okay so, i got out TRC again today and listening as we speak.
FAB.

Please ignore the content of the music for this thread and discuss the packaging. cheers.


I love the CD packaging and was wondering what you all think about it.

I think many of princes CDs have had pretty poor graphics and design but this one is great.

I love the fixed in lyric booklet, the great use of typeography and illustrations.

The art is credited to C'Babi, anyone know of any other work by them?

The main cover illustration has fantastic sense of movement especially if you study it while listening to The Work pt1, so jazz funky.

I also love the way th actual photo of Prince is kinda hidden on the spine with just his hand slightly showing on the front holding the frame, you have to just notice it and then open up the CD cover fully to see his whole picture, very discreet, not his usual ostentatious clothing but very subdued pullover and gold medallion, its as though he is in shadow over shadowed by the painting and its content.

Its a real quality design and product.


What are your views?

squirrelgrease said:

Thanx squirrel I didnt have time to search that myself, did you see you can buy the print of prince off their site? Ive been searching for a print of trc front cover art and keep getting outbid on ebay!

It's one of my favourite Prince album covers, really great.

syble said:

I think that the artwork Bayoc did that wound up as the cover for TRC went out of print at Prince's request. So the items on eBay were printed previous to Prince discovering this piece of art.

squirrelgrease said:

seeing as the art is framed on the cd cover i guess prince bought it, usually when an original is bought it becomes the property of the buyer and the artist can no longer reproduce it, Im sure prince would have wanted that, Im guessing Bayoc still has the original of prince then seeing as they are repro-ing it? Im also guessing that prince saw the original jazz quartet piece and commissioned bayoc to recreate it with his band members as the two pieces are almost identical in composition and subject

syble said:

The Rainbow Children painting existed before Prince was involved. Prince bought eight original paintings. As far as Prince owning the artwork or any future reproduction rights, that would have to be agreed upon at the time of the transaction - an artist can keep reproduction rights and sell the original even if it's going to be used commercially by the purchaser. Vice-versa if it was a commissioned piece.

Very cool

Brillinat artwork and a damn brilliant album.
prince sure knows how to use space in music with this album.

The Rainbow Children is actually one of my favorite album's, never understood why people didn't see the creativity in it. Expecially with "She loves me for me"...BEAUTIFUL song. And "Everywhere" as well.

I bought it on vinyl just so i could have the pic bigger. I plan on framing the cover.

The CD (not the sleeve) artwork was available as a high quality giclee print for quite a while on bayocstudio.com - too bad the site seems inactive right now. I snatched one of the prints (no. 3 from an edition of 249, signed by C'babi Bayoc himself) and it does look great in the living room. I agree this is one of Prince's best album artworks.

Great artwork...I love Prince's picture on the spine of the cover as well.

I like the one of Prince's face and I thought it was cute that you can barely see him on the cover bind

One of my fave covers as well. Love the artwork.

I wish Prince used more paintings in his covers.


Hi Prince.

The one thing i like about that album.
Best Prince album cover since The Hits The B-sides
[Edited 9/10/09 21:00pm]

is it comparable to 1999?


what do you all think?

I think it is slicker, better design, giving more to the fan, a complete package

that print of prince from the disc is still available to buy but a tad too expensive for me at the mo.


so who did the inside picture of the alien look prince with the male female signs under neath, and what do you think it means, what is it representing? obviously it has the clear dark eye repeated throughout his album covers, which incidentally ive always found strange that he went with the black eye look, menacing when he has real tawny eyes, much softer than the mage he likes portrayed in his artwork. His other images always have the whites of the eye enhanced to darken the iris colour.

Also why is there just an eye and no other features?

Obviously I'm alone here, but the artwork is the only thing about the album I don't like.

I don't have the cd but the cover looks beautiful. Very African and reminds me of the Mory Kante cd. The one with Yeke Yeke as the first track, coz I have a couple of them.

love it ..

johnart said:

It would be cool if he used one of your pieces for his next album. Maybe post the one that you think he should use. Pretty please.

syble said:

Maybe that "alien" represents the Darth Jehova voice on the album.

Bohemian67 said:

The TRC cover reminds me of JJ Evans' paintings.

squirrelgrease said:

who's JJ Evans?

i love the trc album minus the wed song .. start to finish to me imo its like a symphony i love to turn it up full blast on my home stereo n rattle the house ... finish off with some SM Groove .. hell lets just breakout the boat load of P music n have a day of it .. get him back on Jays new show n tear up the place ..
[Edited 10/5/09 11:20am]

Prince handed out numbered prints of the TRC cover at the Celebration. I've got one framed above my fireplace.

Brilliant album, the artwork was very nice and it was good to see who was behind the artwork.