In Rainbows by Radiohead

"Knocking over a table covered in candles [and] NASA’s website" Thom Yorke (on the inspiration for the album's art-work, as told to The Believer magazine )

The story of how Radiohead chose to market and charge for In Rainbows is well known (without a record label, initially only in digital format on their own website, with buyers able to pay as much or as little as they liked), but the artwork was part of the intrigue that surrounded the album's release. Initialy the band decided not to include a cover for the digital release of the album, ditching it last minute and holding it back for the physical release. In the absence of a cover, people even made their own.

The artwork, both back and front, was designed by Stanley Donwood, who has worked with Thom Yorke on all of Radiohead's album covers since The Bends. In The Believer interview Yorke explained the genesis on the In Rainbows cover:

The Believer: It’s funny, because the loss of palpable CD artwork seems like it would effect Radiohead more than other bands, considering that your artwork collaborations with Stanley Donwood have become so linked to your aesthetic. How do you normally work with Donwood on artwork?

Thom Yorke: Has it? Well, the In Rainbows artwork came literally from him knocking a table over. He had some candles on a table and, well, we were gonna do some pornographic etchings, which didn’t work out for a number of really good reasons…. They were pornographic landscape etchings.

The Believer: Pornographic landscape etchings, huh? Is that how I would describe them if I saw them?

Thom Yorke: No, you’d say, “That’s a bunch of fucking scratches on a piece of paper, mate.” [Laughs] But in the process of doing that he knocked all these candles onto his paper and thought, Well, that looks nice, scanned it in, and went from there.

The Believer: And weren’t NASA pictures somehow involved?

Thom Yorke: Me and my son got into watching the shuttle live. And one day I ended up at the gallery to the NASA page, which is fucking amazing. So all my input ended up being, “Here, look at these NASA pictures.”

The Believer: So you’ll continue collaborating with Stanley on artwork? This isn’t the end of Radiohead album art as we know it?

Thom Yorke: No, we’ve actually got a really good plan, but I can’t tell you what it is, because someone will rip it off. But we’ve got this great idea for putting things out.

The NASA images seem to have been the main source of inspiration for the back cover.

In an interview with A.V.Club, Ed O'Brien and Thim Yorke elaborated on Donwood's role:

Ed O'Brien: Stanley is always in the studio with us when we're working.

A.V.Club: Is that by design?

Ed O'Brien: He's either in a little room adjacent or above us in the mezzanine, or in the shed at the bottom of the gully. He's always with us, and we need him in that creative process. Not just for his artwork, but because he'll say, "I know nothing about music, but that was fucking brilliant!" By being there, the music seeps into him. He listens to things the same we do, having it repeated over and over and over again. It gets in him, and the stuff in that—the mood of the songs—is conveyed in the artwork. He's a receptor to that, and that's great.

Thom Yorke: There can be some really difficult times in the studio, but most of the time, we have a laugh in it. A lot of times, when we're doing the artwork and things, there is an element of comedy about it—I've been throwing wax at bits of paper! It's not exactly the punk ethic, but we always end up taking a piss.

For his part, Donwood told Radio 4, "Well it's very colourful – I’ve finally embraced colour! It's a rainbow but it is very toxic, it's more like the sort of one you'd see in a puddle." In an interview with Junkmedia, of his work he said, "My work that I call 'art' is largely concerned with what could be termed 'political' issues. This is the work that I find hard, challenging, difficult, awful, painful, and ultimately, sometimes, rewarding. But I do also feel very drawn to create work that I sincerely hope people will find beautiful. I hope my work for In Rainbows will have some sort of effect in this way."