Last week, Justin Bieber shared the cringe-worthy artwork for his new album, Justice. Looking like an overblown ’90s photoshop job, the image includes a not-so-subtle celebration of the pop star’s Christian faith by using a cross for the “t” in the title. If that little biblical ode gives you the same vibes as the logo for electronic duo Justice, you’re not alone. In fact, the French artists themselves noted the stark resemblance — and it turns out Bieber’s team actually contacted Justice’s management about working together on the graphic last year — before going silent.
“Bieber’s team emailed us in May of 2020, asking to be looped in with Justice’s graphic designer to discuss a logo,” Justice’s management told SPIN. “We tried to set up a call between Bieber’s team and our designer, but the call was never completed and the conversation ended there. No one ever mentioned an album called Justice or a logo that says Justice. The first time we saw anything about it was the announcement.”
Justice hasn’t made any official comment, but their label Ed Banger weighed in with an Instagram post. Sharing an image of Bieber’s original sketch for the Justice art, the Pedro Winter-founded label jokingly appointed “Mr Justin Drew Bieber as Art Director,” while shouting out their longtime in-house designer, So Me.
It’s worth noting the Biebs tagged art director Mikkel Aranas and video director Rory Kramer in his Instagram post announcing the album. In an accompanying statement, Bieber wrote about his desire to “make music that will provide comfort” in a time of “suffering, injustice, and pain” while also continuing the conversation about “what justice looks like so we can continue to heal.”
In 2019, Justice’s remix album, Woman Worldwide, won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album. The victory came a decade after the duo took home the Grammy for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical with their remix of MGMT’s “Electric Feel”. Their last album of new material was 2016’s Woman.
