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November 1, 2001
How About That New Cover Art!

I'm sure by now you've caught wind of the hype that's been in the air ever since NIN.COM REVEALED THE COVER ART FOR THE LIVE RELEASE, "AND ALL THAT COULD HAVE BEEN"! As you can tell, it's inspired me to revamp the Meathead Perspective to match David Carson's astounding artistic vision. Notice how, in the header graphic (the picture at the top, dumb ass), the word "MEATHEAD" is repeated several times. This emphasizes the word "MEATHEAD". Since this is the MEATHEAD Perspective, it's important to repeat the word "MEATHEAD" in order to reflect that fact. It only makes sense, and it doesn't look stupid at all.

To your left we have the newly-announced cover for the "deluxe" CD version of Nine Inch Nails Live: And All That Could Have Been". I'll give you a minute to take in it's awesome splendor.

...

Okay, are you done yet? Good. Now, I don't know about you, but this is the cover art I've been waiting for for a long time now. I'd even go so far as to say this rivals the Pretty Hate Machine-era artwork. Unfortunately, after the mind-blowing cover art of the Head Like A Hole single, the subsequent album artwork just went into a slow but steady downward spiral. The worst by far was the artwork for the album The Downward Spiral, in which Trent actually had the audacity to include photographs of actual things that were identifiable, like teeth, blood stains and feathers. Honestly, who wants to see that crap? Not I! The last thing I want to look at on a Nine Inch Nails record is artwork that someone actually spent time on.

But fortunately, they finally got it right this time. From what I understand, one of the reasons the DVD has been stuck in limbo for so long is because David Carson was searching for that one perfect shade of gray. Understandable.



Today, while I was sniffing glue, I thought I'd take a crack at designing some Nine Inch Nails album covers. I know there's no way I could even touch David Carson's genius, but I hope you'll bear with me anyway. I'm allowed to dream, aren't I?



Well, here's my first attempt. It took me approximately 9.4 seconds to make this little gem, and it was worth every second. As you can see, I chose a lovely chartreuse hue for the background. I didn't bother to put any distracting "things" in the background, as that would take away much-needed attention from the giant partial N in the foreground. Now, get this, this is where it gets interesting: the N could be either for "nine" or "nails"! How cool is that? I also was able to include the words "Nine Inch Nails" several times in a random, incoherent manner, I guess as a metaphor for something or other, I don't know. I also put the word "album" in the corner so people would know what it was. As for the scribble... I don't really know how that got there. I was pretty drunk at the time. Personally, I find that I make better art when I'm loaded.




I'm particularly proud of this one. I made this design after huffing half a can of Glade, and it shows! I think I'm starting to figure out just how David Carson gets his inspiration for his incredible ideas. Up yours, Russell Mills!

Pink is a very underrated color in art. After Pretty Hate Machine, Nine Inch Nails album covers hardly used pink at all. I don't really know why. But as you can see here, pink can be used to create very beautiful results. To make "Nine Inch Nails" sound more important, I cleverly reworded it to say "The Nine Inch Nails". How about that, huh? In the lower left corner I included a pixellated blob to represent technology or something. LOL!

Oh, whoops, I forgot to fill in the spaces inside the letters. Oh well, screw it, it's just an album cover.



Whoops, I meant to write that over here. I scribbled over the NIN logo, as you can see on this one. I like taking the NIN logo and fucking it all up, like David Carson does. Except he cuts it in half, whereas I scribble all over it. It's still pretty cool, though, I think. Take that, NIN logo! Raarr!

It occurred to me that I've been adding too much stuff in my previous attempts. A scribble, and a pixellated blob... what was going on in my head when I put that stuff there? I really need to start over and take a more minimalistic approach this time. Minimalism is neat-o!




Oh my god... I think I've done it. I've actually managed to one-up David Carson's design! I successfully eliminated the unnecessary junk, like words, images, and even colors, and have produced this impeccable work of art that you see here. And the best thing is that it only took me about four seconds! I bet the And All That Could Have Been artwork took at least three minutes to make.

Now, keep in mind that I have years of experience with computer art programs, so if you're not able to instantly create artwork of this caliber, don't be discouraged. With several minutes of practice, you'll be up to speed in no time, and ready to start designing artwork for Nine Inch Nails.



Hats off to you, David Carson, for providing NIN fans with non-disappointing cover art that doesn't suck!


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