Lethal Weapon Soundtrack Collection
8-CD set
La-La Land Records, 2013
The original soundtrack to Lethal Weapon 2 was the first CD I purchased. At the time, I was on a twenty minute break from my part-time job at the local mall and browsing the shelves at a now long-gone retail outlet called Camelot Music. When I spotted the disc in sale bin, it was an offer too good to pass up...despite my not having saved enough cash yet to even buy a CD player.
If you'd told me then, that there'd be two more Lethal installments coming to theaters over the next decase and that one day, a decade after that, I'd be providing the packaging designs for a deluxe boxed set containing all four film scores, well…. Well, to be honest, I'd have probably been really disappointed I hadn't grown up to become a famous comic book artist, or film director! Nevertheless, in the here and now, this was a dream project.
The Lethal Weapon Soundtrack Collection was packaged in a slipcase box holding four CD jewel cases—each with two discs per film—alongside an extensive booklet discussing the films and the music. For the design of the slipcase, the established Lethal Weapon logo was combined with a red painted stroke (in the same brushstroke style as the numerals from the three sequel installments) that was then red foil-stamped and stretched across all three sides.
Each of the four scores were packaged in individual flip-tray CD jewel cases, with a four page folded insert containing the album credits, publishing information and lists of performing musicians. On the center spread of each of these inserts is a custom editorial-style photo collage, which uses the same photos as seen in the main booklet, but creates a fresh look and feel that's uniquely tailored for each film.
Each section of the main booklet (shown above) was color-coded to give the films their own identity within the booklet design: gray for the first film, black for the second, white for the third, and red for the fourth.
In each instance, the color corresponds to a prominent color in the film's original poster art. The same color coding carried over to the backs of the tray cards (shown below), the individual jewel case spines, and the insert photo collages.
In each instance, the color corresponds to a prominent color in the film's original poster art. The same color coding carried over to the backs of the tray cards (shown below), the individual jewel case spines, and the insert photo collages.
