David Bowie wanted his new album cover to be as "minimal and undesigned as possible".
The main picture on ‘The Next Day’ – which was announced yesterday (08.01.13) – was made by the singer with design company Barnbrook, and features the cover of his 1977 album ‘Heroes’ in black and white, with the middle part obscured by a white block featuring the album’s title.
Writing on their blog, Barnbrook said: "We wanted the cover to be as minimal and undesigned as possible, we felt the most elegant solution was to use the original one from ‘Heroes’ and simply cross out the title of the old album.
"It has the detachment appropriate for the atmosphere of the new album."
The designers added the album is rendered entirely in black and white as part of the message and the atmosphere of the album.
They wrote: "The title of the album ‘The Next Day’ evokes numerous reference points, notably Macbeth’s speech ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow ‘ which deals with the relentless onward push that any unnatural position of power requires.
"It also has the existential element of ‘Waiting for Godot’ with waiting for ‘The Next Day’ – these all seem to question the nature of existence so a monochrome palette seemed most appropriate to this feeling."
On working with David, they added: "He is quite a private person, so no need to say too much about him other that he is a pleasure to work with. Very intelligent, funny, serious when he needs to be and generous in his thoughts and actions."