Changes

The typeface used on ''Things Falling Apart'' is Index-Book, designed by Josh Darden & Timothy Glaser. In a February 2020 Reddit AMA session2025 post to his Patreon[https://www.patreon.com/posts/rob25-sheridanyears-amaof-nins-34278427144077283], [[Rob Sheridan]] elaborated on the process of creating the artwork and how it informed his creativity going forward: <blockquote>As a companion album to 1999's ''The Fragile'', ''Things Falling Apart'' needed to closely follow [[David Carson]]'s art direction / design from ''The Fragile'' while carving out its own identity. I'd been working with Carson's style for the past year by this point, adapting it to my own designs for album and tour promo materials, websites, merchandise, and the [[Fragility]] tour book, so Trent felt confident that I was ready to tackle an album design. This was probably a much bigger deal to me than it was to him; as a die-hard NIN fan, the weight of permanently leaving my mark on the catalog of Nine Inch Nails halos (the internal numbering system used for official Nine Inch Nails releases) weighed heavily on my young shoulders. Thankfully, I had some time throughout 2000 to prepare and experiment. It began with taking a lot of photos, as many as I could wherever I was, to start finding my own way through David Carson's direction. My photography of the flowers was of course a thematic continuation of Carson's photos for ''The Fragile'', but also of Robert Hales' work on ''[[The Day The World Went Away (song)|The Day The World Went Away]]'' single, which started ''The Fragile'' era's flower theme in a much more formal style than Carson's. Carson was a design hero of mine, so of course playing in his style was exhilarating but also very intimidating for a very young, very new designer. A lot of Carson's imagery was abstract snapshots of his surroundings that he'd capture unconventionally, sometimes with disposable cameras and polaroids, recontextualizing small details of found objects into abstract art and then employing it thematically into his designs (the red texture on the cover of ''The Fragile'' is an out-of-focus snapshot of the inside of a conch shell, for example). To find my own way of adapting his approach, I began experimenting with a macro lens for the first time. Macro lenses are commonplace now, but back then they were niche, technically-oriented, very expensive pro photo equipment (just look how big the macro lens is on the 16mm camera in that photo). Having my own pro macro lens to experiment with artistically opened up new portals of expression all around me; emotions from the inanimate, stories from mundane details. Having my own pro macro lens to experiment with artistically opened up new portals of expression all around me; emotions from the inanimate, stories from mundane details. Exploring details of instruments and the texture of the studio environment would lay the groundwork for my photography on Nine Inch Nails' ''[[Ghosts I-IV]]'' in 2008. And seeing the natural world abstracted in macro on ''Things Falling Apart'' would carry all the way through to my recent visuals for Pearl Jam's Dark Matter tour.

<blockquote>The first album art I was ever tasked with making was for NIN's For ''Things Falling Apart.'' It , however, the voice I was finding in macro photography wasn't quite right. I was learning the right lessons, but using the wrong tool. My macro photographs felt too purposeful and cinematic, speaking a companion album to slightly different language than the aesthetics of ''The Fragile,'' which David Carson did the art for. Carson was a design hero of mineUltimately, so of course playing in his style was exhilarating but also very intimidating I accidentally found the right artistic note for a very young, very new designer. A lot of Carson's imagery was accidental snapshots of every day things that he'd Things Falling Apart'' when I tried to capture with disposable cameras and polaroids, and some unique flowers in the out-light ofdusk with my day-focus nature of them turned simple things into abstract art (the red texture on the cover of The Fragile is an outto-of-focus snapshot of the inside of a shellday consumer pocket digital camera, for example). To start capturing some of my own for TFA, I experimented with a macro whose tiny lens for couldn't quite hit the first time, and later bought one to make imagery withmacro focus. It sounds like basic art school shit now because you can get was a macro lens for your phone for like $30, but it was very expensive niche equipment back then. Through that lens, and taking what I'd learned from perfectly accidental Carson, I started to see art and texture in everything I looked at. Needing new imagery for a project and just looking around wherever I am and finding tiny details in it has never steered me wrong ever sincesolution.</blockquote>

The typeface used on Designing ''Things Falling Apart'' is Index-Bookwas a big early milestone for me as an professional and a fan, designed by Josh Darden & Timothy Glaserbut I can’t overstate how much the experience helped shaped me as an artist, and how much of it I still carry with me today.</blockquote>