Coldplay album artwork by Mila Fürstová

Coldplay album artwork from Ghost Stories with permission from Mila Furstova

Stunning Ghost Stories album artwork

The new Coldplay album artwork for Ghost Stories showcases a stunning collection of etchings by artist Mila Fürstová. Now available to view as a full-length animation, along with the opportunity to listen to the album for free ahead of its release on 19 May!

It’s wonderful when nice people get the opportunity to do great things. And so it is with my friend Mila. A talented UK-based Czech artist known for her beautiful etchings, Mila has been secretly beavering away for the last year on this artwork for Ghost Stories - Coldplay’s sixth studio album. What a fabulous commission! How on earth did she manage to keep it a secret?!

Screen Shot 2014-03-04 at 15.54.52

Artwork for ‘Magic’, Coldplay

Included here you can see both the cover art for the Coldplay single Magic released on 3 March 2014, and the Coldplay album cover itself. The Coldplay album is due for release on 19 May 2014 (you can pre-order on iTunes).

Dove by Mila Furstova from Coldplay single Magic on Ghost Stories

The single art for Magic features a symbolic white dove imposed onto a blue canvas. Contained within the perimeter of the dove is a scenario featuring imagery related to stage magic, including a levitating couple, a flying deck of cards and a theatre stage. The level of detail is just gorgeous…

Screen Shot 2014-03-06 at 10.32.53

Angel wings, medieval art-driven artwork

For the Coldplay album artwork cover, the medieval art-driven artwork features a pair of angel wings imposed onto a painting of an ocean under a sky at night. The angel wings themselves feature cryptic imagery of medieval-style drawings including a couple in love, a man facing a mirror, a flight of white doves, a circular maze, a girl by candelight, a window looking out onto an incoming tornado and a garden plant with a ladder. You can zoom in to a larger version of the artwork on Coldplay’s official website, using a screen magnifier – definitely worth doing!

If you fancy one to hang on your wall, or even as a tattoo (the current reproduction of choice on the Coldplay Facebook page right now!), you can buy the artwork through Album Artists, from 19 May.

Images courtesy of Mila Fürstová.

Watch the Coldplay album artwork for Ghost Stories in the Magic video

This blog post is one of a series of design blog posts by design writer Jackie Hawkins.