David Bowie visually remixed

Twitter was whipping itself into a Ziggy Stardust-shaped frenzy, the airwaves were breathless with their own hype, and everyone was talking about the Starman himself – David Bowie.

Well, this morning, Bowie launched the second track from his much-anticipated first album in ten years, The Next Day, with a sleeve designed by Barnbrook.

While it hasn’t had quite the same fanfare as the first massive sonic surprise, it’s certainly proving that the excitement surrounding the Thin White Duke has no sign of abating anytime soon, with exhibitions such as the Vinyl Factory’s Nacht Musik, and the V&A’s forthcoming David Bowie Is show adding to the palpable frenzy.

Now, consultancy Northbank has unveiled three excusive David Bowie prints, going on sale at the V&A to mark the show.

The beautiful images are taken from iconic Bowie album covers – Low, from the incredible Berlin trilogy his new release is said to hark back to; Diamond Dogs, a concept album detailing Bowie’s glammed-up post apocalyptic appropriation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and 1971 release Hunky Dory.

The clearly recognisable images have been abstracted into a series of pixel-like dots by Northbank partner Simon Cryer.

Cryer says, ‘Bowie and those iconic sleeves were such an important part of my life growing up as a teenager in Leeds and were a big influence in my becoming a graphic designer — the hours I spent painting the sleeve of Aladdin Sane onto my school rucksack!’

The images were originally created by Northbank for a personal project reinterpreting the seventies sleeves of David Bowie on the consultancy’s blog to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of Ziggy Stardust last year.

A Bowie fan since 1972’s Starman performance on Top of the Pops, Cryer and Northbank have also contributed the to Changing Faces of Bowie print project organised by Mark Blamire, combining 101 Bowies in an array of typographic styles, logos and symbols from designers including Build, The Chase, Pentagram, Anthony Burrill, The Designers Republic, Trevor Jackson and Jonathan Barnbrook. You can view it here.

Northbank’s Hunky Dory, Low and Diamond Dogs from the series are now available to buy online here exclusively from the V&A shop for the duration of the exhibition.