The Laser Cut Process – How to Make a Cover

I am going to try to do a few posts that describe what it actually takes to make a cover turn out like the final products you see on this site.

I was approached by Something to Break label owner, Daniel, a few weeks ago about doing five covers for the first album on his label – Chris Staples’ American Soft. Being a huge fan of Twothirtyeight when I was younger, and of Chris’ solo work, I readily agreed. This is the cover I was given:

Once I am given a cover, I have two options: (1) keep the cover as is, or (2) make something new and original. With this one, I decided to keep the original, as I am currently in training to be an architect and so the appeal of a beautiful building on the cover was enticing.

I take that original cover and then have to redraw it line-by-line into a computer drafting program (like AutoCAD). As you can imagine this is often the most time-consuming process. With the above cover, it took me a few days to get the final exactly like I wanted – focusing on making sure everything I wanted was covered and looked right. In AutoCAD, this is what it looks like:

The laser cutter is programmed to treat different colored lines as different depths of cut – for example, a magenta line will cut all the way through, while a red line will only score the material. After the above lines are drawn, I have to go through and change the lines to correspond to what I want the laser cutter to do with them. 

The file is then taken to “the shop”, mat board is purchased depending on color choice, and the sample is made. Here are some videos showing the cutting process:

Some pictures showing the process:

Thanks for caring.

The record is out now and can be purchased from Something to Break Records or downloaded from Chris Staples’ bandcamp.