David Bowie’s Blackstar wins Grammy for best packaging

Blackstar scoops the album sleeve award.

Not content with winning The Vinyl Factory’s record sleeve of 2016, designer Jonathan Barnbrook was awarded the Grammy for best recording packaging for David Bowie’s Blackstar.

Barnbrook’s design for Blackstar has turned it into the most talked about album sleeve of the year if not the decade, its star die-cut sleeve holding a constellation of secret messages and effects, some of which he insists are yet to be discovered, and most of which Bowie himself had no idea about.

The man behind Gazelle Twin’s forthcoming Kingdom Come release on The Vinyl Factory, Barnbrook paid tribute to David Bowie on receiving the award: “He had this very rare quality of getting people to produce their best work, but doing it in a way that was wonderful, charming, a great, great enjoyable ride, and I want to thank him for that.”

Blackstar beat Parquet Courts, Bon Iver, Rihanna’s Anti and Reckless Kelly to the award. It also scooped gongs for best alternative album, best rock song and performance for ‘Blackstar’ and best engineered non-classical album.