Designing Jacket Art

[442RCT]

I recently bought a used 4 or 5 year old copy of Photoshop Elements. I've been teaching myself how to use it so I could design art jackets which I used to do by printing the pictures, then cutting and pasting the layout on the back of a jacket.

For my design projects, I'll pick one of my favorite aeroplanes, then add picture elements to tell a story, that is if there is a story to tell, or sometimes, I just like a pin-up girl and go with that.

My first example is a tribute jacket for Korean War Ace, Boots Blesse, who I had the honor of meeting at a Friends Of American Fighter Aces luncheon and autograph my A-2. His ride was the swept wing F-86 Sabre when he flew into MIG Alley.

Major general Frederick C. Blesse was one of the greatest aces of the Korean War era. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1945, flew two combat tours during the Korean War, completing 67 missions in F-51s, 35 missions in F-80s and 121 missions in F-86s. During his second tour in F-86s, he was officially credited with shooting down nine MIG-15s and one La-9. At the time of his return to the U.S. in October 1952, he was America's leading jet ace.

I started with Boots Blesse's Sabre at the top. The logo, " MIG KILLER", is in oriental script curved over the jet.

A pin-up girl from the same era is underneath the F-86 with the title of a book on aerial tactics authored by Blesse, " No Guts, No Glory". Arrayed on either side of the pin-up are red stars for the kill marks representing the 10 planes downed by Blesse.

 

[Weasel_Loader]

Nice work and great design!

 

[dujardin]

splendid
this will make a nice painting

 

[deand]

That's a truly great idea for a way to create a design, and for the design itself! Love to see more!





dean

 

[CHECK6]

GREAT!!!!
FAB

 

[unclegrumpy]

That looks outstanding!

 

[dmar836]

Looks really nice. What I might suggest as a design idea is to make the overall layout into a "V" so that everything sort of funnels down. In this case, I would make the text at the top, "Mig Killer", a bit wider and/or somehow compress, narrow, or move around the kill stars at the bottom so they don't take the eye back out. You don't want too make it into an obvious "V" shape - just an artistic element that makes a lot of things work.
This is nitpicking as it looks great as is!!
JMO,
Dave

 

[442RCT]

I appreciate the input...

This next design should have been on the back of a navy G-1, but I haven't gotten around to taking a pic of one of my G-1s yet.

This jacket design was for Navy Ace, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, of VF-84, the "Jolly Rogers".
Cunningham was one of only two pilots who achieved American Ace status in Vietnam. The other pilot was Air Force pilot, Richard "Steve" Ritchie, flying a F-4 Phantom credited with 5 kills.
Yes, I know, Randy is now a convicted criminal, but this was about his being an Ace in Vietnam.

Prior to his political career, he was an officer in the United States Navy for 20 years. Along with his Radar Intercept Officer, William P. "Irish" Driscoll became the only Navy flying ace from the Vietnam War for obtaining five confirmed aerial victories during that conflict. To date, Cunningham and Driscoll are the two last aircrew of the United States Navy to achieve "Ace" status.

The logo on top is, "The Duke", which was his nickname. I thought about using his radio call sign, "Showtime 112", but that might have been misinterpreted by most as an ad for a cable TV company.

The plane is his F-4 Phantom in VF-84 colors. VF-84's nickname is the "Jolly Rogers", therefore the pirate pin-up. Duke and his RIO splashed 5 MIGs, represented by the 5 clustered red stars.

 

[442RCT]

Jo Collins Playboy Playmate

This jacket started when I was designing a jacket for the A-1 Sky Raider, whose pilots performed, SANDY or Search And Rescue missions in Vietnam.
The Sky Raiders would provide close air support fire while the helicopter extracted downed air crew.

I had a pic of a Sky Raider and was looking for a suitable pin up girl to go with the logo, SANDY.

While looking for a pin-up, I thought about using a real pin up girl who visited Vietnam with the USO.

Jo Collins, the 1965 Playmate of the year was nicknamed “G.I. Jo” for her United Service Organizations tours to Vietnam to entertain the troops during the Vietnam War. She first went to Vietnam to deliver a copy of Playboy in person to a lieutenant named Jack Price, of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, who had availed himself of an offer from Playboy that anyone making a lifetime subscription to the magazine would receive the first copy from a Playboy Playmate in person.

http://www.stripes.com/news/from-the-s-s-archives-bunny-brightens-up-the-scene-in-vietnam-1.62482
http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1964/25244/price1.html

I ended up doing a tribute to Jo Collins, PMOY 1965. I'll do the SANDY SAR jacket design some other time.