contributed with most previous projects be it DVDs, posters and all sorts of marketing and advertising materials.

By golly, DVDs can require a load of bits and pieces all needing design work:
1) the cover art;
2) maybe a slipcase;
3) maybe a two-sided printed insert;
4) the disc(s);
5) maybe a sticker calling out features;
6) and every menu screen.

Then you repeat all of that for the Blu-ray version which has a smaller case, but bigger, higher resolution menus. I had kind of forgotten that since my days in art school. You know, where an assignment might be to conceive and design all of that by yourself.

With the idea of using Jake (the dog) as all-over packaging used on a different DVD compilation, Candice opted to use the villainous Ice King for Season 2. The layers of reveals motif was applied again. Removal of the skip case reveals Simon, the Ice King’s shaven “normal” pre-Ice King appearance.

Then again like for “One” there is muscle structure King for the contents insert page, his skull for one disc, and brain for the other which has been encased in ice for that bit of distinctiveness.

I did the bulk of the illustration work necessary. I also up took additional responsibilities of intermediary between Candice and hired designer who did the so-called grunt work.

In this new operational structure, I constructed sample of the slipcase as a “proof of concept” to test its structural integrity. This was greeted with pleasure and unexpected surprise. Folks weren’t making proof-of-concept prototypes. As it had seemed to me, people were doing less of that kind of exploration and trying to jump projects from thumbnails to finished layouts. Maybe its lack of time. Maybe it’s “the process” and there are parts which can’t reliably be planned for its time and expense. Well, I like to have things planned, so that’s something I brought to these projects.

Adventure Time: The Complete Second Season

Art direction: Candice H.

All images found.