Madonna | The Immaculate Collection - 30th Anniversary

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Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
30th Anniversary Edition
BOX SET CONCEPT ART DESIGN : OCTOBER 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020

"The Immaculate Collection became Madonna's second album to be certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of over ten million copies in the United States... The album has sold 30 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling compilation album by a solo artist and one of the best-selling albums of all time." - Wikipedia

"It's true that The Immaculate Collection contains the bulk of Madonna's hits, but there are several big hits that aren't present, including "Angel," "Dress You Up," "True Blue," "Who's That Girl," and "Causing a Commotion"... Until the original single versions are compiled on another album, The Immaculate Collection is the closest thing to a definitive retrospective." - AllMusic.com

"[This year again] there were no Madonna reissues. The endless ‘coloured vinyl’ editions of Madge’s albums are getting quite tedious..." - SuperDeluxeEdition.com's "Disappointments of 2019"

It had been a while since I worked on a graphic design project just for fun, so I decided to do something Madonna-related. I'm a massive fan of hers, I used to collect her albums and CD singles and admire the enormous variety of artwork and remixes that were on offer for those willing to hunt for them. For years I hoped her team would release a lavish box set of rare tracks and exclusive content, but it's yet to materialise.

The Immaculate Collection is her biggest-selling album (and one of the biggest-selling albums of all time) and it desperately needs some TLC. The version on streaming and digital platforms has incorrect tracks and an underexposed, dirty scan of the album cover for its artwork. So I decided to do something about it.

The album artwork design was originally created in 1990 by Jeri and John Heiden with photography by Herb Ritts. Without re-inventing the original design too much, I researched the fonts used in Heiden's design and tried to match the colours closely across the numerous versions available. Then I dreamed up a box set full of everything I could want in an expanded edition.

Update (March 2022): Since publishing this project in February 2020, the response from Madonna's fans online has been overwhelming, with hundreds of comments, private messages and requests for copies of a physical product. Beginning in May 2020, Madonna and her team started publishing her old singles and remixes on streaming platforms and digital music services. On her birthday in August 2021, Madonna and Warner Music Group announced a career-spanning partnership that will see a “multi-year catalog series” to launch in 2022, including Madonna's personally curated expansive deluxe editions for many of her albums, for the first time in her career. I am delighted that these changes are happening in the way her music is presented and packaged for modern music listeners and am looking forward to seeing what surprises they have in store for us.

Update (April 2023): I revised this box set design and re-built it in 3D to further flesh out some of the initial ideas I had back in 2020. While Madonna fans are still waiting for news of an expanded album reissue since the initial announcement in August 2021, I hope this design concept is a close approximation of what her team will come up with in future.

The box set makes use of the colours, fonts and shield design of the original 1990 release.

Inside the box are three smaller boxes, each with a spot gloss applied to the minimal M logo I adapted from the main shield design.

Opening the small gold box reveals 7 discs (CD, Blu-Ray and 4K Blu-Ray) and an Immaculate Collection pin.

This Immaculate Collection pin was envisioned to be a mix of gold and silver metals with a baby blue enamel front.

The discs are housed in individual sleeves made of a thick card stock. The discs are, in order from top left to bottom right: the remastered album, two discs of the original radio edits/single mixes of all of her singles from 1982-1990, the remixes of the compilation's first single "Justify My Love", the remixes of the second single "Rescue Me", and a Blu-Ray and 4K Blu-Ray each full of music videos, interviews, live performances, and the remastered lossless album audio, in spacial/Atmos and 5.1 surround mixes.

Close-ups of the individual tracklists.

The blue box houses the remastered album in a new 180g heavyweight picture disc vinyl and gatefold sleeve design, a hardcover book, and an envelope housing a poster and three limited edition art prints.

The front cover of the remastered album on two 180g picture disc vinyl records. The album's logo was redesigned for this box set to incorporate the "30th Anniversary" into the yellow ribbon. The original artwork was created by graphic designer Jeri Heiden in 1990.

The gatefold design is inspired by 1990 promotional posters for the album, fleshed out to include video captures from all of her music videos and some live performances from this time period, with the titles of all of her singles from 1982-1990 included in the border.

The inner sleeves are recreations of the original album's vinyl inner sleeves. The picture discs use photos from the same 1989 Herb Ritts photoshoot that promoted and illustrated the artwork upon the album's release, and which are used throughout this box set.

A bonus hardcover 90-page book would be included, featuring essays, photographs, behind-the-scenes stories about the songs included on the collection, and a newly-written introduction from Madonna looking back at the songs and memories from those years.

The text on this spread is © Lucy O'Brien and is adapted from her book "Madonna: Like an Icon" (2007).

A blue envelope inside the blue box houses three limited edition giclée art prints featuring photos by Herb Ritts and Patrick Demarchelier, and an A2 poster featuring images from the Demarchelier photo shoot that later became the single artwork for "Justify My Love".

The largest box houses all 17 tracks from the album, indiviudally pressed on coloured 7" vinyl and presented in sleeves replicating their original single artworks.

On top of the 17 coloured vinyl singles, there would be one randomly-selected bonus 7" coloured vinyl in each box - a fun incentive for collectors. Here is the full selection of all the bonus vinyl that would be available. Each is a single that for whatever reason was not included in the original album.