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‘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."

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GRAPHIC DESIGN: STORY PROJECT

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS 

TRACK 1: MR. SELF DESTRUCT

Final draft for the single artwork for Mr. Self Destruct. 

The font I selected for the lyrics was called ‘bitwise’ and was taken from www.1001fonts.com

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RESEARCH: RUSSELL MILL’S IDEA DEVELOPMENT FOR ‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’

I found a great little article ( I kind of wish it went even more in-depth to be honest ) about the creative process Russel Mills underwent in creating the now iconic artwork for ‘The Downward Spiral’. 

Mill’s was given the task by Trent Reznor as he admired the British artist’s work, and gave him a list of words to draw inspiration from, but put emphasis on three in particular: "attrition," "wound", and "decay".

There were 2 things that struck me first about this article, the first being the interesting revelation that Mills had not heard a single note of the music before creating 25 pieces of mixed media work to span what would become most, if not all of the promotional material for the album. 

However the second and most interesting element of the article to me was the inclusion of Mill’s own ideas development for the project, inclusive of his own thumbnails and notes. I was struck by how these simple doodles developed into such a complex body of work, and how early on the feel for the albums visual aesthetic was established. 

About what became the cover, Mills says, "I had been thinking about making works that dealt with layers—physically, materially, and conceptually. Given the nature of the lyrics and the power of the music I was working with, I felt justified in attempting to make works that alluded to the apparently contradictory imagery of pain and healing. I wanted to make beautiful surfaces that partially revealed the visceral rawness of open wounds beneath."

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‘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. 

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GRAPHIC DESIGN: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT: LOGO DESIGN

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‘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.