• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, November 11, 2013

In one of the more improbable co-branding partnerships in recent memory, USA Today promoted Lady Gaga’s forthcoming album, ARTPOP, by allowing the odd, ubiquitous pop star to design the logo for the national newspaper’s Life section in its November 11 edition. The partnership with a celebrity guest logo designer is the first of its kind for USA Today. 

Gaga and artist Jeff Koons, who is best known for his balloon animal sculptures, designed the logo based on the cover art he created for the album. The logo, like the cover art, features a mostly nude statue of Gaga, her hands covering her breasts, at the center of a radiating aura composed of colors and fragments of images -- about par for the course for the performance artist, but perhaps a bit adventurous for the newspaper.

The logo, album art, and album itself all revolve around two central themes dear to Gaga: bringing art to the masses and people collaborating to create something they couldn’t create by themselves.

USA Today Editor in Chief David Callaway stated: “USA Today is the pulse of the nation and Lady Gaga's goal of bringing high art to the masses reflects that pulse. Like with guest columns, designs are the expressions of ideas. Just as we encourage fresh voices to write for us, we seek more new ideas and designs, from famous artists and regular readers alike.”

Separately, in a new US Weekly exclusive Gaga also revealed her plans to become the first performer to sing in space, courtesy of Virgin Galactic, as part of the Zero G Colony festival in New Mexico in 2015.