Hail To The Thief - Artwork

Artwork

Hail to the Thief's artwork was created by Stanley Donwood, who has produced the artwork for every Radiohead album since The Bends. The cover art, titled "Pacific Coast", is a road map of Hollywood, with words and phrases taken from Los Angeles' roadside advertising, such as "God", "TV" and "oil", in place of buildings. Donwood said: "Advertising is designed to be seductive and attractive and, in a lot of ways, it's very beautiful. But there's something unsettling about being continually sold something. I liked taking the elements of roadside advertising out of context because it removes the imperative and just goes to the essence of it – the pure heart of advertising." Other words in the artwork were provided by Yorke, who made lists of words "that rang bells in my head" from the political discussion surrounding the September 11 attacks and subsequent War on Terror; many of the words also appear in the album's lyrics. Comparing it to the more subdued colours of his earlier Radiohead covers, Donwood described the cover's bright, "pleasing" colours as "ominous because all these colours that I've used are derived from the petrol-chemical industry (...) None of it is natural. It essentially comes from black sludge. We've created this incredibly vibrant society, but we're going to have to deal with the consequences sooner or later." Other artworks included with the album refer to cities including New York, London, Grozny, and Baghdad. Early editions of the album contained a fold-out road map of the cover.