The Hickensian

10.10.07 Cover art for In Rainbows

172 comments
Tagged with: covers, music, radiohead

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!

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No.1

∞ David Emery said 853 days ago:

What a great idea…

Here’s a not massively original one:

No.2

∞ Phil Norton said 853 days ago:

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

No.3

∞ pauldwaite said 853 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.

No.4

∞ Olly said 853 days ago:

How much did you pay for it?

No.5

∞ Jon Hicks said 853 days ago:

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

No.6

∞ Rob said 853 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.

No.7

∞ Nigel said 853 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.

No.8

∞ Olly said 853 days ago:

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

No.9

∞ Rob said 853 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

No.10

∞ Brendan B said 853 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.

No.11

∞ Ben Darlow said 853 days ago:

No.12

∞ Ben Darlow said 853 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.

No.13

∞ Thom Shannon said 853 days ago:

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

No.14

∞ Lee said 853 days ago:

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

No.15

∞ Blaze said 853 days ago:

How about this? :D

No.16

∞ Lee said 853 days ago:

forget about your house and car.

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

No.17

∞ Clive said 853 days ago:

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

—c.

No.18

∞ Lee said 853 days ago:

Forget about your house of cards, rather.

Album cover, and point, still stands

No.19

∞ Ben Brown said 853 days ago:

sorry!

No.20

∞ Rob said 853 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

No.21

∞ Blaze said 853 days ago:

Or maybe this?

No.22

∞ Geof Harries said 853 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!

No.23

∞ Cole said 853 days ago:

No.24

∞ thetrew said 853 days ago:

No.25

∞ Jared Christensen said 853 days ago:

Nice work, Cole! I really like that one!

No.26

∞ Olof said 853 days ago:

Flower power!

No.27

∞ George Ornbo said 853 days ago:

With a bit of help a beautiful image from LinBow

No.28

∞ Olof said 853 days ago:

OK, I made another one, more appropriate.

No.29

∞ Shaun Inman said 853 days ago:

And a slightly larger version.

No.30

∞ Chris GLass said 853 days ago:

No.31

∞ Carla Hufstedler said 853 days ago:

original at Flickr:

No.32

∞ Rick Curran said 853 days ago:

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

No.33

∞ d said 853 days ago:

not mine, seen elsewhere:

No.34

∞ Carla Hufstedler said 853 days ago:

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

No.35

∞ Christopher Fahey said 853 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.

No.36

∞ brendon bushman said 853 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….

No.37

∞ pacheco said 853 days ago:

Kind of weak, but it helped pass the time:

Great idea, this thread!

No.38

∞ Dale Mugford said 853 days ago:

Awesome, awesome, stuff. Brilliant.

No.39

∞ Rick Curran said 853 days ago:

;)

No.40

∞ Michiel said 853 days ago:

Wow man, very nice covers :o

No.41

∞ Grant Hutchinson said 853 days ago:

Feeling a bit minimalist with this one.

Larger version here.

No.42

∞ Jedidiah said 853 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.

No.43

∞ David Futato said 853 days ago:

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

600×600 version here

No.44

∞ Bernhard Benke said 853 days ago:

Nice work here! Keep on.

No.45

∞ julian said 853 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.

No.46

∞ Craig Morrison said 853 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…

No.47

∞ J3LUNT said 853 days ago:

isnt this what its looking like?

No.48

∞ Kate said 853 days ago:

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

No.49

∞ Luke Dorny said 853 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/

No.50

∞ BUNKRE said 853 days ago:

No.51

∞ frank said 853 days ago:

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

No.52

∞ frank said 853 days ago:

oh, biggie files in my flickr

No.53

∞ Mister Furniture said 853 days ago:

kikool

No.54

∞ Mister Furniture said 853 days ago:

No.55

∞ Luke Dorny said 853 days ago:

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

No.56

∞ adjuvi said 853 days ago:

true sky shot this summer 07

No.57

∞ adjuvi said 853 days ago:

true sky shot this summer 07

No.58

∞ adjuvi said 853 days ago:

No.59

∞ Joshua Brewer said 853 days ago:

No.60

∞ ibrendan said 853 days ago:

No.61

∞ nekrothar said 853 days ago:

No.62

∞ gillo said 853 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…

No.63

∞ Amy said 853 days ago:

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

No.64

∞ Mister Furniture said 853 days ago:

No.65

∞ fathima said 853 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.

No.66

∞ Jason Theodor said 853 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

No.67

∞ loophole said 853 days ago:

No.68

∞ tds said 853 days ago:

Not dissimilar from #1…

Taken from The Daily Swarm

No.69

∞ Bill O'Day said 853 days ago:

No.70

∞ loophole said 853 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.

No.71

∞ Ryan Clark said 853 days ago:

A pretty modest effort based on the discbox art:

No.72

∞ Anonymous said 852 days ago:

From The Stranger’s music blog:

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

No.73

∞ Mark Forrester said 852 days ago:

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

No.74

∞ jacqui mcgirr said 852 days ago:

my humble contribution

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

No.75

∞ Mark Forrester said 852 days ago:

No.76

∞ Paul Mison said 852 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.

No.77

∞ gilest said 852 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.

No.78

∞ mathias said 852 days ago:

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

No.79

∞ Dude A said 852 days ago:

Made from scratch in photoshop.

No.80

∞ henry said 852 days ago:

No.81

∞ Fin said 852 days ago:

No.82

∞ Jeremy said 852 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.

No.83

∞ David Hughes said 852 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!

No.84

∞ Nick Rigby said 852 days ago:

No.85

∞ Christopher Schmitt said 852 days ago:

No.86

∞ Christopher Schmitt said 852 days ago:

No.87

∞ Jamison said 852 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?

No.88

∞ nekrothar said 852 days ago:

No.89

∞ andinistas said 852 days ago:

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

No.90

∞ dave parker said 852 days ago:

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

No.91

∞ Shaun Inman said 852 days ago:

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

Embiggen a bit.

No.92

∞ xdevx said 852 days ago:

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

No.93

∞ Andrew Duncan said 852 days ago:

Real Artwork

via green plastic.

No.94

∞ andinistas said 852 days ago:

Flickr

No.95

∞ Hypeful said 852 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/

No.96

∞ Dude A said 852 days ago:

Here’s anther stab…

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

Background is my original design.

No.97

∞ jon said 852 days ago:

flickr

No.98

∞ jon said 852 days ago:

flickr

No.99

∞ andinistas said 852 days ago:

Flickr

No.100

∞ Mac said 852 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.

No.101

∞ Paul Walker said 852 days ago:

Simple, and not exactly original, but meh…

No.102

∞ Giorgio Sodini said 851 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 :)

No.103

∞ DasMan said 851 days ago:

How about this?

No.104

∞ Crowley said 851 days ago:

No.105

∞ RobSog said 851 days ago:

No.106

∞ Martin Heike said 851 days ago:

No.107

∞ thetrew said 851 days ago:

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

No.108

∞ Sickr said 851 days ago:

Thanks, looks awesome in iTunes coverflow mode

No.109

∞ Dave said 851 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!

No.110

∞ Dan Cederholm said 851 days ago:

Larger

No.111

∞ kevin said 851 days ago:

No.112

∞ Graham Bancroft said 851 days ago:

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

No.113

∞ Dirk Voetberg said 851 days ago:

No.114

∞ kevin said 851 days ago:

No.115

∞ Mrkgnao said 851 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

No.116

∞ Kriss said 850 days ago:

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

No.117

∞ Hunter said 850 days ago:

600px version here.

No.118

∞ Andy said 850 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.

No.119

∞ ed said 850 days ago:

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

No.120

∞ Miguel said 850 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.

No.121

∞ Dan Gayle said 850 days ago:

600px version

No.122

∞ Dan said 850 days ago:

Some of these are brilliant.

Good show.

No.123

∞ Sean said 850 days ago:

The worm buffet coding one is my fave right now!

No.124

∞ Nick said 850 days ago:

large

No.125

∞ Laurent T. said 850 days ago:

No.126

∞ Laurent T. said 850 days ago:

No.127

∞ alexpigment said 850 days ago:

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

No.128

∞ http://design.defymusicgroup.com/ir/ir.html said 849 days ago:

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

No.129

∞ Dave said 849 days ago:

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

No.130

∞ Dave said 849 days ago:

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

No.131

∞ ROBIN said 849 days ago:

a bit too big, but whatever

No.132

∞ Sean said 849 days ago:

Better than the last one. Click my name

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

No.133

∞ specialist said 849 days ago:

No.134

∞ Dave said 849 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.

No.135

∞ Dave H said 849 days ago:

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

No.136

∞ Ste Davitt said 849 days ago:

No.137

∞ Yickth Woovle said 849 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.

No.138

∞ Stuart Peck said 849 days ago:

Here’s mine. er yep…..

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

No.139

∞ Stuart Peck said 849 days ago:

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

No.140

∞ HOT KARL THORODDSEN said 849 days ago:

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

No.141

∞ Nick said 849 days ago:

No.142

∞ vincent said 849 days ago:

No.143

∞ 197 said 849 days ago:

I’m a lover of fonts…

No.144

∞ xnth said 849 days ago:

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

No.145

∞ Davis said 849 days ago:

No.146

∞ Dave said 849 days ago:

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

No.147

∞ Captain Bonzo said 849 days ago:

No.148

∞ Captain Bonzo said 849 days ago:

Someone had to do it….

No.149

∞ J. Miles said 849 days ago:

No.150

∞ Clifford Singer said 848 days ago:

No.151

∞ Pietro said 848 days ago:

my attempt…

No.152

∞ Khairudin Lee said 848 days ago:

@Jon #97, #98

Those look great!

No.153

∞ Stuart said 848 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

No.154

∞ Harri Lewis said 848 days ago:

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

No.155

∞ joeri said 848 days ago:

No.156

∞ SingingSoldier said 848 days ago:

Vinyl!

Big version here.

No.157

∞ Chris Hester said 848 days ago:

Related OS X desktop idea I had

No.158

∞ Joe C. said 848 days ago:

No.159

∞ EJ Fox said 848 days ago:

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

No.160

∞ pascii said 847 days ago:

No.161

∞ Juan Francisco said 847 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