Mad Season is not available for download.

As I was finishing up the skin for eIndia, I was contacted by Atlantic Records. They told me that Matchbox Twenty was preparing to release their next album, and would like me to make a Winamp skin for inclusion on the album.

Initially, it sounded like I would be speaking with Rob Thomas about the details of this skin, but being as this was shortly after the Grammy awards that he had helped Carlos Santana sweep, Rob was rather busy. I ended up getting some reference material (copies of pages from the CD booklet) from Atlantic's graphic design department, who also told me that nobody could quite pinpoint the graphic look that the band was aiming for.

I first began designing a predominantly blue skin featuring some dramatic shading and active elements that would recall the 'discarded childhood artifacts' of the album photography. It proved nearly impossible to execute, largely because of limitations of the rigid Winamp 2.x form, but also due to time constraints I was under to complete the skin. I discarded that idea, and devoted my efforts to a skin more literally based upon the artwork to the special deluxe packaging the album shipped with (the standard disc, which comes in a jewel case, has different artwork - blue, with curtains).

This skin is an exclusive to the enhanced portion of the 'Mad Season' compact disc, and as such won't be made available for download. Borrow your friend's copy of the disc, or go out and buy it. Heck, Atlantic never gave me a comp copy of the disc, so what right do you have to complain?