Tyler, the Creator offered his fans two distinct cover options within minutes of announcing his IGOR project. As you likely heard, IGOR is slated to drop in little over a week on May 17th. The Odd Future figurant looks set to debut the project without much of a precursive agenda, outside of the allusions made by illustrator Lewis Rossignol with his dual covers.
In speaking with Complex, Lewis Rossignol illustrated how the creative partnership came together 6 months ago. As is the custom 95% of the time with Rossignol, Tyler hit him up in his Instagram DMs and not through a quote-unquote professional channel. It took some time before Tyler would make his intentions clear; Lewis Rossignol described the situation as such.
"That's pretty much how everybody finds my work,” Rossignol said. “Instagram drives probably 95% of my business. When he first messaged me, he said he was interested in collaborating, but he wasn't really that specific."
Tyler, The Creator's "IGOR" Cover Art: Illustrator Reveals His Secrets">Roger Kisby/Getty Images
Once Tyler's intentions were sorted out, the two creative types took the conversation to FaceTime, the basis for the pink portraiture. From what I understand, Rossignol started with the portraiture after receiving a stock image in his inbox, Tyler providing "good notes," as he put it, throughout the creationary process.
“If you look at the piece, in the jacket, there are some notes that Tyler actually wrote," Rossignol said of commissioned work sent his way. "And then in the top there's some little stars that he drew. He actually sent me some stuff from his sketchbook. He said, ‘If you want to work this into the piece, you can, but you don't have to.’ So some of the stuff in the piece is actually Tyler."
Rossignol goes on to say that it until they'd broken communication for some months that Tyler told him the images would be put towards his IGOR project. Without any prior knowledge hindered his progress, Rossignol admitted that he allowed Tyler more control than he usually extends his clients, equivalent to a 70-30 split in his favor.