The art for Kendrick Lamar's new album DAMN. already feels iconic. Simplistic in its design, the cover shows Lamar standing in front of a brick wall wearing a plain white t-shirt. The only things accompanying the shot are an oversized Parental Advisory sticker and the album title in huge red letters. Naturally, the internet seized on the image and promptly turned it into a meme.
Graphic designer Vlad Sepetov "helped the vision" for the cover alongside Lamar and Dave Free (a.k.a. The Little Homies). Sepetov recently shared a little insight into the creation of the cover via his Twitter. He responded to criticism from some unspecified users about the "bad design" and looked at how the imagery contrasts with that of Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, which he also had a hand in creating. Check out Sepetov's tweets below.
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already seeing a lot of discussion about the cover. and i'm really excited about it. it's interesting to see people talk about "bad" design.
— Vlad Sepetov (@VSepetov) April 11, 2017
but i'm incredibly proud of this cover. i sort of bucked a lot of what my teachers taught me. i wanted to make something loud and abrasive.
— Vlad Sepetov (@VSepetov) April 11, 2017
and maybe some won't see that, but i'm glad that dave and dot saw the value in making something that didn't fit the mold.
— Vlad Sepetov (@VSepetov) April 11, 2017
just given the bare bones we fleshed something out that has a lot of people talking. it's not uber political like tpab but it has energy imo
— Vlad Sepetov (@VSepetov) April 11, 2017
@NickyChulo we wanted to make the pa logo part of the design not an afterthought. why make it small? let's make it huge and embrace it. DAMN.
— Vlad Sepetov (@VSepetov) April 11, 2017
DAMN. is released on April 14.
