#lsadgraphicdesign

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

GRAPHIC DESIGN - SINGLE COVER ART

TRACK 12: REPTILE

I like the way all of these translated into single covers, but I’m definitely drawn to the one up top with the slug following the worm. It feels like there is a narrative being played out, as if the slug drawn to the worm after being put under some sort of spell. The fact that only the tail end of the worm is exposed after I cropped the image, curling upwards as if it is luring the slug down a dark path is very apt for the song ‘Reptile’

The protagonist returns to his old ways indulging in the worst parts of himself but the only thing he knows to be true. What’s tragic is he will realise that seeking escape in these destructive patterns has made him weary and aware of just how alone he is. The woman to which he has turned is cold and compassionless. She cares as little for him as she did the one before him or will for the one after him. 

Devils speak of the way in which she’ll manifest
Angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress
Need to contaminate to alleviate this loneliness
I now know the depths I reach are limitless

Oh my beautiful liar
Oh my precious whore
My disease my infection
I am so impure oh

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

GRAPHIC DESIGN - IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 12: REPTILE

EDIT: I’m after being informed by Andrea (https://k00234566.tumblr.com/) that the worm I found is actually a New Zealand Flatworm, a particularly invasive species not common to our part of the world that should be reported when found. Thanks Andrea! I knew it was up to no good…)

As our protagonist’s plea for someone to end his suffering go unanswered, he naively attempts to salvage some shred of his former self, or perhaps even find a way out of what he already knows deep down is inevitable, his destruction. 

We can assume from the opening lines that the woman this man encounters is not the same as was hinted in ‘Piggy’ or ‘Closer’, but more than likely a prostitute:

“she spreads herself wide open to let the insects in
she leaves a trail of honey to show me where she’s been
she has the blood of reptile just underneath her skin
seeds from a thousand others drip down from within…
oh my precious whore”

The images of ‘honey’ and ‘insects’ always stood out to me in this song. I decided to get a little on the nose with it and take a jar of honey out to the field across from my home. I dripped the honey on to different surfaces to see what kind of effects I can get. I was happy with the way the colours and textures of the rusted gate and aluminium pan complimented the honey, but I wanted to get some insects involved if I could. 

I turned over as many rocks and pieces of garbage as I could, and succeeded in finding many different ant colonies around the place. However the pictures of them I took on my phone were underwhelming as they were too small to make any sort of impact with the camera i was working with. 

Then I lifted a rock and found one of the weirdest things I have seen in recent memory. What appeared to be some sort of worm that looked like an eel started slithering out from under the rock. Perhaps I just don’t get out enough but I have never seen a worm that shape and with the strange off-white border around it. 

I decided to take some pictures and while the worm made it’s way, a nearby slug suddenly shared my curiosity and started following the worm. I caught a few pictures of their encounter and then let them on their way. 

I adjusted the contrast on the photos and found it difficult to decide which one to use for a cover. I looked forward to bringing them into photoshop to add the NIN logo and get a better sense of which one was most appropriate. 

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL 

GRAPHIC DESIGN - SINGLE ARTWORK

TRACK 11: ERASER

I had played around with a few ideas for logo and title placement after selecting the image I was happiest with, and I settled on the one up top.

I like the placement of the logo and how there is a thick wire underneath it that looks as if it is holding it up. I also like how the ‘Eraser’ title is subtly in the centre of the image, and looks as if it is hand written on the photoset. 

I did indeed hand write the title for this one, as I thought it was appropriate given the title of the song. I flirted with the idea of doing an actual erased version, however when I used a graphite pencil to fill in a page and erase letters and words into it, the lines just weren’t thin enough and it looked sloppy. 

The compensate, instead of ‘erasing’ the word eraser, I simply drew a line through it making it look as if it had been crossed out. 

I’m happy with the way this cover turned out, I think it suits the song and is rich with meaning.

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
GRAPHIC DESIGN - IDEAS DEVELOPMENT
TRACK 11: ERASER

Here are a few of the different options I have settled on for the ‘Eraser’ single artwork. I loved the way each arrangement looked and felt in black and white with the contrast turned up high and the exposure turned down. They have a real industrial feel and brought to mind the visuals used on the Nine Inch Nails tour promoting ‘The Downward Spiral’, particularly  the video that I have attached below. 

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
GRAPHIC DESIGN - IDEAS DEVELOPMENT
TRACK 11: ERASER

Following the lucid interval of ‘A Warm Place’, our protagonist returns to a desperate fit of violent rage, however this time it is directed towards himself. 

Upon the realisation that he has become the very thing he set out to destroy, he knows that he too must now be destroyed. However, he is not yet ready or able to do it himself. He pleads for another to end his torment.

In developing ideas for ‘Eraser’, I wanted to use a set of passport photos I had taken a few years back and had lying around. I ended up getting these photo’s retaken as, admittedly, I thought I looked very ‘suspect’ in them for a passport. The beard and long hair just screamed “terrorist” to me, more so in a Ted Kaczynski way than anything else. It was probably a ridiculously paranoid train of thought, but as an American citizen living abroad, I just didn’t want the potential hassle going through customs for the next 10 years, so I went home and shaved to have them retaken. 

I wanted to do a different “erased” version of each image, one where my eyes were burnt out, one where they were scratched out, one where they were covered in ink and then one where I used bleach.

Once I achieved this literal erased effect, I wanted to tie in some deeper symbolism. I thought of how the protagonist was desperate to attain some sort of meaning in the absence of God in his life, but had failed in this regard and now wished to sacrifice himself for a greater good. 

Going back to the “terrorist” connotation I had attached to the passport photos, I dwelled on the idea of a “terrorist” and how that label is often given to someone by those of opposing ideologies. From the IRA to ISIS, one person’s terrorist is often another’s freedom fighter, thus making an objective definition of a terrorist very difficult to pinpoint. 

I took some religious imagery into the frame using a print of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. I believe it is a work by Leonardo Da Vinci. I then took some random electronic pieces I had found around the same time as the computer screen I had used for ‘The Becoming’ and positioned them as a frame around my passport images. I wanted to get an effect that was somewhere between a home-made bomb and a memorial shrine to a deceased person. The flowers were added for texture, but also to reinforce the memorial element as well as contrast with the electronic imagery. 

I was happy with the way it was looking, but wanted to bring the images into Photoshop and see what could be done with them. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

SINGLE ARTWORK : FINAL DRAFT

TRACK 10: A WARM PLACE

These are my final drafts for ‘A Warm Place’ by Nine Inch Nails. 

I decided to also do an Irish version, as a tribute to the Joyce Family and those that were wrongfully accused of their deaths. 

I am also going to include the song ‘A Warm Place’, which you can listen to below. I didn’t bother doing so with any of the other tracks because ‘The Downward Spiral’ is a pretty noisey, abrasive record and this is a project for school after all. 

However this is probably one of the most beautiful, peaceful songs I’ve ever heard. I would recommend it to anyone. 

I also recently only realised for the first time that it borrows quite a bit from the David Bowie deep cut called “Crystal Japan” which Bowie had originally written for a gin commercial for a Japanese company. 

Reznor had written ‘A Warm Place’ himself without realising where the melody came from, but having a feeling it was not actually his. It’s a funny story you can read about here. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS 

SINGLE ARTWORK : IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 10: A WARM PLACE

I had a very hard time figuring out what worked best for this cover. I had taken many arguably “better” photos, or at least ones that would make more sense as a cover. But this one had the most significance to me in light of the subject matter. 

I had taken this photo lying on the floor within the walls of what remained of the Maamtrasna home of John Joyce and his family. I wanted to lie down on the ground and get a sense of what they must have felt in their final moments. Everything suddenly became very real to me and I was very overwhelmed with emotion. 

Even now I feel a sense of loss looking at this image, but visiting just as spring was setting in gave me a sense of hope as I look at all of the life sprouting from the ground. Sometimes it can be easy to forget about hope, but it’s always there. 

My issue was not regarding the picture itself. I knew as soon as I took the photo that this would be the one. My fear was obscuring it with the logo and text. I am studying graphic design at the end of the day, and not photography, so I had to find a way around this problem. I knew I wanted to align it on the left hand side if not the middle ( I had already used the right hand side for “I Do Not Want This” and didn’t feel like repeating myself ) 

After moving the logo and text around for WAY too long, it finally occurred to me to lower the opacity of the logo and text so as to make it slightly transparent. I was then able to find a good middle ground between making the logo and title legible, but also keeping the integrity of the image. 

I’m happy with my decision to use this image, and it probably stands as the thing I am most proud of and emotionally connected to throughout this project. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

RESEARCH: THE MAAMTRASNA MURDERS

Today I visited the Maamtrasna murder house in Connemara. 

I decided to use these images for “A Warm Place”. 

This is the section of the album where our protagonist gives pause to his violent crusade and delirium to reflect on what he has become. 

Visiting this place was an incredibly sobering experience for me. My excitement over visiting my first “murder house” was dampened to a somber sinking feeling in my stomach when I realised this pile of rocks was once a home to a family, who I’m sure loved each other and shared many happy memories here. Despite the conditions in which they lived, this was their ‘warm place’. 

And then one day that was all erased, in an act of senseless violence. 

The Downward Spiral was released on Interscope Records in 1994. Anyone who has seen Netflix’s ‘The Defiant Ones’ will know the story of Interscope Records, and how they were the target of many political and religious groups blaming them for obscenity for acts on their roster that included not only Nine Inch Nails, but also Trent Reznor’s protégé Marilyn Manson. 

However, Interscope’s biggest sellers at the time were none other than Death Row Records, who were instigators of what would become the infamous west coast / east cost rivalry that would eventually take the lives of each sides mouth-pieces, Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. 

Visiting this place gave me a sense of “what exactly am I doing?” I wanted great content, but I didn’t really consider what it was I actually wanted to say by being here. Does this have actual relevance to my project or do I just think it’s “kinda cool”. 

Trent Reznor claimed for years that it was pure coincidence that he took up residence in 10050 Cielo Drive., a claim he ended up eventually retracting as he admitted that he did know this information and it did influence his decision to purchase the property. Reznor eventually met Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra, during his time in the house, who pulled no punches with him: 

While I was working on Downward Spiral, I was living in the house where Sharon Tate was killed. Then one day I met her sister. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. And she said: “Are you exploiting my sister’s death by living in her house?” For the first time the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. I said, “No, it’s just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I’m in this place where a weird part of history occurred.” I guess it never really struck me before, but it did then. She lost her sister from a senseless, ignorant situation that I don’t want to support. When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time, “What if it was my sister?” I thought, “Fuck Charlie Manson.” I don’t want to be looked at as a guy who supports serial-killer bullshit.

I went home and cried that night. It made me see there’s another side to things, you know? It’s one thing to go around with your dick swinging in the wind, acting like it doesn’t matter. But when you understand the repercussions that are felt … that’s what sobered me up: realizing that what balances out the appeal of the lawlessness and the lack of morality and that whole thing is the other end of it, the victims who don’t deserve that.

The topic of censorship is something that, as an artist, I feel strongly against, under any circumstances. It is a slippery slope that I feel undermines our intelligence as a people and is a step in the direction of Nazi book burning ceremonies and “pray the gay away” camps. 

That being said, as artists I feel like we are responsible for what we put out in the world and the effect it has on other people. If that effect is negative or misunderstood, it is up to us to either stand by it or deal with the fall out, just as any parent would with their own children, for whom they are responsible. 

In the end, I was glad I came here. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

RESEARCH: 10500 CIELO DRIVE: THE TATE MURDERS 

On the night of August 9th 1969, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, forced their way into the home of Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski on the orders of Charles Manson, who instructed them to “totally destroy” everyone in it, and to do it “as gruesome as you can”.

Manson’s motivation was revenge against famous record producer Terry Melcher, with whom Manson had a previous relationship with before being snubbed concerning the possibility of recording his music together. Melcher was the previous resident of the house before Tate and Polanski, and had invited Manson over as a guest on a couple of occasions. 

At the time, Polanski was away in Europe working on a film project, and Tate was entertaining guests, among them Abigail Folger (heiress to the Folgers Coffee fortune) her boyfriend, aspiring screen-writer Wojciech Frykowski, and Jay Sebring, Tate’s friend and former lover. 

Steven Parent, a friend of the caretaker who lived in the guest house in the back, was the first of the Manson Family’s victims that night, as he was stabbed and shot leaving the residence.  Among those invited that night but did not attend were record producer Quincy Jones, and actor Steve McQueen. 

After an evening of socialising, Tate and her guests had fallen asleep, only to be awoken by Manson’s followers and brutally murdered in the ensuing struggle. Included in the list of victims was Tates unborn child, Paul Richard Polanski. Tate was 8 ½ months pregnant. 

Manson had told his followers to “leave a sign—something witchy” before they left the scene. Susan Atkins took Sharon Tates blood and wrote the word “PIG” on the front door. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

RESEARCH: THE MAAMTRASNA MURDERS

A couple of friends were going for a drive through Connemara and invited me to come. They said they were going to see a house where a family was murdered over a hundred years ago. My curiosity got the best of me, though more than likely any excuse to leave the house would have been met with a similar enthusiasm. 

There was also a sense of excitement, as I knew I could tie this into my project. 

‘The Downward Spiral’ was written and recorded by Trent Reznor at his home at the time, 10050 Cielo Drive, in Benedict Canyon, California. This was the home of Sharon Tate and where she and her unborn child were brutally murdered by the cult followers of Charles Manson in 1969. 

The Maamtrasna Murders took place in 1882. John Joyce, his wife Brighid, his mother Mairéad, his daughter Peigí and son Micheál had lived together in a small stone cottage near the Galway/Mayo border, miles away from the nearest village. One day all five of their bodies were found, with no witnesses or suspects. 

Authorities believed it to be a personal attack, perhaps provoked by an argument over land, or sheep rustling. As a result, eight men were convicted and three men were sentenced to death. The names of those that were executed were Myles Joyce, Pat Casey and Pat Joyce. They were not given the chance to defend themselves during trial proceedings, mostly owing to these proceedings being carried out entirely in English, (Ireland was still under British rule at this time, and therefore answered to the British courts.) 

Myles Joyce, Pat Casey and Pat Joyce spoke only Irish.  

Covering the incident, London-based magazine The Spectator wrote the following:

The Tragedy at Maamtrasna, investigated this week in Dublin, almost unique as it is in the annals of the United Kingdom, brings out in strong relief two facts which Englishmen are too apt to forget. One is the existence in particular districts of Ireland of a class of peasants who are scarcely civilised beings, and approach far nearer to savages than any other white men; and the other is their extraordinary and exceptional gloominess of temper. In remote places of Ireland, especially in Connaught, on a few of the islands, and in one or two mountain districts, dwell cultivators who are in knowledge, in habits, and in the discipline of life no higher than Maories or other Polynesians.

It was discovered by scholars investigating the case that Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the time , John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, had compensated 3 alleged eye-witnesses to the sum of £1,250, equivalent to €157,000 (by 2016 rates) to provide testimony against Myles Joyce, Pat Casey and Pat Joyce.

On the 4th April 2018, Irish president Michael D. Higgins issued the men a pardon. 

The U.K. government is yet to acknowledge the miscarriage of justice and the murderer(s) were never identified. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

SINGLE COVER: FINAL DRAFT

TRACK 9: BIG MAN WITH A GUN

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

SINGLE COVER: DRAFTS

TRACK 9: BIG MAN WITH A GUN

I brought the ‘big man’ image into photoshop when I decided which one I would use. After slightly adjusting the contrast, I felt something was missing, so similar to what I did with the “explicit” version of my ‘The Becoming’ artwork, I added a splash of blood to the bottom of the image. I like the idea of mystery behind who’s blood it might be, the shooter or a victim. 

I also love the contrast between the very grim subject matter and the beautiful, sunny day. the dandelions are a nice touch as well. I remember always thinking of them as beautiful flowers when I was a kid, until I was corrected and told that they are in fact weeds. But who is to say really?

It was nice as well to not have to digitally impose the ‘NIN’ logo. The fact that it is so symmetrically perfect really makes it easy to do something like this, as at the very most it might need a slight adjustment  in regrgards to perspective in photoshop. The fact that it is bright white also makes it pop when the contrast is adjusted, making it look as though it may have been digitally added or enhanced.  

Overall I’m very happy with the way this turned out, and it probably needed the least editing of any of the other covers I have come up with so far. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

‘GOD CRIED’: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 9: BIG MAN WITH A GUN

I wanted to look at the other side of abuse of power, from the victims point of view. I have this photo book in my possession for many years called ‘God Cried’ about the 1982 siege of Beirut by the Israeli Army which describes the pain and suffering caused by the fighting. 

The photo’s are heart breaking, and a sobering look at the cost of war. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

FOUND FOOTAGE: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 9: BIG MAN WITH A GUN

Once God is overthrown and the mechanical side tries to take over, our protagonist looks for meaning by establishing his right to dominion over others. 

‘Big Man With A Gun’ came under fire by conservative politicians who either thought the song was taking a shot at their right to own guns while also putting it in the same box as a number of hip-hop acts who at the time were being targeted for obscenity. 

In the March 1996 issue of Spin Magazine, Trent Reznor said the following about this song:

“The record was nearing completion. I had written those lyrics pretty quickly and I didn’t know if I was going to use them or not. To me, Downward Spiral builds to a certain degree of madness, then it changes. That would be the last stage of delirium. So the original point of “Big Man With A Gun” was madness. But it was also making fun of the whole misogynistic gangsta-rap bulls**t. … I listen to a lot of it, and I enjoy it. But I could do without the degree of misogny and hatred of women and abuse. Then, my song got misinterpreted as exactly that. It was probably a lack of being able to write. I’ve been taken out of context, and it’s ridiculous.“

I spent some time (probably too much) looking through youtube for videos of varying instances of gun violence caught on tape to include in a potential music video compilation I was going to make for this song. I wanted to manipulate the graphics and words on news reports and cctv footage to recite the words of the "Big Man With A Gun.” Unfortunately that didn’t come to fruition as my computer isn’t quite able to handle video editing. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

COLLAGE: FINAL DRAFT

TRACK 8: I DO NOT WANT THIS

I decided to stick with the logo obscured to the right, as it didn’t interfere with the image but also gave it an interesting dynamic. 

I’m happy with this image as I feel like it accurately depicts what is being expressed in the song, and not a million miles away from something Nine Inch Nails might use as a graphic today. However it plays into my own sensibilities and feels like something I would have produced myself, maybe more so than any of the previous songs I created work for on this album. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

COLLAGE: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 8: I DO NOT WANT THIS

I had settled on this image as I felt like it accurately depicted a split between the mechanical and human sides, expressing a sense of conflict. 

I was having trouble deciding where the logo and title should be placed, so these are the options I left myself to choose from. I feel drawn to the options with the logo placed centre, however the option with the logo obscured on the very right-hand centre of the page was very appealing as well.

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

COLLAGE: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 8: I DO NOT WANT THIS

By the time ‘I Do Not Want This’ begins, our protagonist has succumbed to the mechanical voice inside him, and there is an exchange between the two through-out the song. The mechanical voice mocks him as he tries to bargain for his humanity. 

I wanted to merge the human and mechanical through collage for this song, creating a sense of conflict between the two, as if one side is trying to out do the other. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

FOUND OBJECTS: FINAL DRAFT

TRACK 7: THE BECOMING

These are my two final drafts for ‘The Becoming’. 

I wanted to do a “clean” and “dirty” version, as it brought me back to buying CD’s as a kid. The Parental Advisory sticker was something of a badge of honour back in the 90′s.

At this point in the album our protagonist has successfully overthrown God and regained his control and identity, only to find all meaning lost as there is now nothing to believe in: 

“all pain disappears it’s the nature of my circuitry, 

drowns out all i hear there’s no escape from this my new consciousness, 

the me that you know used to have feelings, 

but the blood has stopped pumping and he’s left to decay, 

the me that you know is made up of wires, 

and even when i’m right with you i’m so far away.”

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

FOUND OBJECTS: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 7: THE BECOMING

Once I had hung the piece on the wall to take pictures, I knew it was missing something. Thankfully I had a bunch of dried up flowers lying around since my first semester biophilia project, so I decided to decorate it a bit and was happy with the way it had turned out. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

FOUND OBJECTS: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 7: THE BECOMING

Once I had brought the computer screen home, I decided that instead of cleaning it up, I would leave the dried up mud, as I loved the textures and the contrast with the wires and circuits. 

I used the stencil to paint the NIN logo on the back of it to see how it would look. I liked the way that part of the logo was obscured, however the stencil was sloppy enough around the edges, so I decided to carve off the faded edges with a nail. 

This ended up giving the logo way more depths as a white outline appeared, which made the whole thing pop. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

FOUND OBJECTS: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 7: THE BECOMING

Amongst the garbage thrown into the field behind my house I found this piece of electronic equipment. I believe it used to be a computer screen. It was completely covered in mud and had plants growing though it. 

Immediately I thought about Nine Inch Nails now iconic concert at Woodstock 1994, when they came on stage completely covered in mud as it poured rain to perform in front of the biggest crown of the weekend. (500,000 people give or take.) 

I decided to take this home and repurpose it for a possible poster or album cover for my favourite track on the album, ‘The Becoming.’

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

PAINTING WITH FIRE: FINAL DRAFTS

TRACK 6: RUINER

Final drafts for Ruiner artwork. 

I’m very happy with the textures of these pieces. If I could find a way to create like this without burning highly toxic fumes then this is all I would ever do. There is nothing I like more than a happy accident, and waiting to see what results from such a chaotic event as burning a painting is quite thrilling. 

I also love the colours of these pieces. They are pretty evenly distributed over the bread boards, and the contrast of red, black and silver seem appropriate for this track somehow. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

PAINTING WITH FIRE: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 6: RUINER

Following the self-hatred and obsession of ‘Closer’, our protagonist finds themselves doubling down on God and he is now determined to destroy him. They have reached a boiling point and now that everything that gave them a sense of security and control has been taken, they turn to God, not to ask why, but to point the finger of blame and tear him from his throne.

I want the image for Ruiner to express the cacophony and rising anger of this track. The chords that ring out over the chorus always gave me the sense that the world was on fire, not unlike this scene from one of my favourite Cohen Bothers films.

I decided to use fire on a painting that I have had a few ugly run-ins with over the course of the last month. Using white spirits and a bit of spray paint over the stencil of the logo, I achieved some incredibly beautiful textures and colours as well as got some incredible pictures of the NIN logo on fire, not unlike Russell Mills own treatment of the logo for The Downward Spiral.

GRAPHIC DESIGN: POSTER ART

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

TRACK 5: CLOSER

Closer is a pretty explicit track. I wanted to come up with a poster that didn’t really hold back, but at the same time wasn’t going to completely alienate people in the way somebody like, oh say, Terry Richardson might.

The idea of “…like an animal” brought to mind the Playboy bunny. An innocent, wholesome enough logo with less than innocent connotations. I decided to construct some bondage gear out of clip art for the bunny to wear, and considering how one-dimensional the original logo was, I didn’t have that hard of a time doing it. In fact I had to double check to make sure I wasn’t taking this idea from somebody else, as it seems like something that would have been done already. My search didn’t come up with anything close so I should hopefully be in the clear. 

I’m kind of proud of this in a weird way but probably won’t be showing my mother anytime soon…

GRAPHIC DESIGN: TYPOGRAPHY

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

TRACK 5: CLOSER

‘Closer’ is Nine Inch Nails most famous song, made popular by its accompanying visionary music video (directed by Mark Romanek) and the unforgettable line, “I wanna f*ck you like an animal.”

I wanted to experiment with typography for potential single artwork for this song, using a font that suits the themes of this record. 

I found an old issue of Playboy in a stack of magazines I have set aside for collage (honestly, that’s all they are for!) and went about seeing if I could potentially extract the words “closer to god”. 

While I came quite close, I needed to manipulate the ‘G’ to look like a ‘C’ for the word “closer.”

As it was a serif font, I was able to cut the lower edge off of the letter ‘L’ and attach it to the ‘G’ to make a convincing ‘C’. 

The only issue now was that the ‘D’ in god was too small for my liking, so I therefor tried to position it closer to the camera’s lens by sticking it to the end of a nail with blu-tack. Unfortunately the camera was able to pick up on the difference in depth, so I resided to making my own lower case ‘D’ using half of a lower-case ‘A’ and attaching it to a lower-case ‘L’. 

It took a bit of fooling around but I got there eventually.

ARTIST RESEARCH: OBVIOUS PLANT

Obvious Plant is Jeff Wysaski, a man who has been making seemingly real yet obviously fake products (mainly toys) and sneaking them onto store shelves since 2015. 

Upon first glance, most of the products he makes don’t look much different from what you might find in your local discount shop. However, a closer look will reveal something is not right…

“The whole idea of Obvious Plant is to make the world more weird. So the idea is to make things a little more surreal in people’s everyday lives — give them a good laugh, like while they’re grocery shopping or doing something really boring. I really do enjoy when people online are tricked into thinking something is real. That’s fun for me because that means I did my job right.”

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

PROZAC ADVERTISEMENT: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 4: MARCH OF THE PIGS

Based on one of my favourite parts of ‘The Downward Spiral’ album, the musical mood shift that accompanies the line “Now doesn’t it make you feel better?” I felt inspired to create a Nine Inch Nails poster that parodied a Prozac advertisement from years ago. 

My goal was to replicate the graphic and typographical elements of the ad with a backdrop of one of the pictures I had take on my search for interesting textures for this project. 

The picture is of a thorn bush at the forefront of a sunny blue sky. I loved the contrast in this image because it isn’t so apparent until you notice that the flowerless plants are actually branches of razor sharp thorns, natures barbed-wire. 

For those unaware of Prozac, it is an anti depressant with a bad habit of making people more depressed. Among its side effects are nausea, dizziness, anxiety, trouble sleeping, and in certain cases, suicidal thoughts. 

I was excited to have the opportunity to include The Downward Spiral’s visual motif accompanied by the three words given to Russell Mill’s by Trent to create the albums original artwork (attrition, decay, and wound) as well as the logo for Trent’s imprint record label, Nothing Records.

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

PEDESTRIAN STREET SIGNS: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 4: MARCH OF THE PIGS

Alternative covers I designed for the March Of The Pigs single artwork. I love the inclusion of the sun in this design, as it represents what I always thought was one of the most amusing musical changes in the composition of a song, which can be heardhere.

ARTIST RESEARCH: KEITH HARRING

Keith Harring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist who came to prominence out of the New York graffiti scene during the 1980′s. His early influences included the likes of Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney, as well as his father, who was an amateur cartoon artist. 

Harring’s style became a familiar sight in the New York City subways, and as his popularity rose, he began producing much larger works, in a very stripped down yet highly energetic style. 

Much of his work was embodied by social activism, namely AIDS awareness and the promotion of safe-sex ideals. A gay man himself, he was a victim of the AIDS crisis in the 80′s and the ignorance and stigma around it. 

Speaking on the AIDS crisis and the influence it had on ‘The Downward Spiral’ track ‘Heresy”, Trent Reznor has said: 

“I was trying to explore some of the paranoia I have as a sexually active person in the age of AIDS,” he says of “Heresy.”

“I guess I feel cheated for not growing up in a more liberated era. At the same time, what gets me mad is the way the right wing has used the ‘convenience’ of this epidemic in helping to promote their own agenda.”

Harring spoke of and spread awareness of the AIDS epidemic at a time when the country and the politicians who ran it refused to acknowledge its existence. Despite the virus being identified in 1981, President Ronald Reagan himself did not even utter the word in public until the end of his two term presidency. This hesitancy to act would inevitably only worsen the situation. As the epidemic spread like wildfire, so too did the ignorance and ostracism directed towards the gay community. 

Harring himself would eventually die from the disease in 1990, at the age of 31. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

PEDESTRIAN STREET SIGNS: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT 

TRACK 4: MARCH OF THE PIGS

These are some of the signs and single cover artwork I developed for March Of The Pigs, using simple clipart illustration to convey the nihilist message of the song. 

I included pictures of both people and pigs in overcrowded situations for reference. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS 

PEDESTRIAN STREET SIGNS: RESEARCH

TRACK 4: MARCH OF THE PIGS

‘March Of The Pigs’, the lead single from ‘The Downward Spiral’, deals with the protagonists relationship with people and their self-serving, disposable nature. The image of the pig is once again used, however this time we are looking at society as a whole. 

I became fascinated with signage, particularly pedestrian street signs whereby figures are used. I find it interesting how people engage with these signs and how we read them, interpret them, and extract meaning from them. They are meant to have a singular universal meaning, with the purpose of directing us, and even in a sense, control us. 

While most pedestrian street signs are instinctual to us at this point, a new language has been presented to us in the past year by means of Covid Health Advice signage. These have become controversial at times, as the sudden appearance of them has provoked mixed reactions and opinions as to whether or not they should be enforced. While most people are happy to oblige and follow directions that are thought to be in our best interest, others see them as a violation of their human rights and a step in the direction of THX 1138or 1984territory. 

I would like to work a design like this into my artwork for March Of The Pigs, using a simple, stripped back icon of a pig in place of a human. 

GRAPHIC DESIGN: STORY PROJECT

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

TRACK 3: HERESY

I ended up resorting to some photoshop trickery by means of the clone stamp tool, to borrow from selected areas of the image and use them to blend out others. This afforded me the space to place the NIN logo, which I manipulated to look uniform with the other protruding pieces of the manhole cover. 

My selection of this manhole cover for the song ‘Heresy’ made sense as there was what looked identical to the Christian cross at the bottom of it. 

Heresy is one of the more intense tracks on the album, both sonically and lyrically. Following the fall out of ‘Piggy’ and the declaration of “nothing can stop me now…”, our protagonist has decided that it is up to them to overthrow God. 

“God is dead
And no one cares
If there is a hell
I’ll see you there”

A clear reference to Nietzsche, the protagonist believes God, or more specifically the manifestation of the Christian god as a means of control, to be the cause of their suffering and indeed that of the world. They are willing to accept the consequences of their actions, which are outright blasphemy and would condemn them to hell. 

I think the manhole is well suited in this case, not just for the cross, but for its symbolism as a gateway to the underworld, or in our protagonists case, hell.