Twenty One Pilots' Blurryface art explained

Brandon Rike, the graphic artist who designed the packaging for Twenty One Pilots’ latest album Blurryface, has revealed the concept behind his work.

A conversation with the band’s Tyler Joseph inspired him with three key elements that moulded the final design.

Rike says in a blog entry: “Tyler explained the elements of ourselves that we hate, and the constant battle against these traits. In order to add clarity to this internal struggle, he gave a name to these negative attributes: Blurryface.”

He then defined the most important things he had to achieved: “First, find a way to represent Blurryface in a obscure but potent manner. Second, create visuals that resemble the songs, as well as the mishmash of the collection as a whole.

“And finally, reward the fans for their support of the band, and give them new journeys of discovery as they dig deep into all of the elements of the album.”

Rike calls the result a “tapestry” and adds: “In addition to representing the feeling of each song, the collection of all 14 patterns would visually represent the diversity of the album as a whole.”

Burryface, Twenty One Pilots’ fourth album, topped the Billboard 200 chart this week. They return to the UK in November:

Nov 04: Glasgow O2 ABC

Nov 05: Manchester Ritz

Nov 06: London Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Nov 07: Oxford Academy

Nov 09: Birmingham Institute

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.