The album's ethereal artwork mirrors its "delicacy and introverted romance". The cover art, shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin in Los Angeles, California, is a black and white photograph of Björk lying down on the patterned ground next to a swimming pool, covering her eyes from the sun and wearing her Marjan Pejoski swan dress that caused a stir at the 73rd Academy Awards. The duo M/M (Paris), known for applying and integrating their work on photographs (so called "dessin dans l'image", or "drawings in the picture"), illustrated the cover, featuring a swan and the album's title with feathers. Björk thought swans embodied "Vespertine"s music, describing them as "a white, sort of winter bird" and "very romantic". "Vespertine" came with a booklet of M/M (Paris) artwork.