One of the key visual elements to the new Rocket 88 is the glass design.
I thought I’d take a little time to tell you just how this was recreated
and the process required.

Joe Armitage – Graphic Designer : Sound Leisure Limited

As a designer, One of the first things I noticed when looking at the original Rock-ola 1455D was the beautiful golden print on the side glasses.

The original Rockola glass

This was one element I was keen to bring to our Rocket 88 as it really gave the jukebox a premium quality feel and tied the glass into the cabinet colour perfectly. On closer inspection I found that the side glasses were printed “double sided” with the gold colour on the inside and the black wording on the outside. This gave a 3D feel to the lettering, giving the impression that it stood off the glass. The 1950′s designers really had a nice idea when they created this glass and I think that this maybe why the glass is one of my favourite parts of the original machine.

Double sided print on the original glass

Therefore I had my work cut out to make our own Rocket’s glass equally as impressive. Clearly the wording of “Rock-ola” and “Two Hundred” had to be changed as even though 200 selections was astonishing in the 1950′s, our CD mechanism can hold 80 disks, allowing over 2,000 selections! So the wording of Sound Leisure (obviously) and Multi Music were decided upon. This also alluded to the fact that an iPod can be fitted to the Rocket 88 allowing even more control over the music you listen too.

Alan inspects the new glass

The lettering of “Multi Music” lent itself beautifully to being scripted in the style of the original glass. I drew this up and then visited our screen printing company to enquire about the gold ink and the processes involved in printing on both the front and the back of the glass. I was concerned that the ink used on the outside of the glass would need to be
durable, so as not to be wiped off or scratched when the jukebox was placed in a commercial environment. We examined the original glass and saw that the outer print was screen printed with a 2pac, hard wearing ink that essentially burns its way into the glass and is then impervious to pretty much anything! Due to modern technology and the evolution of digital printing this technique is not widely used in the industry anymore, however it was the only sure way to get the glass to look as good as I wanted. When the glasses finally came back it proved that the time and effort spent researching the processes and design techniques had been worth while, the glasses looked stunning. Everything I had hoped for. The gold was perfect and the double sided print was as impressive as on the original 1950′s Rock-ola.

Double sided printing on the Rocket 88 looks every bit as good as the original

The front glass depicting the name of the Rocket 88 was another journey into design. I loved the original lettering on the Rock-ola and really wanted to keep the look of the type face. However, once again technology got in the way and it was impossible to find a typeface that was as close to the original as I would have liked…So I drew it instead…The
Classic way.

I started off by drawing straight lines to denote the height of the letters, then using the source pictures I had found of the original Rock-ola 1455 D, sketched out the lettering before inking it and scanning. Using adobe illustrator, I then neatened up my lines and
created the digital artwork that the screen printing company could use to create the printed acrylic. It was a satisfying process and I really felt a connection with the designers that had carried out a similar process 60 years prior to me.

The initial artwork sketch

Additional artwork was created for the top of the front glass depicting our “SOUND” classic jukeboxes logo and “Hi-fidelity” and some internal decals give the Rocket 88 a really authentic 1950′s Jukebox feel.

The final results look better than I could have possibly hoped for. This machine is truly a work of art and took more hours than I can remember to piece together. I hope that when you see this machine you can will appreciate the meticulous detail and hours that went into creating it! What a great Job!

Close up of the initial R sketch

Illustrated. note the lower version was "waved" it just didn't look as good as the one above though.

This attention to detail is what Sound Leisure is all about. Going that extra mile to make sure the jukeboxes we manufacture are as authentic and of the highest quality we can produce.

Final Front Panel