Bill Myers - July 28, 2007

I recently completed a 'how to' video, and needed a 'retail ready' DVD case cover to supply to the DVD duplicator I use.

To create the retail ready cover, I spent an afternoon working with PhotoShop Elements adding and positioning layers and elements until I had the exact cover I wanted.

After I submitted the artwork to my DVD duplicator, I started thinking of all the DVD covers I would need in the coming weeks as I completed several DVDs I was working on.

If I had to start from scratch with each new cover design, it would consume a lot of time and energy.

So I decided that instead of 're-inventing the wheel' each time I needed to design a new cover, I would build a 'fill in the blanks' template for designing DVD case artwork.

Using this template, I can open Photoshop Elements, fill in the blanks with the DVD details, and have a ready-to-use DVD cover in minutes.

Because I know that others would find value in the DVD cover template, I have added it to the download area of my site and have made it free for members to download and use.

If you'd like to see how this DVD cover template works, check out the short video at http://www.bmyers.com/public/1299.cfm (free for all to view).

This exercise is a good example of 'do it once, then build a template so you won't have to do it again'.