Image Via: Yeezus
At Kanye West's speech during Art Basel for his second Yeezus listening party last week, he said, "I just felt that I would never be one of the great visual artists of the world." However, as any fan of Kanye knows, that hasn't stopped him from being one of the most important artists of our time OR from working with top-notch visual artists for the delivery of his albums, videos, and tours.
With the official release of Yeezus tomorrow, in all of its cover-less glory, we decided to take a look back at his album artwork throughout the years, even in the context of his single covers. Whether including the Dropout Bear mascot, commissioning artists like KAWS and Takashi Murakami, or creating a continuous style for a series of releases like GOOD Fridays, Kanye has shown that he keeps art and design paramount in his projects.
For Yeezus, Kanye told fans at Governor's Ball on June 9 that he's keeping the focus on the music by creating a minimal, Dieter Rams-inspired cover. It took an artistic journey to reach this point, and we invite you to take it with us.
RELATED: 10 Artists Kanye West Should Work With
RELATED: 15 Kanye West-Inspired Art and Design Emojis We Wish Existed
RELATED: Rediscovering Kanye West's Lost Art and Design Tweets
RELATED: How to Sound Like an Art History Expert (With Kanye West Lyrics)
The Design Evolution of Kanye West's Album Artwork
Written by Cedar Pasori (@cedar) and Leighton McDonald (@iam__leighton, Creator of YeezyGraffiti.com)
"Get Well Soon..." Mixtape (2003)
Get Well Soon... (2003)
Art Direction: Kanye West
Photographer: Tyrone Brown-Osbourne
Illustrator: Unknown
At the time, Kanye was only known for being a producer, so the Get Well Soon... mixtape was his introduction to the world as a rapper on Roc-A-Fella Records and the precursor to his debut album, The College Dropout. Kanye's strong ties to his home city of Chicago are present on this cover—a simplified, silhouetted, and air-brushed mural of the Chi-town skyline with the Roc-A-Fella logo cover the wall. The photograph, shot by Tyrone Brown-Osbourne, is originally from the September 2002 Mass Appeal story titled "Soul by the Pound," written by Complex's Editor-in-Chief, Noah Callahan-Bever.
Rocking a solid black tee, oversized jeans, and holding his Roc chain, Kanye foreshadows his escape from stereotypical rap fashion by not sporting a team jersey or du-rag like many rappers in 2003. As many know from the 106 and Park drop telling Kanye to "get well soon" after the car accident that inspired "Through the Wire," that is where the mixtape gets its name.
"The College Dropout" (2004)
The College Dropout (2004)
Singles: "Through the Wire," "Slow Jamz," "All Falls Down," "Jesus Walks," "The New Workout Plan"
Art Direction: Eric Duvauchelle
Before he made a name for himself in the rap community, Kanye was in school at the American Academy of Art, where he had gotten a scholarship to study visual art. He dropped out when he realized that he would "never be one of the great visual artists of the world" and didn't want to end up working for an advertising agency (he reminded everyone of this in a speech at Art Basel last week). For The College Dropout cover, the soon-to-be iconic Dropout Bear mascot sits on a set of bleachers inside a golden frame, which is meant to symbolize art, elegance, and style. There are also cherubs on the right and left sides of the frame, which closely resembles the cherub in the G.O.O.D. Music logo.
We reached out to Eric Duvauchelle, who is now a Design Director at Nike, about the concept and process behind The College Dropout. He says,
"The cover took about three weeks in total to design. I was working at the in-house brand design team for Roc-A-Fella at the time, and was given the project by my creative director. I first met Kanye in Damon Dash's office when he handed over a close to final edit of the album, and he told me to listen to it to get in the mindset of what he was trying to do.
We quickly discussed some ideas off the cuff about the title and what that meant to him. By the time I got the project, the photo shoot of the bear suit had already taken place, so I was handed a binder full of images to pick from. I quickly gravitated towards him sitting alone on the bleachers in the mascot suit. It was interesting to me as the Dropout Bear is meant to be the most popular representation of a school, yet in the cover, it shows Kanye in the mascot suit/head, all alone sitting on bleachers. The inside of the cover followed the visual vernacular of the college yearbook, where the other artists featured in the album all shared their original photos from their youth.
I remember in the last three days before having to hand off the designs for print, Kanye and I spent three days together locked up in the design studio riffing off ideas and visuals, and one night around 3 a.m., he got a call. We took the lift down from the 38th floor of the building by Times Square, and walked to a black SUV parked in front of the building. The window rolled down, and Mos Def handed us his original photo from school that he had just found for us to use. It was the same for many others who had to get their parents to hunt down those images.
The gold ornaments on the cover around the image represented the admiration Kanye has for art, and he wanted to drastically depart from the typical image of rap at the time—to bring a sense of elegance and style to what was typically a gangster-led image of rap artists. So we found these old ornaments from a book of illustrations from the 16th-century and overlayed them around the central image."
"Late Registration" (2005)
Late Registration (2005)
Singles: "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," "Gold Digger," "Heard 'Em Say," "Touch the Sky," "Drive Slow"
Art Direction: Morning Breath, Inc.
Photographer: Sarah A. Friedman
Late Registration was an artistic and lyrical continuation of the idea that Kanye wouldn't fit into the rap game's current status quo. Designed by Morning Breath Inc., the cover's Dropout Bear shrinks down to the size of a child, standing in between gigantic wooden doors, emphasizing that the rejuvenation of the genre would be a huge responsibility. It was photographed in an actual university, further continuing the theme of education and critiquing the structure and limitations of school.
Throughout the booklet, which has a banner reading Tardus Subcriptio (Late Registration), Dropout Bear enters the school, sits in empty classrooms, reads books, and then leaves (resembling the front cover).The style was directly inspired by the works of American satirical painter, John Currin, who is said to be one of Kanye's favorite artists.
"Graduation" (2007)
Graduation (2007)
Singles: "Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Stronger," "Good Life," "Flashing Lights," "Homecoming"
Art Direction: Takashi Murakami
Illustrator: Takashi Murakami
Kanye recruited Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami to art direct and design the artwork for Graduation, kicking off a new era for him musically and aesthetically. Kanye visited Murakami's Tokyo studio in 2006, and at that point, he knew he wanted to work with the "Japanese Andy Warhol."
The cover of Graduation continued Kanye's collegiate themes from Get Well Soon..., The College Dropout, and Late Registration, but this time he introduced the conceptual metropolis, "Universe City," which he also mapped on his animated website (at the time) and used to name his blog, KanyeUniverseCity. Of the cover image (that took weeks to design), Murakami says,
"The cover is based on Kanye's theme of student life. School. It's a place of dreams, of righteousness, a place to have fun. It's also occasionally a place where you experience the rigid dogma of the human race. Kanye's music scrapes sentimentality and aggressiveness together like sandpaper, and he uses his grooves to unleash this tornado that spins with the zeitgeist of the times. I too wanted to be swept up and spun around in that tornado."
The album booklet tells the story of Dropout Bear struggling to make his college graduation ceremony on time after being awoken by his alarm clock, hopping in a DeLorean that dies, trying to catch a cab, and walking (after being chased by a rainstorm) to his ceremony. He then gets shot back into the sky, which is depicted on the back cover (similar to the narrative progression and front/back cover layout of Late Registration).
Murakami also created the animated music video for "Good Morning."
"808s & Heartbreak" (2008)
808s & Heartbreak (2008)
Singles: "Love Lockdown," "Heartless," "Amazing," "Paranoid"
Art Direction: Past Tell Museum/Virgil Abloh/Willo Perron
Illustrator: KAWS (Brian Donnelly) (Deluxe Edition only)
Photographer: Kristen Yiengst
For 808s & Heartbreak, Kanye got New York-based artist KAWS to create the deluxe album cover, which in its original design was a deflated heart photographed by Kristen Yiengst and art directed by Virgil Abloh and Willo Perron under the Past Tell Museum name (the creative group precursor to DONDA). Kanye wore a similar heart-shaped pin in the promotional images for 808s & Heartbreak, photographed by Willy Vanderperre. The stripe of colors on the left of the album resembles the color palette from Graduation, except these are visibly more pastel. As with all of his covers so far, Kanye is not literally present. 808s & Heartbreak changed it up both sonically and aesthetically, as the first cover to not feature Dropout Bear.
G.O.O.D. Fridays (2010)
G.O.O.D. Fridays (2010)
Singles: "Power (Remix featuring Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz)," "Monster," "Runaway Love (Remix featuring Raekwon and Justin Bieber)," "Devil in a New Dress," "Good Friday (featuring Common, Pusha T, Kid Cudi, Big Sean and Charlie Wilson)," "Lord Lord Lord (featuring Mos Def, Swizz Beatz, Raekwon and Charlie Wilson)," "So Appalled (featuring Jay-Z, Pusha T, Cyhi the Prynce, Swizz Beatz and RZA)," "Christian Dior Denim Flow (featuring Kid Cudi, Pusha T, John Legend, Lloyd Banks and Ryan Leslie)," "Don't Stop! (Child Rebel Soldier)," "Take One for the Team (featuring Keri Hilson, Pusha T and Cyhi the Prynce)," "Don't Look Down (featuring Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco and Big Sean)," "The Joy (featuring Pete Rock, Jay-Z, Charlie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield and Kid Cudi)," "Looking for Trouble (featuring Pusha T, Cyhi the Prynce, Big Sean and J. Cole)," "Chain Heavy (featuring Talib Kweli and Consequence)," "Christmas in Harlem (featuring Cam'ron, Jim Jones, Vado, Cyhi the Prynce, Pusha T, Musiq Soulchild, Teyana Taylor and Big Sean)"
Art Direction: Virgil Abloh
While the masses expected nothing short of elaborate cover art for the George Condo painting of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, many fell in love with the bold simplicity of each preceding G.O.O.D. Friday song release. For those who forget, Kanye gave away songs for free on his website for multiple Fridays up until the release of MBDTF, and it set a marketing precedent for other artists (Swizz Beatz even started his own Monster Mondays, following suit).
The covers that aren't blacked out feature dimmed paintings from the Italian Renaissance and half-nude models in near darkness beneath an over-sized, red Impact typeface. A few of these images are photographs by one of the greatest fashion photographers to ever live, Guy Bourdin (Kanye once tweeted that he wanted to live inside a Guy Bourdin photograph, so you know it's real).
"My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (2010)
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
Singles: "Power," "Runaway," "Monster," "All of the Lights"
Art Direction: Virgil Abloh
Painter: George Condo
Illustrators: M/M Paris
For My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye commissioned legendary artist George Condo to create multiple paintings, including the final, widely-recognized cover censored by retailers such as Wal-Mart for its "sexually offensive" imagery. Who better to create a twisted fantasy than someone who is a master in distorting and re-stylizing the subjects in his art?
It could be argued that Kanye is the man being entertained by the winged woman (allegedly representing Amber Rose) on the front cover of the album, but that was never explicitly confirmed or stated by 'Ye or his label. Various covers were created for the album (which Condo detailed for New York Magazine), including the single cover for "Power" (which is still Kanye's Twitter avatar), but the one that successfully translated to the overall album was also the most controversial. Kanye also commissioned esteemed design duo, M/M Paris, to create the hand-drawn, ornamented frames around Condo's paintings.
Works by Condo were also used for Kanye's merchandise.
"Watch the Throne" (2011)
Watch the Throne (2011)
Singles: "H-A-M," "Otis," "Lift Off," "Niggas in Paris," "Why I Love You," "Gotta Have It," "No Church in the Wild"
Art Direction: Riccardo Tisci and Virgil Abloh
Designer: Riccardo Tisci
During the same year that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy came out, Kanye collaborated with Jay-Z to create Watch the Throne. The album boasted "luxury rap" lyrically, and the artwork was just as flashy and metallic. Givenchy creative director, Riccardo Tisci, was asked to create the designs for Watch the Throne, which was nominated for a Best Recording Packaging GRAMMY in 2011.
Tisci was also responsible for Kanye's infamous kilt that he wore on stage during the Watch the Throne tour, in addition to all of the tour outfits and merchandise.
"Cruel Summer" (2012)
Cruel Summer (2012)
Singles: "Mercy," "Cold," "New God Flow," "Clique"
Art Direction: DONDA/Virgil Abloh
Designer: Joe Perez
Cruel Summer was the first album to explicity feature art from Kanye's new company, DONDA, which he announced on Twitter. Virgil Abloh and Joe Perez took over the art direction to make this cover an exceptional, statuesque art piece. The cover also came with a few promotional advertisements showing 3D renditions of the woman featured on the front.
Joe Perez said that it was a 400-hour creative process in total. Whether intentional or not, the cover bears a striking resemblance to Maurizio Catalan's bust of model, Stephanie Seymour.
"Yeezus" (2013)
Yeezus (2013)
Singles: None
Art Direction: DONDA
"Simplicity"—that was one of the words tweeted by Kanye after his hiatus from social media in 2012 (which has now been deleted, as have all of his other previous tweets). Kanye went ultra minimal for the album art of his sixth solo album, Yeezus, giving it no cover at all—just a CD in a clear case sealed by red tape.
During a rant at the Governor's Ball music festival in New York on June 9, Kanye stated that he wanted the music to be the focus of the album. He said, "You know with this album, we ain't drop no single for radio. We ain't got no big NBA campaign or nothing like that. Shit, we ain't even got no cover." Kanye and his team applied the same philosophy of legendary Braun designer, Dieter Rams (who created clean product designs that were feature-focused), to Yeezus. A strip of red tape, which also went through a couple of design changes from the initial image spread online, holds the album together and adds interest to the standard disc by bringing attention to the opening of the jewel case.
The initial image that was tweeted by A.P.C. founder, Jean Touitou, had the text "Please Add Graffiti" above the album. While that version was removed after a few hours and replaced with just the album, Kanye fans immediately ran with the directive and began making their own Yeezus covers, which are being compiled on the Tumblr, YeezyGraffiti.com. As of last week, the original "Please Add Graffiti" image was spotted in multiples on the streets of NYC, and fans have been adding tags and drawings to show their support.