Digipak research- Rob Sheridan

Through my research of the topic of artwork and digipaks for NIN has lead me to looking into the graphic designer Rob Sheridan. Rob Sheridan has worked with Trent Reznor on a variety of art projects throughout his carear, but particularly in the 'With Teeth' era of NIN. In addition to this Sheridan has worked on:

• Things Falling Apart (2000 album) – graphic designer
• And All That Could Have Been (2002 concert film) – director, editor, director of Photography
• "The Hand That Feeds" (2005 music video) – director, Editor
• Beside You In Time (2007 concert film) – director, editor, art director
• "Survivalism" (2007 music video) – co-director
• Year Zero (2007 album) – art director
• Ghosts I-IV (2008 album) - art director
• The Slip (2008 album) - art director
• Lights In The Sky (2008 tour) - art director
• Pretty Hate Machine (2010 reissue) - art director

Year Zero (2007)

His full NIN portfolio and blog can be seen here


The following screenshots demonstrate some of the artistic ventures during the With Teeth Era.

The artwork from this era can be broken down into some more basic conventions.

- Bleak
- Low key lighting
- Digital (As evidenced with the lines)
The digital effect seen in the With Teeth era and across Sheridan's work is personified in NIN's 'Hand That Feeds' video (coincidentcially directed by Sheridan). The 'digital' effect is shown through the visual distortions and blue lines seen on Reznor and company.
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- Limited colour palate of blues, whites, blacks and dark greens (Similar to that of the actual album cover and digipak).

In addition to NIN Rob Sheridan has worked with Trent Reznor on a number of other projects including 'How To Destroy Angels', 'The Social Network'.

Influencs: I like the Blue tint as it directly connotes the industrial genre with an electronic element to it (Sunspots also has a synthesizer driven middle eighth). I also think the lens flair will also be an influence on my digipak from the Year Zero cover. Overall the bleak and blue art style of Rob Sheridan will be something I most surely will look to take on board and emulate in the coming months, particularly for my digipak, and website designs.