Homage

What do you do when you have to shoot a business portrait with a guy, a Bentley and a gravel parking lot full of used mid size American cars? You reference Funky Cold Medina!
I wasn't worried about ripping Ton Loc since his cover is a more overt "homage" to one by Donald Byrd.
 Even Blue Note ripped it off again:

While everyone at the shoot laughed when I brought up Ton Loc's Loc'ed After Dark, it's what I had in my mind, 'cept it had to be a skinny horizontal.
Now that I look at it, I didn't even come close, but it was in the back of mind. This is the difference between "homage" and "ripping it off".
I've had too many instances where someone would have been holding the album cover and asking me to move an inch to match the angle. Sure you can google or iStock something to help you find a place to start, but make it your own. Before the net, designers had to draw what they saw in their mind, then we worked together to realize that vision

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