Paul McCartney's new album, literally titled New, comes out on October 15 and has a very artistic, simple album cover. Not only is it inspired by the late American minimalist artist Dan Flavin (fun fact: who was once employed as a mailroom clerk at the Guggenheim Museum), it features only a fluorescent light piece with lines resembling the letters "N," "E," and "W." The absence of McCartney himself is significant, as is the fact that the piece was made in a rendering program by music video director Ben Ib (with logo and cover concept by Rebecca and Mike, Consultancy and design by YES).
On his website, Ib says,
My first foray into print work...I've created the front cover image for Paul McCartney's latest album, 'New'. The Album includes production by Mark Ronson, Paul Epworth, and Giles Martin, and is creating quite a buzz on the web...It was a great team to work with under Paul's guidance. The image was created in Maya and Vray....I've also created the deluxe edition (gatefold) image, and hopefully I'll be able to post this soon.
Flavin famously said that his works weren't "sculptures." He would say, "It is what it is and it ain't nothing else," asking the viewer to disregard conceptual interpretations of his work.
Just a few minutes ago, McCartney confirmed that he's doing a Twitter Q&A with @TwitterMusic. Just in time for us to ask what inspired him to create a Flavin-like album cover? YES.
Paul will be answering questions any minute now...! #askMacca
UPDATE: Paul McCartney just answered a fan's question about the inspiration for New's cover with the following tweet:
Thanks @WiressBeetee At meeting about the album cover someone came up with the logo, another said you could treat it in style of Dan Flavin
[via RollingStone]
