Classical Artists Worldwide

Classical Artists Worldwide

Hipgnosis-Classic Album Cover Art

With the renewed interest in vinyl records, an old friend is increasingly important for new album cover art. There have been tens of thousands of album covers created throughout the year and there are those who recognized immediately, while others remain obscure, but one thing is certain, album cover is part of our pop culture and rock and roll lexicon.

Let's explore the particularly innovative design company in UK art that specializes in creating the album cover-Hipgnosis instantly recognizable. This creative group has done album covers for some of the dignitaries of the rock, as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Yes and the Scorpions, to name a few.

Hipgnosis mainly consisted of artists Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell, and later, Peter Christopherson. In 1968, Thorgerson and Powell were asked to design an album cover for Pink Floyd's second album is called "A Saucerful of Secrets. "They have completed this project and soon commissioned additional work for EMI, including photos and album covers of Free, Toe Fat and gods.

As art and film students, the couple was able to use the darkroom at the Royal College of Art, but after graduation, had to create their own facilities and in early 1970, rented space and built his famous study.

His only company name came from graffiti found at the door of his apartment. They liked the word because it sounded like hypnosis, and combined two somewhat contradictory terms, "hip" new and fresh and "gnosis" that related to ancient learning.

Hipgnosis new approach to design album was strongly oriented to photography, and pioneered the use of many innovative visual and packaging techniques. In particular, surreal Thorgerson and Powell, elaborately manipulated photos that used innovative darkroom tricks, exposures multiple airbrush retouching, and mechanical cutting and pasting techniques were a movie based on a precursor of what later was called Photoshopping.

"We were self-taught," Powell writes in the book, "For the love of vinyl." "What we did was come up with ideas based on music. The ideas were not well outlined in the first days and requires a lot of accompaniment blag be understood. Our usual strategy was to talk to work through some with others and then use photography as a means to express it. "

Hipgnosis got their real big break in 1973 when they were hired to do another album cover of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon", which is one of the most famous album covers in the world. After the success with the deck Floyd, were in great demand and soon the use of Led Zeppelin, Genesis, UFO, Black Sabbath, Peter Gabriel and The Alan Parsons Project, to name a few.

Peter Christopherson joined the company in 1974 as assistant and later became a full partner. The company employed many talented assistants, include the independent artists, George Hardie, Colin Elgie, Richard Manning and Richard Evans.

Another interesting note is that the company has no fixed fee for design of a particular album cover, but the musicians were asked to "pay what they thought it was worth it," a policy that at times counterproductive by Thorgerson.

Let's explore some of the stories behind the album covers:

Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)

Probably the most famous work Hipgnosis', the album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis and bore Hardie's iconic refracting the prism on the cover. LP Inside were two posters, one carries images of the band in concert with the words PINK FLOYD broken and scattered, and one slightly psychedelic image of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken with infrared film. The album was also the first Pink Floyd album to have picture labels on the record where describes a blue prism with black background and the credits written either in gray letters (European issues) or white lettering (U.S. and Canadian issues). Also included was a sheet of stickers of the pyramids.

The album is the third best-selling album of all time worldwide (excluding various artists compilations and soundtracks), and 20, the best selling album in the United States. Although ranked first U.S. # 1 only one week, spent a total of 741 consecutive weeks over fourteen years in the Billboard's 200 album sales, more than any other album in history music.

Led Zeppelin-Houses of the Holy (1973)

The concept of the cover was taken from Arthur C. Childhood's End Clarke. This is a collage several photographs taken at the Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland, by Aubrey Powell. The two children that the model on the cover were brothers Stefan and Samantha Gate. The photo shoot was a very frustrating and took ten days. Shooting was done early in the morning and evening to improve the light at dawn and evening, but the desired effect not achieved due to constant rain and clouds. The photos of the two children were taken in several black and white and were printed to create the effect of 11 people who can see the album cover. The results of the meeting were less than satisfactory, but some accidental effects in post-production dyeing created an album cover on strike unexpectedly. The inner sleeve photograph was taken at Dunluce Castle, near the causeway.

Jimmy Page has said that the cover the album was actually the second version by Hipgnosis. The first, by the artist Storm Thorgerson, presented an electric green tennis court with a racket tennis in it. The band was furious that implied Thorgerson their music sounded like a racket ", the band fired him and hired Powell in his place.

Atom Heart Mother Pink Floyd (1970)

The original album depicts a cow in a field with no text or any other song was a Pink Floyd album, although some later editions have the title and artist name added to the cover. The concept was the reaction of the psychedelic rock band "space" pictures associated with Pink Floyd at the time, and the band wanted to explore all kinds of music without being limited to an image or a particular style of performance.

So asked the band's new album cover have "normal" on the cover, which ended up being the image of the cow. Storm Thorgerson, inspired by famous cow Andy Warhol's "wallpaper", said that just took place in a rural area near Potters Bar and photographed the first cow he saw. The owner cow identified his name as "Lulubelle III." More cows appear on the back (again, without text or title), and down inside. Again, an instantly recognizable cover, so that simple.

Peter Gabriel (1980)

The third album by Peter Gabriel, contains two more songs famous Gabriel, Biko "UK Top 10 hit" Games Without Frontiers "and the political song.

This album is often referred to as "fusion" because of its cover photograph by Storm Thorgerson. The photo was taken with a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, and subsequently modified by Thorgerson and Gabriel, and one of the sides of the portrait of Gabriel seems to be melting, but Thorgerson not recall whether he manipulated the image or Gabriel.

... And then there were three ... Genesis (1978)

A deck rather gloomy and dark, is one that was not real interested in how Thorgerson Hipgnosis explains:

"We're trying to tell a history by the tracks left by the trail of light. It was a torch, a car, and a man with a cigarette. The group was losing members and there were only three left. Lyrics of the songs were about the comings and goings and we try to describe this in terms of using time lapse photography. So there's a car going to one side and then the guy leaves the car, walks to the front of it, and lights a cigarette. But as he walks, using a torch and the car was on the leaves. There's a trail left by the car, a sign of him while walking and then lights a cigarette, which on the cover is where a glimpse of his face. "

However, if the company was happy with the result or not is another amazing cover.

For the gate-Led Zeppelin

This original album featured a rare trick: the album has an outer sleeve that was made to resemble a brown paper bag and inside the shirt is black and white line drawings that, if washed with a brush wet, will become permanent color completely. There were six different sleeves with another couple of photos and the external brown paper sleeve meant that it was impossible to the record of buyers saying that they were receiving the sleeve. The images represent all of the same scene in a bar (in which a man burns a letter to John), and each photo was taken from the independent perspective of someone who appeared in photos. In 1980, the album was nominated for a Grammy award for best album packages.

Storm Thorgerson design recalls in his book "Eye of the Storm":

"The quality intended to evoke a past sepia specific and not to allow the brush in the middle to be better rendered in color, thus providing better contrast. This car brush itself was like the hiss of a windshield wiper through a wet windshield, like a fresh coat of paint across a surface is lost, a new look at an old scene, which was what we said Led Zeppelin on their album. A fresh coat of paint, such as Led Zeppelin, and the music of this album ... Somehow, in proportion grew and became six points of view of the same person in the bar, as seen by the other six characters. Six different versions of the same image and six different covers. "

Hipgnosis ideology and concepts are being used and copied in the coming years. Fortunately, these young students understand the art of photography the meaning of an album cover and art and music world is a better place through their ideas and talent.

About the Author

Author Robert Benson writes about rock/pop music, vinyl record collecting and operates
http://www.collectingvinylrecords.com
, where you can pick up a copy of his FREE ebook called "The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting." Have your vinyl records appraised at
http://www.vinylrecordappraisals.com
.

Mason Williams - Classical Gas ( greatest solo ever)

 

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