Shakir asked me to design the cover for his new album, and he said that he wanted himself on the cover, with half of his face exposed, revealing a cyborg underneath. Of course, I told him yes, and that it sounded like a fun project.

I started working with a portrait of Shakir from his latest photo shoot, and began the process of fusing his face together with images of machine parts and cyborg renderings. The shine and shadows of his jewelry were brought out with careful brush work, and I tattooed his personal logo on his hand. I used a warm color fade on the text and border to pop against the cold, mechanical color scheme, and the cursive font softens the look.