4:44

The cover of 4:44 is almost nothing at all: the title in small digits on a soft field of colour somewhere between sand and peach. There is no photograph and no artist name. It was art directed by Willo Perron and designed by Brian Roettinger, the duo behind Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail. The digits are set in Larish Neue, a typeface by the Czech designer Radim Peško, first developed for the Secession in Vienna.

Jay-Z said the title came from the song he called "the crux of the album," written after he woke at 4:44 in the morning. The confessional record needed a quiet face. Perron described the direction as "Stripped down and honest. Simple, not trying to do too much," and summed up the cover in one line: "It's just this color and these digits." Fonts in Use noted how far the gentle palette sat from the dark, aggressive colours common in rap design.

The sleeve worked as a logo for a wider campaign. Before release, the cryptic numbers appeared on billboards, buses, taxis and subway stations, and a black-and-white teaser starring Mahershala Ali aired during the NBA Finals. Perron called the brand guide "a manual for the 4:44 brand," and the same restraint shaped the octagonal stage of the tour that followed. Complex judged it the most minimal cover of Jay-Z's career. The album was released on 30 June 2017.