Kanye West, a popular icon of our generation, is not known to take a back seat when it comes to any of his wild creations from his music to his fashion line. For his third studio album, Kanye went to Tokyo to recruit Takashi Murakami, known as the “Japanese Andy Warhol”, to design the album artwork for “Graduation”. Murakami was famous in Japan for using comic book characters in popular fashion and art. West’s “Graduation” was his third and final installment of his college-themed studio albums and marked a new era entirely for his music as he switched to a more electronic beat that would establish his individuality in the music business.

The album features a cartoon bear being shot out of some sort of cannon creature. The bear is all dressed up in an outfit one might see Kanye wearing at the time. The bear is wearing white t-shirt, varsity jacket, and a lot of bling all over. The bear is part of a theme Kanye had used in his first two albums, “College Dropout” and “Late Registration” to symbolize his relationship with the schooling system. Kanye West had dropped out of the American Academy of Art to pursue his rapping career but always appreciated the fun, carefree side of college lifestyle. He took the symbol a bear mascot and incorporated it into his first three albums. For “Graduation”, it is almost West’s fantasy of his own graduation day had he stayed in school. Or more likely, it is his own version of graduating from the past and being shot into the new. The album came with a little picture booklet that further plays on the story we start to see from the cover. It tells the story of the cartoon bear struggling to wake up in time for graduation, missing a cab, followed by walking to the ceremony. I think this all plays into West’s idea of being thrown in the real world and being totally on your own. For many people its when they graduate college when they are finally on their own but Kanye was on his own when he dropped out at 20 years old.

The bottom right corner of the frame is dominated by this friendly monster seems to be propelling the cartoon bear into this very cool purple, orange sky. The creature boasts many different colors and weird eyes that make it looks like a fish face. On top of the head of this weird creature is the classic Greek columns that signify college life and other animals celebrating after graduation. Murakami wanted to encompass the fun of college but also the uncertainty of the future after almost two decades of a rigid schooling system. The bear is being flung into its own freedom and the cannon creature represents all the eyes that watched over the bear up until this point. 

Compared to the past two album’s featured bears, Kanye used a bear that almost looks more like a chipmunk for the “Graduation” cover. This is an interesting idea because Kanye’s sound was transitioning at this time and before he had been popular as a producer for the “chipmunk sound” on some of the tracks he mixed. This bear-chipmunk cartoon is being flung into the sky and his eyes are very interesting as well. His left eye is mostly pink and the right eye is mostly blue. The only real conclusion to be drawn is confusion over what the bear is looking at. The bear must be looking at two different objects and that raises the question of is there a choice between one or the other.

By 2007, Kanye West had already gained a lot of popularity from his first two albums and snagged five Grammy awards, he went through a lot more work when it came to this cover because he wanted it to separate him from his past works as he is graduating from the old and is changing his whole sound. The bear has always been to represent Kanye as the dropout in the past, for this cover, the bear is meant to elevate Kanye above the college process. He became a success without a degree, an increasingly difficult thing to do this day in age, so he has the bear wearing a giant “U” for University. Kanye is channeling his inner child with this cute cartoon bear being thrown out into the world to either fly or fall. Kanye was not just becoming more famous at the time but he also started to develop a new type of sound, relying heavily on vibrant synths and vocals. West focused less about his rap lyrics and started relying on auto-tune and other electronic conversions that made his sound unique. His album cover showcased this by using very vibrant and happy colors. Kanye developed this album so it could sound aesthetically pleasing in large arena shows and the album art’s vivid use of colors reinforces that idea. This was the last time Kanye would use the bear as he moved away from the college rap and into other categories.