Escapology (2002) - redesign

This project began as a class assignment: reimagine an existing album cover using only self-created assets—no appropriation, no existing logos or imagery. I chose Escapology by Robbie Williams (2002), a record defined by its tension between ego and unraveling, public image and private turmoil.

I centered the redesign around the track Come Undone, using a razor blade–shaped cutout on the front cover to symbolize emotional fragmentation. Beneath the blade, the album’s full tracklist appears—layered, typewritten, and visually unsettled—to reflect the chaos just below the surface. The title “Escapology” sits in stark red, centered, suggesting both spotlight and spillage.

While the assignment only required a front cover, I was encouraged by my professor to take the concept further. I designed a back cover that continues the layered narrative: the clean, visible layer presents the main tracklist (Disc One)—polished and public. Beneath it lies a second, more distressed layer for Disc Two, hidden away like a secret that's being offered to devoted fans. That structure became a metaphor for the album itself—what’s curated versus what’s vulnerable for those willing to take on the challenges he holds, and still holds meaning.

I also created a fold-up poster as a nod to the original Escapology promotional image of Robbie hanging upside down over the city. To reinterpret it, I used two licensed photographs—heavily manipulated and textured to create a grainy, lithograph-style visual that captures the themes of spectacle, ego, and emotional descent.

This project pushed me to explore abstract storytelling through shape, type, texture, and form. It became a meditation on duality: between public image and inner chaos, control and collapse, polish and truth.

Escapology is a study in contradictions, and I wanted the design to reflect exactly that.