After the Storm: Hipgnosis, Storm Thorgerson, and the Rock Album Cover
2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 1; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/19401159.2014.949553
ISSN1940-1167
Autores Tópico(s)Music Technology and Sound Studies
ResumoAbstractThe London-based design agency known as Hipgnosis, comprising primarily Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and later Peter Christopherson (along with several itinerant freelance collaborators), stood at the forefront of rock's imaginative leap from the mundane to the magical (and also occasionally into the absurd and grotesque) during its operation from 1968 to 1983. The studio helped to make the album cover more integral to a record's artistic totality, effectively translating sonic experiences into still images and accelerating the rock album cover's development. Notes1 There are conflicting accounts of the year in which Hipgnosis was founded. Powell's website, , and the publisher's advertising for Hipgnosis Portraits (Powell and Thorgerson) both cite 1967, while in interviews Thorgerson has frequently said it was 1968 and that date is cited on his website, . While the first agreement to work for Pink Floyd may have occurred in 1967, no actual work from the studio emerged until 1968, so this is used as the nominal starting date for the company. Although it no longer exists as an album-cover-creating entity, since 1994 co-founder Aubrey Powell has operated under the name Hipgnosis Ltd. as a filmmaker, according to his website.2 Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell note that photographer Peter Christopherson was hired in 1974 and soon graduated to full partner status (Work 88; Vinyl 10), although his media visibility remained limited despite his musical roles as a member of the bands Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Coil. He died in 2010 at age 55.3 The spelling was found at the door of Thorgerson and Powell's shared London flat, and the pair were rapidly intrigued by its implications: "hip (cool) and gnostic (wise)" (Messina 60).4 The artwork on The Dark Side of the Moon is credited to George Hardie, a frequent Hipgnosis collaborator, though Thorgerson and Powell evidently established the concept and oversaw its execution as a visual mirror of the music.5 John Harris's 2013 article in the Guardian newspaper provides a useful example of this procedure. Harris references Thorgerson's collaborative interaction with Pink Floyd, his first-hand exposure to the band's music, and the outrage expressed by an EMI representative confronted with the cover of 1970s Atom Heart Mother featuring a photo of a cow. Harris authored The Dark Side of the Moon: The Making of the Pink Floyd Masterpiece, for which Thorgerson designed the cover art.6 Powell confirms this viewpoint, stating that their approach "upset record companies, a lot. We never worked for them, we always worked for the band in a very personal way" (Messina 60).7 Between 1971 and 1982, Wishbone Ash charted 12 albums in America. None of them achieved either gold (500,000 copies) or platinum (1 million copies) certification. Eight of those 12 albums included Hipgnosis cover art.8 A segment on Thorgerson and Hipgnosis also appears in the 2013 DVD documentary The Cover Story—Album Art.9 In The Greatest Album Covers of All Time (102), Miles, Scott, and Morgan point out that Pink Floyd became only the second band signed to EMI Records after the Beatles to be allowed to employ a freelance cover designer. This distinction therefore places the birth of Hipgnosis at the axis point of a new conceptual relationship between music and its packaging.10 The design on which Korner's record was based occurred before Pink Floyd's Saucerful of Secrets, but it was commissioned after the Floyd project.11 Other Hipgnosis covers in Errigo's book included the Pretty Things' 1976 combined reissue of two studio albums, S.F Sorrow (1968) and Parachute (1970). The other three cover artwork examples came from Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy (1973), 10cc's How Dare You! (1975), and Pyramid by the Alan Parsons Project (1978).12 As indicated in the list of works cited, during the intervening years Thorgerson published his own collections of Pink Floyd-related images as well as his broadly inclusive Eye of the Storm album graphics compilation. The latter also referenced his post-Hipgnosis work while the former frequently extended beyond album artwork. Thorgerson's Mind over Matter: The Images of Pink Floyd, first published in 1997, was due for publication of its 5th revised edition in September 2014. The Gathering Storm: The Album Art of Storm Thorgerson was published in 2013 and encompasses his Hipgnosis-era creations.13 This view echoes the dismay of Jones and Sorger in "Covering Music: A Brief History and Analysis of Album Cover Design." Although a full decade separates this article from the Coverscaping critique, little substantial change had occurred.14 I have also discussed the digital-era plight of the album cover in "Facing the Music." Several former and current album cover designers, including Paula Scher (in the 2007 graphics documentary Helvetica) and Dan Nadel (Grønstad and Vågnes 197–98) have referred to the work of German Stefan Sagmeister as embracing and enhancing the medium of the CD, though both acknowledge the limitations created by reduction in scale versus vinyl cover art. Similarly, the CD art by Phil Yarnall of Smay Design (for Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, and others) is explicitly informed by the album cover and retains its design approach despite operating within smaller confines.15 In a predictable marketing concession, each of Gabriel's first three solo albums now carries a more specific (though unofficial) designation: Peter Gabriel 1: Car, Peter Gabriel 2: Scratch, and Peter Gabriel 3: Melt. Notably, these supplemental titles do not appear on the album covers. While the photos that formed the bases of these covers were taken in relatively ordinary British surroundings, work for other clients involved travel to the Moroccan desert (Elegy by the Nice in 1971) and the Caribbean (10cc's Bloody Tourists in 1978), as two of many possible examples from the company's history.16 Many of the relevant details are also summarized in "Album Covers: 1960s to 1980s",(Alleyne 209–24).17 Simon Valley is quoted as making this observation in Thorgerson's The Photo Designs of Hipgnosis (86). He further suggests that this may reflect the public's disenchantment with the visual concept.18 The Variety story refers to the company as "Greenback," but I have deferred to the format employed on Thorgerson's own website citing the company as "Green Back."19 Quoted in Adam Sweeting's obituary in The Guardian.
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