Graduation (album) - Artwork

Artwork

West collaborated with Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami to oversee the art direction of Graduation as well as design the cover art for the album's accompanying singles. Often called "the Warhol of Japan," Murakami's surrealistic visual art is characterized by cartoonish creatures that appear friendly and cheerful at first glance, but possess dark, twisted undertones. The collaboration between the two came about when West visited Murakami's Kaikai Kiki studio in Roppongi Hills during a brief trip to Tokyo, Japan in the midst of touring the year before. The album artwork expresses colorful, pastel imagery influenced by Murakami's affiliation with superflat, a postmodern art movement influenced by manga and anime. Its production process took place over the course of several weeks, with West constantly visualizing new images and emailing the ideas to Murakami and his team. Bringing the educational theme expressed by West's previous albums to a close, the visual plotline of the images contained within the liner notes lead up to a graduation ceremony that takes places within a fictional college institution situated within a futuristic metropolis called Universe City. Murakami explained the metaphor behind the artwork saying:

The cover is based on Kanye's theme of student life. School. It's a place of dreams, of righteousness, a place to have fun. It's also occasionally a place where you experience the rigid dogma of the human race. Kanye's music scrapes sentimentality and aggressiveness together like sandpaper, and he uses his grooves to unleash this tornado that spins with the zeitgeist of the times. I too wanted to be swept up and spun around in that tornado. —Takashi Murakami

The artwork's storyline centers around "Dropout Bear," West's anthropomorphic teddy bear mascot. The illustrations chronicle Dropout Bear overcoming various obstacles in an effort to reach his college campus in time for his ceremony. The story begins on a rainy day with Dropout running out of his apartment to his car, modeled after a DeLorean. When the car's engine dies, he is forced to find an alternative method of transportation. Dropout attempts to hail a cab but it speeds right past him, soaking him with puddle water, he then tries to get onto a metro rail but just misses it as it pulls away. With no other options, he is reduced to pursuing his goal on foot. As Dropout races down sidewalks populated with multi-eyed, living mushrooms, he is pursued by a monstrous rain cloud that attempts to swallow him whole. Eventually, Dropout Bear arrives at the university and makes it to his graduation ceremony to stand before his colleagues, a variety of anthropomorphic creatures like himself. The visual story concludes with Dropout Bear being catapulted from the university into the sky on the back cover. The cover art for Graduation was cited as the fifth best album cover of the year by Rolling Stone. The designs of the album artwork were later brought to life by Murakami through the use of cel-shaded animation within a three-minute animated music video for "Good Morning".