Blink-182 (album) - Packaging and Title

Packaging and Title

Due to some contradicting sources, the title of the album (or lack thereof) is debated. A 2003 interview and article from MTV News discussing the naming of the pending album repeatedly refers to the release as the "untitled album". However, some sources refer to the album as self-titled, such as the band's label's website and many online stores including Amazon.com and the iTunes Store, although said listings may be due to cataloging purposes. Several critics have also used the terms "eponymous" and "self-titled" in describing the album. In a 2009 MTV News article, James Montgomery refers to the album as self-titled, joking, "Or Untitled … It's never really been clear."

The title for the album was originally rumored to be Use Your Erection I & II, a parody of the Guns N' Roses album Use Your Illusion, but was revealed to be a joke Barker made to "get a rise out of people." DeLonge, in reference to previous joke album titles (such as Enema of the State), stated, "We didn't want to label it with a joke title that people might expect." As such, a Billboard article from the week of the album's release lists three rejected joke titles: Diarrhea de Janeiro, Vasectomy, Vasect-a-you and "Our Pet Sounds".

To support the new album, Blink-182 created an entirely new logo, a "smiley face" with X's for each eye and five arrows on the left side of its face. According to Barker, the Blink-182 logo originated at his clothing line, Famous Stars and Straps. Barker wanted to brand an icon for the band: "It just had to be a cool kind of happy face but I wanted arrows. You know, like The Jam were my favorite band, they always had arrows in their logos and stuff. It was just kind of inspired by pop-art."

The cover for the album features only the band's name and the "smiley face" logo. DeLonge justified the simplicity in an interview by saying: "I hate when bands have this one little thing and you think the whole record's about whatever that title is or something, whether it's funny or sad or deep. It's like we'd rather it be: 'This is our band, check it out.'" The album booklet features various photographs of the band taken in months prior to the album's release, including a photo of a bulletin board with song names featuring varying degrees of completion. Instead of one large "thank you" section, thanks are divided up by each band member, similar to Box Car Racer the year prior. musicOMH described the album booklet as "...Meticulously put together and resembling a Warholian pastiche." Each song includes small notes detailing the lyrical inspiration for each song, what it means to each band member, and the recording techniques used.