A retirement ceremony program printed as a 7-inch record. I fitted the jacket and two die-cut labels to the manufacturer's dieline without changing the client's design.
The finished jacket, with the honoree's career as the track listing.
A retiring officer wanted her ceremony program to be a record: a printed 7-inch vinyl jacket, with her Air Force and Coast Guard assignments on the labels as track listings.
The concept and artwork were already approved. I adapted the art to the supplied dieline, resolved every bleed, fold and safe-area requirement, and delivered print files ahead of a fixed ceremony date.
Scope note: the client supplied the source artwork, which was generated with AI before I was hired. My role was production layout, print preparation and template adaptation only, with no creative redesign. The illustration elsewhere in this portfolio is drawn by hand; this is a prepress case study.
The client had chosen her type, colors, wording and composition deliberately. I was not to rewrite text, swap fonts, replace graphics, change colors or recompose.
I was allowed to scale proportionally, extend and crop background, center optically, refine alignment and kerning, reposition to hold safe margins, and rebuild background art past the trim where the original stopped short.
Art made without a dieline rarely reaches the bleed edge, and its key elements rarely sit inside the safe area. I closed those gaps so nothing looked moved.
– from the client's statement of work
The jacket is a side-load 7.25-inch sleeve on 15pt board. Front and back sit on one flat spread that is folded and glued into a pocket, so the file carries the dieline, bleed limit, fold, glue flap and load orientation together.
Before anything went to the manufacturer, I circled every decision that needed the client's answer and sent it back as an annotated proof. With a fixed ceremony date, there was no time for a second print run.
Why mark your own work: this client described herself as new to print. A clean proof invites “looks great.” A marked proof gives her specific questions she can answer.
The two 4-inch labels split the career: Air Force as the demo tracks, Coast Guard as the greatest hits, each assignment a track with a duration for time in service. They share a structure and differ only in palette, so they read as an A-side and B-side.
On a round label, type has to clear the spindle hole, spacing around the ring has to stay even, and nothing can clip at the outer trim within die tolerance. I centered by eye rather than by geometry, because the ring of color is what reads as centered.
The jacket and labels as mockups.
I sent the first draft within twelve hours of the award and the final package before the deadline. The honoree's family and colleagues kept the printed program. I delivered layered sources, print-ready PDFs, high-res exports, and packaged fonts and links, so the manufacturer had everything.
– Emily Brockway · 5.0 ★ Upwork engagement
I fit approved artwork to a manufacturer's dieline and prepare the press files.
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