Russell Mills (born 1952) is a British painter, designer and ambient musician who created paintings that were used for several Nine Inch Nails releases. Other bands and artists he has worked for include Brian Eno, Cocteau Twins and David Sylvian.
Biography
In art school, Mills began creating artwork inspired by lyrics from Brian Eno songs, which were later used in the book More Dark Than Shark. Starting in the 1980s, he was receiving commissions to create artwork for album covers. His style began to evolve from traditional drawing and painting into a more abstract collage-oriented style, with many organic elements and items from nature being used as materials. His paintings are sometimes seen as visually mirroring the ambient sounds of many of the albums he designs covers for. He has also made two albums of semi-ambient music under the name Undark, by creating sonic collages from unused sounds given to him by musicians he has connections with.
Artwork For NIN
- March Of The Pigs (1994)
- The Downward Spiral (1994)
- Further Down The Spiral (1995)
- Closure (1997)
- Came Back Haunted (2013)
- Hesitation Marks (2013)
- Copy Of A (2013)
- Everything (2013)
- Live 2013 EP (2013)
The cover art for Closer To God is frequently misattributed to Mills. It was actually done by photographer Joseph Cultice, though he is uncredited on the packaging.[1]