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David Bowie's new album artwork has been explained by artist Jonathan Barnbrook, who has explained the logic behind placing a large white square in the middle of Bowie's iconic Heroes album sleeve.
The sleeve is a subversion of Bowie's 1977 cover for Heroes, and shows the original artwork with a white square over it and the new album title in the square, as well as the title 'Heroes' crossed out.
Writing on his VirusFonts website, Barnbrook explained, "Normally using an image from the past means, 'recycle' or 'greatest hits' but here we are referring to the title The Next Day. The Heroes cover obscured by the white square is about the spirit of great pop or rock music which is 'of the moment', forgetting or obliterating the past.
"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 - it seeps out in every new mark you make (particularly in the case of an artist like Bowie)."
Barnbrook added, "We worked on hundreds of designs using the concept of obscuring this cover but the strongest ones were the simplest - it had to be something that was in direct contrast to the image underneath but that wasn't too contrived (we know all design is contrived, that is the essence of the word 'design')."
The album cover for David Bowie's The Next Day record
"It would have been clearer to many people if we had scribbled all over the cover but that didn't have the detachment of intent necessary to express the melancholy of the songs on the album."
Speaking about working with Bowie, Barnbrook said, "He 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."
However, he finished by saying, "Yes, having said all this, we know it is only an album cover with a white square on it but... often the most simple ideas can be the most radical."
Listen to David Bowie's new single 'Where Are We Now?' below:
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