Madonna | Confessions on a Dance Floor (Box Set)

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Madonna: Confessions on a Dance Floor (Box Set)

BOX SET CONCEPT ART DESIGN : DECEMBER 2022 - JANUARY 2023

"Long after many started saying 'I only like her old stuff,' the Queen of Pop dropped this start-to-finish perfect album of disco-inspired club cuts, each track mixed - a rarity for non-compilations. While a pop star's club throne is never guaranteed forever, Madonna has more claims to the top spot than most and Confessions proves why. This is the album all her subsequent albums is compared to; for its enduring relevance and how it redefined Madonna as an artist, it should be."

- Vice, "The 99 Greatest Dance Albums of All Time" (ranked #3)

Confessions on a Dance Floor was released in November 2005, and I was in my mid-to-late teens: the perfect age for an album to arrive and change my life. I had been a casual fan of hers since I was young, but this was the era that truly blew me away and cemented my love and appreciation for her work for life. This album, and its tour's home video release, went on to win two Grammy Awards and sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

The album's much-celebrated non-stop album mix is currently unavailable on modern streaming and digital music platforms, which forces a very different listening experience to what was intended when it was released. While listening to this edited version and wondering why it was the only one available, I started brainstorming what a deluxe physical release of this album could look like.

Confessions is a visual challenge. So much of the design of this album and its marketing was built on maximalist, heavy use of graphics as well as highly-edited photography. The design overall stayed consistent with its logo, but began deviating as time and single releases went on, until finally the CD/DVD release of The Confessions Tour omitted much of the disco lights in favour of minimalism and limited colours. Subsequently there was a huge variety of styles, colours and design approaches to work with in preparing this collection, and it was a fantastic challenge trying to create a cohesiveness to this body of work. This was also a great opportunity for me to learn more 3D skills in developing how this set would be laid out, as opposed to earlier projects' use of Photoshop mockups.

The final result sticks closely to the original album's art direction combined with Steven Klein's equestrian-themed spread for W Magazine in 2006 that was later used to open the tour. Because there is so much music and video content available, this set is a massive 15 discs across CD, Blu-Ray and 4K Blu-Ray, with an additional four 12" vinyl records, six lithographic posters, a hardcover book, and a USB containing high-resolution audio and video copies of everything included in this set.

This project is indebted to Giovanni Bianco, Steven Klein, Stuart Price, and Madonna, as well as inspired by super deluxe editions released by The Beatles, Daft Punk and David Bowie (thank you SuperDeluxeEdition for the hours of fun researching).