TIA: Tyler, The Creator’s fifth studio album, ‘IGOR’ has taken the summer by storm,
both with its one-of-a-kind sound as well as its captivating visuals and intricate artistic
direction.
TYLER: This is the first album where I didn’t wanna be cool.
I wasn’t tryna be cool.
It’s just this.
There.
TIA: One of his most iconic looks from ‘IGOR’ was his blonde wig, glasses, and brightly
colored suits which we see in videos for tracks like “EARFQUAKE,” “NEW MAGIC WAND,”
and even on his limited edition album cover.
TIA: Tyler’s given us limited edition covers before, like the deluxe cover for 2013’s
‘WOLF’ by Mark Ryden, and these alternatives always give fans yet another way to visually
connect with the project.
TIA: The ‘IGOR’ cover shows Tyler wearing the suit, wig, and glasses, and since it’s
remarkably different than the regular edition album cover, we wanted to find out how the
piece came together.
LEWIS: He messaged me multiple times, before I finally saw that he had messaged me and
that he was interested in doing some work that he... or he had a project that he wanted
me to work on.
TIA: That’s Mr. Lewis Rossignol, an illustrator based in Maine whose art combines hand drawn
pictures with curated photographs.
Genius spoke to Lewis about his involvement in the project, and what it was like to work
with Tyler on the design.
LEWIS: He asked me to do a portrait of him and he said he was going to have other artists
do portraits of him that he was going to be using for an upcoming project.
And so, I thought that was cool.
And he didn't give me too much direction, other than he just wanted it to be a portrait
of him in my style and so, I did that.
TIA: According to Lewis, the artwork we saw was the final version of about 40 different
renditions that began coming together in 2018.
LEWIS: So when I did the first version with the pink glasses, that was before I got really
any direction from him.
He sent me one photograph of himself wearing that yellow blonde wig that he wears for the
'IGOR' album.
The reason I included the cockroach on his shoulder is because of the “Yonkers” video
that he has where the cockroach is crawling around on his hands and stuff.
He loved it, but he was like, "I don't really want to do a cockroach because this is...
I'm moving forward, I don't want to focus on stuff I've done."
TIA: So Tyler and Lewis continued to exchange ideas, and landed on what would be the almost-final
concept.
LEWIS: I've got boxes and boxes of old photographs, and so it was just going through them, trying
to pick which ones I thought might fit the vibe of the portrait itself.
I ended up sending him quite a few versions with different photographs, before we finally
settled on the ones that we used.
He actually sent me some of his own sketches from his own sketchbook and there's some stars
in the background in the top left of that, of the album cover that you'll see and those
are Tyler's hand.
LEWIS: The glasses he wanted to be basically as dark as possible.
I think he would have loved it if they were totally blacked out, but in my experience
as an illustrator doing portraits, you need to see the...
person's eyes because
you want to recognize someone you look at their eyes and that usually gives it away.
After a bunch of back and forth over the course of a few months, Tyler and Lewis eventually ended on
what would be the final artwork.
I sent him this old pho... it wasn't a photograph, it was a postcard and it was... there was
like two people in the ocean and there was also a dog and I sent it to him and he just fell
in love with the image.
I photoshopped the dog out and so it was just left with the ships and that one person.
And I don't know that there's any meaning; I mean, he may have thought of meaning in
his own mind about it.
I think he just really liked the imagery, which is why I love the thing to begin with.
He was like, "yeah cool, I really love this version.
I'd love to see what else you're going to do."
And so I did something that was similar to basically what the final version is.
The second thing I sent him was that and he really loved it.
TIA: Even after the project was coming to a close, Lewis told us he didn’t actually
realize what it was for.
LEWIS: I sent him a few different versions and then he started giving me a little bit
more direction, which I thought was kind of strange because the direction that he was
giving me was very specific, like he wanted it to say, "IGOR" for instance, and I was
like okay.
And then as the directions started coming in more towards the announcement, where he
announced the album, it made more sense to me.
He only basically told me three or four days before he announced the album that he'd like
to use it for the album cover, or for a limited edition album cover.
TIA: In the end, Lewis says he thinks his vision perfectly matched the mood of Tyler’s
work.
Overall I had a lot of positive feedback and when I hear the music I actually thought that
the art I did fit the vibe of the whole thing pretty well.
TYLER: Whether it’s a movie or music, everyone tries to recreate...they try to make stuff
that gives them the feeling that something else had.
I listen to music all day so I wanted to make sure that this album every song gave me that feeling
of Jesus f*****g Christ.
Iit's so different from what he has... what he had done before.
I think that my artwork fits that a little bit, just because people either like my artwork
or they don't get it.
Who knew that this is where my
year would go?
I mean, I've done work for other clients that are big, but this is just a massive project
that I'm just so proud to be a part of.
TIA: I’m Tia with Genius News bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the music.