Cover art for In Rainbows / journal / hicksdesign

10/10/07

Cover art for In Rainbows

It’s out, and I’m listening right now. It’s even better than I hoped it would be, but it’s bare bones at the moment. No cover art – well that just won’t do for this coverflow user. According to NME the art is coming, and it sounds like it will be a Stanley Donwood artgasm.

Here’s my attempt, with a 600px version available here. Do you fancy a go too? When you’re done, please post a 300px square copy here in the comments, using Textile (wrap the image URL in exclamation marks.). I’m looking forward to seeing what people come up with!

Technorati Tags Tags: covers, music, radiohead

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Comments are now closed, but you can still have a jolly time reading what others have left:

David Emery said 363 days ago:

What a great idea…

Here’s a not massively original one:

Phil Norton said 363 days ago:

Ha! I’ve spent the past 20 mins looking for cover art too!! David’s comment is a good start tho!

pauldwaite said 363 days ago:

Similarly unoriginal: I just used the background image (actually an image element in a div, HTML/CSS fans) from the inrainbows.com home page.

I prefer David’s, switching now.

Olly said 363 days ago:

How much did you pay for it?

Jon Hicks said 363 days ago:

Olly – You obviously don’t listen to the podcast! DISCBOX of course!!

Rob said 363 days ago:

I decided to make one just for the digital download, so it really very much ties in with the website. I’ll see if I find a spot to design a proper one as well.

Nigel said 363 days ago:

If you’re going after user-submitted artwork, can I put in a request for people to link to 600×600 or higher resolution copies? I like my album covers big and crisp :) Thanks to those with graphic skills putting in the effort.

On a side note, time will tell and maybe my first reaction won’t be my last, but I feel the same way about this album as I did about their last one. Good, but I don’t know I’ll feel the urge to play it much. And what’s with paying for 160kbps MP3s? I’ll think twice next time.

Olly said 363 days ago:

Jon – shame on me! I have downloaded the podcast… I just haven’t got around to listening to it yet, sorry! :-)

Rob said 363 days ago:

If you like mine (or want to clothe the bare-bones Cover Flow citizen, no matter the rag), here is a 600×600

#10

Brendan B said 363 days ago:

A not-so-hot effort for the ‘download’ version. I’m not a graphical artist so pinched the background and text from the official web site.

#11

Ben Darlow said 363 days ago:

#12

Ben Darlow said 363 days ago:

An alternate version using FF DIN as the typeface, positioned in alternate corners. Lowercase Helvetica Neue seems too generic for Radiohead I think.

#13

Thom Shannon said 363 days ago:

lol :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ts0/1531813674/

#14

Lee said 362 days ago:

It’s hard to do this album justice. I’ve been playing for over an hour now.

#15

Blaze said 362 days ago:

How about this? :D

#16

Lee said 362 days ago:

forget about your house and car.

Not very ‘radiohead’, and I apologize about the font (Gill…) I’ll never do it justice.

#17

Clive said 362 days ago:

I’m no designer, as is probably evident. :-)

—c.

#18

Lee said 362 days ago:

Forget about your house of cards, rather.

Album cover, and point, still stands

#19

Ben Brown said 362 days ago:

sorry!

#20

Rob said 362 days ago:

I did another one, now “original”, set in Univers and rather a complement to what it sounds like to me, but not entirely.

Also: 900×900

#21

Blaze said 362 days ago:

Or maybe this?

#22

Geof Harries said 362 days ago:

The previous version of iTunes allowed you to simply drag an image onto the empty cover artwork box, but no longer. How would one go about importing an image into iTunes? Thanks!

#23

Cole said 362 days ago:

#24

thetrew said 362 days ago:

#25

Jared Christensen said 362 days ago:

Nice work, Cole! I really like that one!

#26

Olof said 362 days ago:

Flower power!

#27

George Ornbo said 362 days ago:

With a bit of help a beautiful image from LinBow

#28

Olof said 362 days ago:

OK, I made another one, more appropriate.

#29

Shaun Inman said 362 days ago:

And a slightly larger version.

#30

Chris GLass said 362 days ago:

#31

Carla Hufstedler said 362 days ago:

original at Flickr:

#32

Rick Curran said 362 days ago:

Kind of retro-ish font as I thought rainbows were a kind of Seventies-ish theme!

#33

d said 362 days ago:

not mine, seen elsewhere:

#34

Carla Hufstedler said 362 days ago:

Sorry, the Flickr link to the larger version borked. My bad. Let’s try this again :)
http://flickr.com/photos/hauntedpalace/1533972958

#35

Christopher Fahey said 362 days ago:

The best idea, I think, would be for the cover to be algorithmically-generated based on the time you ordered and the price you paid. If I were of a cheesier mind, the artwork would also have your name in it. The JPEG would then be loaded into the files you download. You’d have a one-of-a-kind cover art, something like owning a limited edition print.

The interesting thing is that this cover art would also be something like a watermark — if you redistribute your files, everyone would see your cover.

#36

brendon bushman said 362 days ago:

Indeed, the first thing I did after downloading the album this AM was take 5 minutes to throw together a cover. ;) Not terribly idiomatic or inspired, but makes it easily visible on ye olde iPhone….

#37

pacheco said 362 days ago:

Kind of weak, but it helped pass the time:

Great idea, this thread!

#38

Dale Mugford said 362 days ago:

Awesome, awesome, stuff. Brilliant.

#39

Rick Curran said 362 days ago:

;)

#40

Michiel said 362 days ago:

Wow man, very nice covers :o

#41

Grant Hutchinson said 362 days ago:

Feeling a bit minimalist with this one.

Larger version here.

#42

Jedidiah said 362 days ago:

I just used one of the background images from the site and brightened the colours up a bit. (click the image for full size) Though after seeing some of the ideas here I might have a go making an original cover.

#43

David Futato said 362 days ago:

Inspired by the web site, but I wanted to say digital without literally saying it:

600×600 version here

#44

Bernhard Benke said 362 days ago:

Nice work here! Keep on.

#45

julian said 362 days ago:

Geof: It still does (at least for me), though you should be able to add it in iTunes’ artwork tab in the get info popup, or in the artwork box via the joys of drag and drop if you’re editing multiple tracks.

#46

Craig Morrison said 362 days ago:

Unfortunately nothing in the NME article seems to indicate that the artwork will be available before December when the boxset is released.

Anyway, here’s one I made earlier…

#47

J3LUNT said 362 days ago:

isnt this what its looking like?

#48

Kate said 362 days ago:

I really like 10 and 11…could I use those for when I buy the download? :)

#49

Luke Dorny said 362 days ago:

Posted mine here. Surely doesn’t trump your built-in rainbow sketcher art, though, Jon. What are the odds of 2 Brits using rainbow artwork in identity?
http://flickr.com/photos/luxuryluke/1536138004/

#50

BUNKRE said 362 days ago:

#51

frank said 362 days ago:

Very funny with the Dark Side of the Moon thing. I actually came up with a couple covers earlier this morning.

#52

frank said 362 days ago:

oh, biggie files in my flickr

#53

Mister Furniture said 362 days ago:

kikool

#54

Mister Furniture said 362 days ago:

#55

Luke Dorny said 362 days ago:

Heh. Wanna fall the rules, luke? I thought so:

#56

adjuvi said 362 days ago:

true sky shot this summer 07

#57

adjuvi said 362 days ago:

true sky shot this summer 07

#58

adjuvi said 362 days ago:

#59

Joshua Brewer said 362 days ago:

#60

ibrendan said 362 days ago:

#61

nekrothar said 362 days ago:

#62

gillo said 362 days ago:

I gather nobody went to the Radiohead website:
http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

And clicked the “HODIAU DIREKTON” link.

That’s what comes out:
http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/today/

Some of you were very close…

#63

Amy said 362 days ago:

There is some very professional looking art for the discbox up on the in rainbows wikipedia page…

#64

Mister Furniture said 362 days ago:

#65

fathima said 362 days ago:

Ben’s comment at 11 is gorgeous. i actually like the Helvetica version better, because it allows more space for the pretty rainbow swirl … oo prettry pretty swirly thing. … :|

and i also like Clive’s one quite a bit.

#66

Jason Theodor said 362 days ago:

Damn if you didn’t totally beat me to it. I’ve started a facebook group and a flickr group (trying to cross-pollinate) to upload, store, and share all of these lovely pieces of art. I’m going to come up with a prize for the cover that everyone loves the mostest. If you’re interested in re-posting some of these amazing works of art, check out the following:

IN RAINBOWS ALBUM ART COMPETITION
facebook link

IN RAINBOWS ALBUM ART COMPETITION
flickr link

#67

loophole said 362 days ago:

#68

tds said 362 days ago:

Not dissimilar from #1…

Taken from The Daily Swarm

#69

Bill O'Day said 362 days ago:

#70

loophole said 362 days ago:

sorry mine (#67) is so big!! I’m not very technically proficient…. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I’ve assigned a different photo for each track. Great album.

#71

Ryan Clark said 362 days ago:

A pretty modest effort based on the discbox art:

#72

Anonymous said 362 days ago:

From The Stranger’s music blog:

More at http://lineout.thestranger.com/2007/10/it_didnt_come_with_art

#73

Mark Forrester said 362 days ago:

Rainbow based on a design I made for my blog header.

#74

jacqui mcgirr said 362 days ago:

my humble contribution

@ http://flickr.com/photos/jachichi/1540864262/ in case my textile attempt doesn’t work.

#75

Mark Forrester said 362 days ago:

#76

Paul Mison said 362 days ago:

I wasn’t sure whether to post this, but seeing some of the other, er, less serious entries, I thought, why not?

With apologies to rjp on IRC, who came up with the idea.

#77

gilest said 361 days ago:

The stripe across the centre is a screenshot of this web page… couldn’t think of anything cleverer than that I’m afraid.

#78

mathias said 361 days ago:

my personal favourite ist number 6. I’m looking forward to see the real, the original…

#79

Dude A said 361 days ago:

Made from scratch in photoshop.

#80

henry said 361 days ago:

#81

Fin said 361 days ago:

#82

Jeremy said 361 days ago:

I posted some concepts last night but I don’t see them here…oh well. Saw some nice work over at the Behance Network that would work for the album. My favs are the bottom two.

#83

David Hughes said 361 days ago:

I’d be happy if I could just buy it! I can’t get the basket to update or let me pay – no matter what amount I enter. Tried Firefox and Safari… very annoying!

#84

Nick Rigby said 361 days ago:

#85

Christopher Schmitt said 361 days ago:

#86

Christopher Schmitt said 361 days ago:

#87

Jamison said 361 days ago:

I don’t have an album cover to share, but I do want to throw an idea out there. Why create just a single album cover when each track can have its own piece of art? I’d love to see what some of these would look like expanded into an entire series.

By the way, that typeface Radiohead is using for the site looks a lot like Clearview Hwy, can anyone identify it for certain?

#88

nekrothar said 361 days ago:

#89

andinistas said 361 days ago:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosfabiancamargo/1543629475/

#90

dave parker said 361 days ago:

How about some nice creative BACK covers with song titles? Including the band name and album title on the spine!

#91

Shaun Inman said 361 days ago:

Made some tweaks after listening to it a couple more times…

Embiggen a bit.

#92

xdevx said 361 days ago:

I linked your Radiohead cover artwork article from my “In Rainbows” review on my blog! xdevx

#93

Andrew Duncan said 361 days ago:

Real Artwork

via green plastic.

#94

andinistas said 361 days ago:

Flickr

#95

Hypeful said 361 days ago:

This is a nice collection of covers! I featured it on my site:

http://www.hypeful.com/2007/10/11/diy-cover-art-for-in-rainbows/

#96

Dude A said 361 days ago:

Here’s anther stab…

This time I used the website font image, but modified.

Background is my original design.

#97

jon said 361 days ago:

flickr

#98

jon said 361 days ago:

flickr

#99

andinistas said 361 days ago:

Flickr

#100

Mac said 361 days ago:

I like the one that is a nod of the head to OK Computer… with the 1010’s in it… but I guess that’s because I am a computer nerd.

#101

Paul Walker said 361 days ago:

Simple, and not exactly original, but meh…

#102

Giorgio Sodini said 361 days ago:

This post has become an awesome collection of amazing artworks.
I’ve linked this page in my tumblr, hope you don’t mind :)

#103

DasMan said 361 days ago:

How about this?

#104

Crowley said 361 days ago:

#105

RobSog said 361 days ago:

#106

Martin Heike said 361 days ago:

#107

thetrew said 360 days ago:

I think my favourite so far is #103 by Das Man. Very webby and clever idea.

#108

Sickr said 360 days ago:

Thanks, looks awesome in iTunes coverflow mode

#109

Dave said 360 days ago:

Some of these are absolutely brilliant!

I should point out the attempt at copying the discbox artwork has actually copied the back though… Very good still!

#110

Dan Cederholm said 360 days ago:

Larger

#111

kevin said 360 days ago:

#112

Graham Bancroft said 360 days ago:

I’m using the first, David Emery’s. Why break it if it’s not fixed.

#113

Dirk Voetberg said 360 days ago:

#114

kevin said 360 days ago:

#115

Mrkgnao said 360 days ago:

Jamison, the typeface for the In Rainbows front/splash page is Definitely ClearviewHwy – 6B to be exact. And it’s spaced funny!

http://www.terminaldesign.com/fonts/characters/?ID=87

#116

Kriss said 360 days ago:

There are some really wonderful ideas on here. Thanks ladies and gents!

#117

Hunter said 360 days ago:

600px version here.

#118

Andy said 359 days ago:

Same idea, more refined, better file.

Nick it <a href=“http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2027/1559064189_129067a77c_o.jpg”>here</a>.

A.

#119

ed said 359 days ago:

The one tds posted above seems to be the official one …

#120

Miguel said 359 days ago:

I think the real one is visible in that picture of the discbox- it’s the strange grey thing that looks like the other Stanley Donwood stuff, I’d be willing to bet.

#121

Dan Gayle said 359 days ago:

600px version

#122

Dan said 359 days ago:

Some of these are brilliant.

Good show.

#123

Sean said 359 days ago:

The worm buffet coding one is my fave right now!

#124

Nick said 359 days ago:

large

#125

Laurent T. said 359 days ago:

#126

Laurent T. said 359 days ago:

#127

alexpigment said 359 days ago:

my design is at http://www.theselectedworks.com/images/inrainbows600.jpg

#128

http://design.defymusicgroup.com/ir/ir.html said 359 days ago:

http://design.defymusicgroup.com/ir/ir.html

#129

Dave said 359 days ago:

Did this one while listening to the album. Great album!

#130

Dave said 359 days ago:

P.S. 1024px sq version on my blog. (Click my name)

#131

ROBIN said 359 days ago:

a bit too big, but whatever

#132

Sean said 359 days ago:

Better than the last one. Click my name

http://a267.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/106/l_184fec4e5fbb7efbfb319834cce83fc2.png

#133

specialist said 358 days ago:

#134

Dave said 358 days ago:

“a bit too big, but whatever”

cool, I replaced the 1024 px sq version with a 600px sq version. Same place, click my name to see.

now, let’s see. 10 songs so that means we can all pick our 10 faves and add them as album art for each song.

but whatever.

#135

Dave H said 358 days ago:

Thanks, my UK friends, for both the great artwork and the best music for the past 15 years.

#136

Ste Davitt said 358 days ago:

#137

Yickth Woovle said 358 days ago:

I borrowed inspiration from Stanley Donwood – manipulating the heck out of his work. Same with the logotype. Intended only as filler for my iPod until the actual artwork arrives.

Love the album btw.

#138

Stuart Peck said 358 days ago:

Here’s mine. er yep…..

‘http://www.sickmac.co.uk/in%20rainbows/RH_In%20rainbows.jpg’

#139

Stuart Peck said 358 days ago:

http://www.sickmac.co.uk/inrainbows/RH_Inrainbows.jpg

#140

HOT KARL THORODDSEN said 358 days ago:

“http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc65/HotKARLTHoroddsen/LastChristmasCT.jpg”

#141

Nick said 358 days ago:

#142

vincent said 358 days ago:

#143

197 said 358 days ago:

I’m a lover of fonts…

#144

xnth said 358 days ago:

#103 is a very clever idea and #114 is hilarious! Nice work everyone.

#145

Davis said 358 days ago:

#146

Dave said 358 days ago:

My faves so far: #125 #124 #110 #98 #81 #55

#147

Captain Bonzo said 358 days ago:

#148

Captain Bonzo said 358 days ago:

Someone had to do it….

#149

J. Miles said 358 days ago:

#150

Clifford Singer said 357 days ago:

#151

Pietro said 357 days ago:

my attempt…

#152

Khairudin Lee said 357 days ago:

@Jon #97, #98

Those look great!

#153

Stuart said 357 days ago:

I have no idea how the Textile works, either the site is bummed, or i dunno.

here is my 2nd version. If you can be ar5ed to paste it into a browser then all well and good. Version 1 again, just if uo missed it

http://www.sickmac.co.uk/inrainbows/RH_Inrainbows.jpg

http://www.sickmac.co.uk/inrainbows/inrainbows2.jpg

#154

Harri Lewis said 357 days ago:

Baby with rainbow T-shirt is the best! Was the Thom Yorke resemblance on purpose?!

#155

joeri said 357 days ago:

#156

SingingSoldier said 357 days ago:

Vinyl!

Big version here.

#157

Chris Hester said 357 days ago:

Related OS X desktop idea I had

#158

Joe C. said 357 days ago:

#159

EJ Fox said 357 days ago:

Inspired by the ‘ye olde school stock imagery’ of Hicks and Inman, I bring you my own little submission.

#160

pascii said 357 days ago:

#161

Juan Francisco said 357 days ago:

waaaaaaa
muchos!
y muy buenos!

solo qe,… considero qe el arte de tapa NO NACE SOLO DE UNA IDEA,
sino qe la música de dicho disco sin dudas debe INFLUIR en el diseño.. bueno, no sé cómo decirlo. creo qe se entiende :S

saludos!
muy buenossssss