Jay-Z Album Art: Greg Burke

Gary St. Claire talks to artist Greg Burke about the concept behind Jay-Z’s the Blueprint 3.

After meeting with Jay-Z and hearing his explanation of what the album was about I was given the task of coming up with a package that didn’t involve Jay, I submitted 3 directions to Jay and his manager which were quickly rejected they loved the direction of one but not the elements used to create it, the idea was to photograph NYC from above painting everything white and have the 3 red bars spray painted against this white on white city.

Once Jay explained that he liked the idea of the white on white with bold red but the city had been used in too many of his packages I had to regroup and rethink the conversation from our first meeting, in the meeting the one underlining thing about this album was that it was going back to a time when music was about music, the use of traditional instruments a more organic approach and a love and respect for the art form, that being said it seemed like a logical solution to use instruments, the idea being to pile them up representing how these tools of creativity have been discarded and forgotten for a quick fix in this era of music. -Peep the time lapse video.

The 3 red bars are simple if you go back in time 3 scratches on a cave meant 3 as a child 3 lines meant 3 it is a simple yet direct approach and in it’s simplicity it becomes a very strong icon, the 3 red bars are painted directly on the white structure, when you look at the white structure from an angle as shown in the CD booklet center spread you realize not all things are as they appear, this was a conscious decision because I wanted the viewers to understand just as Jay’s lyrics have deeper meaning as you really listen these red bars are a visual testament to that idea.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 6:27 pm. It is filed under ART, MUSIC and tagged with ART, artwork, Greg Burke, jay-z, MUSIC, The Blueprint 3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.