To commemorate their first studio album in 18 years, The Rolling Stones tapped longtime friend and collaborator, British designer Paul Smith. The artist was commissioned to create the cover art for the Hackney Diamonds vinyl, along with t-shirts.
For the vinyl, Smith opted to directly reference the album title, which is East End slang for broken glass. Drawing on one of his go-to methods as a clothing designer, Smith used a photoprint of smashed glass to make up the cover. He also hand-wrote the album title onto the print, as well as the songs that make up its tracklist.
With the t-shirts, Smith only slightly tweaked the iconic Rolling Stones logo, replacing the tongue with his own style of stripe art.
Hackney Diamonds was released last month, the band’s first new music in nearly two decades. The project was produced by Andrew Wyatt and contains 12 new original singles.
“I consider it an incredible honour to work with Mick, Keith, and Ronnie on this exciting collaboration – as a brand, we’ve always had a close relationship with the music business, and I count The Rolling Stones as one of my all-time musical heroes,” Smith said.
“As well as being a fan, I’m also lucky enough to be able to call the band friends. It goes without saying that Hackney Diamonds is a phenomenal album, with a fearless spirit. For this launch, I wanted to create something that stayed true to the vision that the band set out – with a few subtle Paul Smith ‘twists’, as we call them.”
Check out the collaboration on Paul Smith’s official website.
In other music news, Bad Bunny’s nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana is the fourth all-Spanish album to hit No. 1.
