JONATHAN BARNBROOK

 

• Barnbrook worked alongside Bowie for fifteen years and designed five album covers for him 
• His design for 'The Next Day" album came about through him defacing Bowie's album cover for his 1977 album "Heroes", by covering the star's photograph with the white square 
• "The "Heroes" cover obscured by the white square is about the spirit of great pop or rock music which is ‘of the moment’, forgetting or obliterating the past," he said.
• He also designed a typeface specifically for this album called Doctrine which later was released by Barnbrook's font-producing wing, ViralFonts.

• Barnbrook was also responsible for designing 'Blackstar', which is iconic as Bowie died two days after its release. Becoming an almost farewell album from the musician.
• Barnbrook has since spoke about how the album and the design, although simplistist, it is full of symbolism as it came at a time where Bowie was questioning his own mortality
• The design was heavily criticised by many, saying it "took only five minutes to design" and that no thought had gone into it
• "The idea of mortality is in there, and of course the idea of a black hole sucking in everything, the Big Bang, the start of the universe, if there is an end of the universe," Barnbrook said. "These are things that relate to mortality."
• The most interesting part and symbolic, comes from the production of the vinyl sleeve where the star is cut out. Making it a physical process when in which a person will buy the record and once opened, it is exposed and will never play the same again, from scratches to dust, it will physically decay over time