The Swarm

September 15, 2007

Red Zeppelin: Shepard Fairey's Led Zeppelin Mothership cover has landed

TDS Editors

Last week, The Daily Swarm broke the news that Shepard Fairey had been tapped by Led Zeppelin to design the cover for their latest greatest hits collection, Mothership. Some were confused by our mock-up, which was a 5-minute mash-up of Led Zep’s debut album cover and Fairey’s work for Smashing Pumpkins’ Zeitgeist. As you can see above, we got our hands on the actual album artwork, and, well, it seems as if Fairey spent about as much time on his as we did on ours. Check out his latest “War is Over” poster from the Obey Giant website and a 2006 South by Southwest poster. Hmmm…

UPDATE: Did Fairey’s Mothership make a stop in New Zealand in 1986?

[ours]


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Previous comments include

#1 tdk says:

what a scam "artist"

#2 The Playlist says:

nice work.

#3 Tom Jones says:

It's not unsual for an illustrator to use and re-use similar elements in their work for separate clients. This helps carry and prolong their house style.
Besides, would you rather see Shepard illustrating a bunch of nude kids running up the side of a pyramid?

#4 haha says:

That fucking sucks. And yes I could do better...

...with my asscheeks.

#5 lee money says:

yours was better. this guys sucks. lame LA hack.

#6 jeff says:

"Besides, would you rather see Shepard illustrating a bunch of nude kids running up the side of a pyramid?"

YES TOTALLY.

#7 RISD says:

Hack.

#8 Tangerine says:

"Besides, would you rather see Shepard illustrating a bunch of nude kids running up the side of a pyramid?"

Add my voice to the choruses of "Yes!" At least that was something no one had seen before (or since).

It's Led Zeppelin, man, at least attempt some originality!

#9 Obey says:

A little shallow of you to assume Shepard has the final say in this design, isn't it? He's working for Led Zeppelin. They chose the cover.

"In Shepard's defense, he had presented to the Zep boys, several other designs, which had 'different elements' and were not chosen. The band made the final choice, not a focus group so, take it up with Page and Plant!"

- Jason Filipow, assistant to Shepard Fairey

from http://forum.thegiant.org/viewtopic.p...

#10 Jeff says:

Oh, so you're saying the didn't like the versions with Andre the Giant OR Gene Simmons? Shocking.

#11 Jenny Legs says:

Is it any surprize that Fairey's reworked art looks VERY similar to the 1986 release titled Led Zeppelin 10 Legendary Singles. Colors and style are exactly the same.

#12 Noah says:

Jenny: good call. A picture is here:

http://www.popsike.com/php/detaildata...

#13 Maihem says:

One word: Ouch!

#14 alanbernard says:

Well, it does look a little suspect... but then if you think about it, how many times have you yourself found work that you've spent hours and days on only to find something similar online a couple of months down the line.

Credit where it's due, the artwork is nice. :)

#15 steve redlin says:

The actual art work is jr. high rip off crap! FIRE THIS PERSON AND CAN THIS COVER!

#16 thor says:

The artwork from Shepard though disapointing is like the great band its self. Its just repainting original master piece works, or repackaging its self in the case of the band. We as fans want them to come back and produce new original works, but we get one show and one new mother f ship. Bummer because i'd love to see them get together and start anew.

#17 ben says:

lame a real lack of artistic imagination im a free hand tatooist and could have done better and i still would have stayed within the led zepplin brand.

#18 andy says:

couldnt come up with an original, its alright i guess
taking from here and there and putting it all together
but this is zeppelin it should of been one of a kind.

#19 Inzo360(hopefully i'll get as good as Bonzo! says:

That is a pretty cool album cover. Who plays the drums?

#20 Me says:

They (led zeppelin) probably had the final say, yes. But I'd be willing to bet that the group's initial request during the brief wasn't: "recycle your own design elements". Shepard (or his design company) made that lazy choice, not the group.

And guess what? It shows in the design. The composition is terrible. The zeppelin typeface for the album title was also a poor choice. Arrows and lightning are cheap tricks. There's way too much blackspace. This is pretty much lazy anyway you look at it. His work is normally pretty well done, but this is one of his worst, that and the zeitgeist cover, too.

#21 jim pipp says:

What did he get paid for that cut and paste job???

I know a dude named TK that is WAAAAAYYYYY! Better

#22 suckka says:

shepard fairey is from San Diego not LA

#23 M. HITCHCOCK says:

I THINK MOST OF YOU ARE WRONG AND I WISH I HAD ONE OF THE 100 SIGNED PRINTS RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC.SHEPARD FAIREY IT'S FANTASTIC!!!

#24 half angry says:

lol, i can see that most of you guys are fucktards, shepard is an awesome artist and anyone who thinks they could do better should make a fast move at proving it. Just for the record, the sites above mock up is a piece of shit which shows very little technique in terms of advertising.


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