David Bowie – Low album art
Contributed by Axl Gamez González on Nov 11th, 2016. Artwork published in
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Bowie moving into acting only served to make his image even more fluid. The cover image of Low is a still taken from the film The Man Who Fell to Earth.
He was now the Thin White Duke and had used the same trick the previous year for the cover of Station to Station, which is also an image taken from the film. It shows Bowie (in his role as Thomas Jerome Newton) stepping into a space capsule, which will take him back to his home planet.
Bowie is understood to have insisted on the cropped black and white version of the image. While commentators have read much into its symbolism, it is notable that the album was recorded in the US and Bowie says he wished to return to Europe.
Any help with the ‘a’?
5 Comments on “David Bowie – Low album art”
I’d assume that this is lettering. It might be based on Burko, but it could just as well be modeled after ITC Pump. In Burko, the ‘B’ is open only at the bottom. In Pump, the ‘V’ has curved diagonals. The compact ‘W’ and the ‘E’ that is wider at the bottom suggest Burko. The sticker (“Sound & Vision”) is definitely in ITC Pump. The ‘a’ looks like an unrelated addition.
Thanks!, I love Burko.
Actually, there’s no Burko involved — it’s Blippo! It even has that wonky minuscule ‘A’.
I can see parts of Blippo very much, but it seems that either there are two slightly varying versions, or the font has been updated and the 'a’ doesn’t (or no longer) is a match. Nor does the 'V’ or the 'E’ – the latter matching Pump Font more.
Hi SN,
Please follow the link in my previous comment. Mecanorma’s version of Blippo for dry-transfer lettering had numerous alternates, including the biform A, the round E and the flat-bottom V. To my knowledge, these haven’t been considered in any of the available digitizations.