There are labels with excellent art departments and art directors who I've been lucky to work with in the past but it'll always just be easier when you're building a language directly with the musician versus having to try to translate them through the filter of an intermediary. The similarity is that it's one-on-one with the artist, a direct dialogue. What’s your typical creative process and how much of that was the same (and how much of that was different) when crafting the Man on the Moon III cover? That is always the goal with an album cover, which is essentially a glorified piece of marketing or advertising key art: something that would stand out in a Spotify gallery and steer the algorithm. Speaking in both abstract tongues of "vibes" as well as specific feelings he had about certain colors, brush strokes, and energy.
This was about as hands-on of a process as I've ever done with an artist: constant back-and-forth, a lot of phone calls and texts speaking to what he's been going through, and distilling it into something visual. What did you hope to capture with the Man on the Moon III cover? Yes, along with various photos and videos as reference points. Were you given access to the album prior to crafting the cover? What else did Cudi and his team send over? Not unlike what was attempted with No Pressure cover vs. Distinct but with that feeling of something bending back in on itself to close the loop. But it eventually steered us towards a color palette that pulled from the original and the starry background from. Most of my pressure was just working with an artist I respect and wanted to do justice, while only having a few days to conceptualize and deliver on something usually I would have weeks to tackle and let breathe.ĭid the fact that this album marks the final chapter in the Man on the Moon story have any conscious influence on your creative direction? Rager-featuring photography from Pamela Littky-placed Scott center stage on the cover.Īnd any criticisms I may receive might be absolutely valid but I guess they will also just never hold the same kind of weight or be quite as pointed or specific as my own criticisms of myself and the ways I want to/need to get better. While the trilogy-launching The End of Day centered on a depiction of Cudi, by Bill Sienkiewicz, looking away from the listener, the head-on perspective for its sequel The Legend of Mr. Throwing on a song or an album now, however, often requires at least a passing glance at an artist's chosen Bat Signal with every listen.įor Kid Cudi, an artist whose legacy extends across multiple eras of preferred music consumption methods, the importance of cover art has remained consistently upfront in the presentation. In a bygone era, the average listener could feasibly plop an album in their car CD player without seeing or even thinking about the cover ever again. Not only is such a stance rooted in a years-long misunderstanding about the pace of the industry, as we've been in the iPhone era for quite some time now, but it ignores the unique opportunity artists have to ensure their cover art-whether for a single or an album-becomes as omnipresent as the music itself. These people are, to put it simply, wildly wrong. Cole, "All My Life.If you spend enough time engaging in deep-dives about the aesthetics of music in 2020, you're bound to come across someone who will fervently argue that the importance of cover art has diminished. On Wednesday (May 3), Durk previewed his new song with J. Not only on Thanksgiving, not only on Christmas, just on a regular basis, helping people." So, we doing this, we doing this, we doing this. OK, now what you do for the kids? Nah’m sayin’? So, now we just breaking it down. "So, we just doing different things," he added, "’Cause if you say you The Voice, it’s like, OK, you The Voice of the Streets, so what happened? What you do? I did this, this, cool. Neighborhood Heroes, the foundation I got." Just not only music-wise, like the things around me like I told you, growing from the friends around me, management. "That’s what the 2.0 stand for, just be on another level. "Growth," Durk said of his vision for the album. Initially titled The Voice 2.0, Durk talked in detail about the new album in his Spring 2023 XXL cover story interview.
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