Search

Upside-Down CD Spines

Lukas Kendall
Mar 2
1 min read

I just want to take a random minute here to rant about something that is so stupid and annoying, I don’t know why anybody does it.

UPSIDE-DOWN CD SPINES!

Come on, designers? WHY?!?!?

The spine needs to read from the top down—like a book. So when it lays flat—or in a box of inventory—it’s right-side up.

Of course we can just flip these upside-down in our boxes, but then they’re backwards.

I don’t get it.

I seem to remember some old GNP Cresendo and CAM titles being this way.

Shame!

10 Comments

Steven Awalt

Mar 16

Same with book spines printed upsidedown. What madness is that?

Like

Leo R.

Mar 03

In France and Germany, all book spines are upside down (from an Anglophone perspective) as a rule.

Like

justafigleaf

Mar 06

Replying to

I much prefer the aesthetic of a “descending” title, but the European method does have a certain logic to it. If a CD’s lying on a table face-up, the title is more likely to be visible on the cover. If lying face down, the spine title is viewable face-up without having to move it.

Edited

Like

Andrew

Mar 03

Yes...this was a favourite thing of GNP's to do...and I'm stuffed if I can work out why. 2 possible solutions were 1) simply a graphic design mistake, where someone didn't pay attention OR 2) was /is this a "European" style thing? Not sure why I think this...MAYBE I read it somewhere years ago or I just made it up!!! Whatever the reason....BLOODY ANNOYING!!!

Like

Robert Knaus

Mar 02

This drives me insane.

Like

Traveling Matt

Mar 02

I don't typically have an issue with single discs, but my pet peeve is inverted spine text on quad cases. The boutique labels tend to print different text on all four spines but the pairs are typically inverted from each other.

Like