{"id":317,"date":"2013-01-09T15:54:48","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T15:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/?p=317"},"modified":"2013-01-09T15:54:48","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T15:54:48","slug":"david-bowie-the-next-day-that-album-cover-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/?p=317","title":{"rendered":"David Bowie: The Next Day. That album cover design"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nThere has been much discussion surrounding the cover of the new David Bowie album The Next Day<\/a> so thought I would answer a few questions that people have asked about it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Why not a new image for the cover?
\nWe wanted to do something different with it \u2013 very difficult in an area where everything has been done before \u2013 but we dare to think this is something new. Normally using an image from the past means, \u2018recycle\u2019 or \u2018greatest hits\u2019 but here we are referring to the title The Next Day. The \u201cHeroes\u201d cover obscured by the white square is about the spirit of great pop or rock music which is \u2018of the moment\u2019, forgetting or obliterating the past.<\/p>\n

However, we all know that this is never quite the case, no matter how much we try, we cannot break free from the past. When you are creative, it manifests itself in every way \u2013 it seeps out in every new mark you make (particularly in the case of an artist like Bowie). It always looms large and people will judge you always in relation to your history, no matter how much you try to escape it. The obscuring of an image from the past is also about the wider human condition; we move on relentlessly in our lives to the next day, leaving the past because we have no choice but to.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Why \u201cHeroes\u201d?
\nIf you are going to subvert an album by David Bowie there are many to choose from but this is one of his most revered, it had to be an image that would really jar if it were subverted in some way and we thought \u201cHeroes\u201d worked best on all counts. Also the new album is very contemplative and the \u201cHeroes\u201d cover matched this mood. The song Where are we now? is a comparison between Berlin when the wall fell and Berlin today. Most people know of Bowie\u2019s heritage in Berlin and we want people to think about the time when the original album was produced and now.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Why the white square obscuring the image?
\nWe worked on hundreds of designs using the concept of obscuring this cover but the strongest ones were the simplest \u2013 it had to be something that was in direct contrast to the image underneath but that wasn\u2019t too contrived (we know all design is contrived, that is the essence of the word \u2018design\u2019). It would have been clearer to many people if we had scribbled all over the cover but that didn\u2019t have the detachment of intent necessary to express the melancholy of the songs on the album. Obscuring Bowie\u2019s image is also reference to his identity, not only in the past when he changed endlessly but that he has been absent from the music scene for the past ten years. Was this an act to hide his identity or that he has simply become more comfortable with it?<\/p>\n

\u2013 Why is there no colour?
\nThe title of the album The Next Day evokes numerous reference points, notably Macbeth\u2019s speech \u2018Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow \u2019 which deals with the relentless onward push that any unnatural position of power requires. It also has the existential element of Waiting for Godot with waiting for The Next Day \u2013 these all seem to question the nature of existence so a monochrome palette seemed most appropriate to this feeling.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Why didn\u2019t you do a logo, or new design of his name on the cover?
\nWe wanted the cover to be as minimal and undesigned as possible, we felt the most elegant solution was to use the original one from \u201cHeroes\u201d and simply cross out the title of the old album. It has the detachment appropriate for the atmosphere of the new album.<\/p>\n

\u2013 What is the font you used for the main title?
\nIt is a new font that we are working on called Doctrine \u2013 this is the first major use of it. Doctrine will be released in the coming weeks at VirusFonts.<\/p>\n

\u2013 What is Bowie like to work with?
\nHe is quite a private person, so no need to say too much about him other than that he is a pleasure to work with. Very intelligent, funny, serious when he needs to be and generous in his thoughts and actions.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Is there anything else you can add?
\nYes, having said all this, we know it is only an album cover with a white square on it but often in design it can be a long journey to get at something quite simple which works and that simplicity can work on many levels \u2013 often the most simple ideas can be the most radical. We understand that many would have preferred a nice new picture of Bowie but we believed that would be far less interesting and not acknowledge many of the things we have tried to discuss by doing this design. Finally we would like to give David Bowie great credit, he simply did what he always does which is to go with a radical idea and that takes courage and intelligence. That is why we love his music and love working for him.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/virusfonts.com\/news\/2013\/01\/david-bowie-the-next-day-that-album-cover-design\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been much discussion surrounding the cover of the new David Bowie album The Next Day so thought I would answer a few questions that people have asked about it. \u2013 Why not a new image for the cover? We wanted to do something different with it \u2013 very difficult in an area where … Read moreDavid Bowie: The Next Day. That album cover design<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,7,103,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-cover","category-design","category-music","category-typography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designing.rutgers.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}