A soapbox! A soapbox! (Warning: diatribe follows)

When you're designing your CD cover and insert, design elements are not the only thing to consider. Remember that if you are printing lyrics, song titles and info, musician's names, etc., it does the buyer of the CD NO GOOD if those pieces of information are buried in a graphic designer's idea of "art".

Too many CDs these days have the above info printed in mauve lettering on a violet background, or overlaid with a Celtic knotwork design airbrushed in in Photoshop at 60% transparency, or printed in fragmented, refracted panels going every which way, or using 25 different computerized fonts on a page because "I've got them on my computer and they're really neat", etc, etc, etc...

Determine what information you would like your listeners to have, and build the album design around that info in such a way that the information is clearly communicated in a graphically pleasing form. If the CD artwork is more prominant than the info, you might as well leave the text out, because no-one will be able to read it anyway!

It IS possible to design an aesthetically pleasing and artistic CD cover and booklet that also conveys information, but only if you recognize the need for both!