Description

Discovery, released by Virgin on 12 March 2001, puts Daft Punk's name at the centre of the sleeve in rounded lettering that looks like liquid chrome. The effect comes from Mitchell Feinberg's liquid-metal photography, and the concept and art direction are credited to the duo Alex & Martin together with Cédric Hervet and the members of Daft Punk. A photograph of a piano by Luis Sanchis also appears in the package.

Treating a wordmark as the whole image was a statement in itself. Daft Punk had already hidden their faces and would soon appear only as robots, and the metallic logo matched an album steeped in science fiction, disco and early digital culture. Every Discovery CD also carried a numbered Daft Club membership card that unlocked bonus material on the duo's website, an early attempt to make a physical album part of an online world.

The album's story was told visually in Interstella 5555, an animated film made with the Japanese artist Leiji Matsumoto. Discovery's standard Japanese release swapped the chrome logo for a cover featuring Interstella characters, and when the album was reissued for the film's 20th anniversary it came with Japanese artwork, stickers and new Daft Club cards.

Credit

Design concept and art direction by Alex & Martin, Thomas Bangalter, Cédric Hervet, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Gildas Loaëc, Simon Scott, Daniel Vangarde and Pedro Winter; liquid-metal photography by Mitchell Feinberg; piano photograph by Luis Sanchis.