MEZZANINE
25th Anniversary Edition
Released in 1998, British trip-hop duo Massive Attack’s third studio album Mezzanine has had a significant effect on music history and style, influencing works by artists such as Björk, Gorillaz, and even The Weeknd. For the albums 25th anniversary, I created this special edition sleeve, re-imagining the album’s core themes. A mezzanine is a sort of floor between floors, so the duo chose the name as a representation of a space between spaces. I took this theme even further and created spaces within spaces, like the liminal hallway or the eye both peering into the void.
The structure of the entire album is a nod to the original descriptor by Robert Del Naja of a mezzanine being a “space between spaces”. The cutouts reveal an entire universe between a ‘portal’ like the door or the eye. The type is strangely fragmented to fit the otherworldly sounds and feelings this album tries to evoke. I also played into the idea of a mezzanine being an in-between place, a purgatory of sorts. I sourced strange imagery of places that felt off putting and edited them to feel even more dreamlike and odd. All of these various elements work in tandem to make this album look as unnerving and awesome as it sounds.
PROCESS + SKETCHES