Avicii’s Untold Stories

Avicii aka Tim Bergling was one of the greatest EDM artists. For my class in typographic voice and visual narrative, I explored alternate album cover art for some of his most famous songs to reveal what he was trying to say through his music. Eventually, I combined these visuals in a newspaper to tell his story.

1. LIAR LIAR

Like many entertainment industry individuals, Avicii was also a victim of alcohol and drug abuse. He wanted to quit touring for concerts as his health deteriorated, however, being a pleaser, he tried to keep his teams and fans happy. He was so ambitious and stubborn that he kept lying to himself that he can do it when his body was saying otherwise. No one else pushed him to stop either as it wasn't in their interest.

2. WAKE ME UP

Avicii was the kind of person who could party 7 days in a row but it wasn't always because he wanted to. Perhaps what he needed at the time was a strong wake-up call to take back control of his life.

3. THE NIGHTS

Avicii toured the globe and completed more than 830 concerts! The nights became all about partying and he eventually lost the feeling of what it is like to be home.

4. LEVELS

'Levels' was one of the greatest songs of all time in the EDM genre. It's still being reused by DJs and never stopped providing value just like scrap metal.

5. HEY BROTHER

Avicii's friends were like his brothers who forced him to sign this shitty contract, hand-painted with crayons or something when they were young — "Hereby I Tim, solemnly swear that if I ever make it big, I'm gonna bring all my friends to LA and we're gonna live in a huge mansion and it's gonna be awesome" The typography for this piece was inspired by all kinds of fancy mansions and their architectural beauty.

6. HEAVEN

We were all under the impression that Avicii was living his best life. In reality, things weren't as pretty. The typography inspired by all kinds of bugs is symbolic of how his life was rotting.