Kanye Album Covers Explained

New York Magazine: George Condo Explains His Five Covers for Kanye West’s Twisted Fantasy

George Condo may not be a household name, but his work has been pushed to the forefront of pop-culture with the release on Kanye’s latest album. Most are familiar with the controversial cover of My Dark Twisted Fantasy, which has been banned by Target, and depicts a representation of Kanye positioned against a nude Phoenix. Condo describes this cover as “challenging” Kanye with imagery. Condo goes on to explain his meetings with Kanye as well as the thought process behind the 5 alternate cover. Excerpts from the piece can be read below.

Head with sword

“I really like that idea of a Shakespearian thing,” West told Condo about this painting of a severed head wearing a crown. The piece’s two contrasting styles — “cubism and classicism forged together in a single painting” — dovetail, Condo says, with West’s music, with its “layers of different styles happening simultaneously.” What did Kanye see in the picture that made him like it? “His tragedy was a kind of exile that Kanye imposed upon himself,” Condo says. “He was free from exile by having the cathartic moment in the image. He’s alive in the painting, you know what I mean? In a strange way it’s like, he opened his eyes.” (more…)

Latreace Runs The City

New Flickr set of Latreace running the Richmond Marathon last Saturday

...and of course, one of her biggest supporters

Click here to view the set

AOL 25 FOR 25

AOL has announced the 25 groundbreakers and visionaries each receiving $25k in the 25 for 25 program. As part of their Project on Creativity, the program awards grants to 25 innovators from a variety of artistic fields.
For more information and a complete list of recipients check out AOL Artists.

Source: Wolff Olins.

Behind the scenes with Tim Barber

Featuring Rita Ackermann, Hisham Baroocha, Mark Borthwick, Dan Colen, Rachel Comey, Confetti System, Ed Droste, Patrik Ervell, Kama Geary, Andrew Kuo, Humberto Leon, Alain Levitt, Carol Lim, Nate Lowman, Thurston Moore, Thuy Pham, Eva Prinz, Chloe Sevigny, Taavo Somer, Taxter & Spengemann and Alexander Wang. Source: Tim Barber

Who cares about design?

I spent most of yesterday thinking about ways to make graphic design more appealing and relevant to everyday people.

Who cares about graphic design? Typically, if I’m honest, only us – the folks that geek out about this stuff on a daily basis because this is what we do for a living. Other people don’t care as much; but they should and it’s our job (as designers) to get them to care. They might not always act like they care but they respond overwhelmingly when faced with great design. Just look at Apple vs. Dell, need I say more? (more…)

Rethink, reform, rebuild education

Redu on Vimeo.

Caught My Eye

An activist from the women rights organization "Femen" shouts at an Interior Ministry officer as she takes part in a rally to support Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, by the Iranian embassy in Kiev, November 3, 2010. Ashtiani, whose sentence of execution by stoning for adultery provoked a worldwide outcry, will instead be hanged for the murder of her husband, a human rights group said. (REUTERS/Konstantin Chernichkin)

An aerial view of Northern Iceland. (© Paul Taggart / Herd in Iceland)

A child reaches out for a stuffed animal hanging to dry at the Caradeux Camp for people displaced by the January earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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