Kiwi artist behind foxy Prodigy album art

Kiwi artist Nick McFarlane, who designed the cover art for Prodigy's album The Day is my Enemy.

The Prodigy's new album comes with a striking cover image of a fox standing over a glowing cityscape.

Turns out that image is from Kiwi designer Nick McFarlane, who was asked to design the cover art for the Prodigy's sixth album by Liam Howlett, the frontman for the veteran dance-punks.

Howlett had seen McFarlane's work in his 2013 book Spinfluence: The Hardcore Propaganda Manual for Controlling the Masses, and decided it fitted the Prodigy's aesthetic.

"He saw my book in an art gallery, picked it up and something just resonated with him ... I got this email from him out of the blue. I thought, 'Holy shit, this is an incredible opportunity."

Problem was, McFarlane had never worked on album art before. And Howlett is a notorious perfectionist. McFarlane ended up sending him 166 different designs over a six month period.

"It was a hard process. Nothing was working, and Howlett mentioned he was getting another designer involved. I thought, 'Oh bugger'. Eventually he said, 'How about a fox?'

He'd seen one at his recording studio, and said, 'They're rebels, they get hunted, they only come out at night, they're British ... wouldn't that be cool?'"

Howlett called McFarlane's final image "ominous and iconic" and it inspired the video for the album's first single, Nasty, which features the fox being hunted by suspicious characters across an urban wasteland. The image will also backdrop The Prodigy's live shows.

Luckily, McFarlane - who works in an Auckland advertising agency - is a fan of the band's new album.

"I've been listening repeatedly since it dropped. It's a big heavy beast, quite abrasive, quite punk ... I've always been a fan."

Watch the music video for Nasty by The Prodigy:

- TimeOut