EMI RECORDS – Blur

One of the most iconic album packages of the noughties, was Think Tank by Blur; project managed and designed by Tristan Manco, art directed by Banksy. The artwork was created by Banksy, with typewritten lyrics and hand-drawn doodles by Damon Albarn, which we combined in the design of the booklets and inner sleeves.

The project took a year to complete including: album and three singles on vinyl and CD, CD promos, sheet music book and postcards, as well as the press ads, posters and large-sized fly sheets required for the press and PR campaigns. 

Out of Time – the first single from the album, designed for CD and 7″ single + poster and ad campaigns. Banksy’s imagery playfully interpreted the title with this surreal domestic scene.

The singles followed the minimal red, black and white colour palette set by the album, with some small variations between them in terms of technique and typography. The Out of Time artwork also aligned to the Think Tank aesthetic, created using stencil artwork painted on a painted texture.

The Good Song single design echoes the Think Tank packaging, in the way it told a short wordless story with the front and back cover images. Rather than using stencil artwork, this time the images were rendered as black and white drawings. The narrative features a heart balloon floating away, has become an iconic symbol of love and loss associated with Banksy – Good Song was the first iteration of this theme that later reoccurs in Banksy’s art.

The Crazy Beat design underwent a few changes as it was developed, as did Think Tank, many times before it took shape. Stencil designs were tried out on the street, similar to the Think Tank process. As the idea resolved itself the final design is a collage of drawings, found imagery, sprayed lettering and tags to create the desired effect. The lunatics or clowns had taken over the asylum…