Dec 21, 20211 min read

John Cage 4'33" Redesign

If you aren't familiar with John Cage and his piece 4'33", this video might help you understand.

4'33" is, in simple words, silence. The audience and environment make the music.

When I studied design I had to create a vinyl cover for this music. When I was 20 I tried to think of a hip way to describe silence... obviously I chose sensuality. I used simple images I found on Pinterest because the professors had so many rules I couldn't do anything (More of that another day!).

I bought a vinyl and kissed it to get those lipstick stains... then he gave us a mockup to use, by the way!

Any who, since I no longer had rules or grading holding me back, I wanted to redesign it.

I had this incredibly good idea of graffiti on a Greek sculpture. It's trendy and the graffiti (which was going to say insults/insecurities, because I'm deep) would be the loudness in the silence (which would have been symbolized as the whiteness and pureness of Greek busts).

But then I was like, "Wow, I like the busts by themselves."

I also recall it being required to have a bunch of info about the piece/artist on the cover and I decided to not go that route. How fun would it be to buy a vinyl just because of the graphic and realize it's one track of silence (or lack thereof if you really get what John Cage was portraying with this song).

Anyway, here is the redesign!

Front Cover: