Storm Thorgerson . 1944 – 2013
An English graphic designer, Thorgerson was best known for his work for rock artists; Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Al Stewart, Europe, Catherine Wheel, Bruce Dickinson, Dream Theatre, Anthrax, The Cranberries, The Mars Volta, Muse, The Allan Parsons Project, Biffy, Clyro and Rival Sons.
In 1968 Thorgerson founded the graphic art group Hipgnosis, with Aubrey Powell. Between them they designed many famous single and album covers. Peter Christopherson joined them for later commissions.
In 1983 Hipgnosis was dissolved and Thorgeson and Powell formed Greenback films and produced music videos.
In the early 90s Thorgerson inaugurated Storm Studios along with Peter Curzon, it was run as a loose group of freelancers.
Thorgerson’s most famous designs were those he designed for Pink Floyd; the design for ‘Dark side of the Moon’ has been called ‘one of the greatest album covers of all time’
Many of Storm Thorgerson’s designs are notable for their surrealistic elements; it is possible to compare his work with that of surrealists Man Ray, Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali; like Magritte, Thorgerson liked to use aspects of the landscape to echo shapes of figure’s heads or animals, he also wrapped figures in cloth, as Magritte used to , and made deliberate use of flame elements like Dali.
Thorgerson often places objects out of their traditional contexts, especially with vast spaces around them, to give them an unusual or unexpected orgesen tended to use photography as a graphic medium more often than the drawn or painted image: ‘I like photography because it is a reality medium unlike drawing which is unreal…I like to mess with reality …to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not?’
Thorgerson avoided using computerised graphics and crafted his eye - catching, often humorus images by using physical props, sometimes oversized human figures, sometimes naked, and such traditional photographic techniques as multiple exposures and colour manipulation. One iconic cover, for Pink Floyds’ ‘Wish you were here’ (1975) involved actually setting fire to a stuntman wearing a dress suit over asbestos, and another, for the band’s Animals (1977) featured London’s Battersea power station with a giant helium – filled pink pig floating overhead. ( Melinda C Shepherd Encyclopedia Britannica)
In an article by CD Anderson published in Imagine Athena, People, Ideas, Culture: Storm Thorgerson, Master of the Surreal Image 10 June 2014, Anderson states:
‘Before the advent of music as a digitalised intangible, music was a very real, physical artefact, and one of its most dynamic elements, besides the music, naturally, were the visuals of the album artwork. While it still plays an important role in the marketing of music today, during the classic era of the gatefold vinyl album cover ( the 1960s through to the 1980s) album art was considered a significant movement in modern pop art development, and no graphic design group defined this more than the Hypgnosis group, led by photographer Storm Thorgerson.
Bibliography:
https://en.wikipedia Storm Thorgerson
www.brittannica.co//topic Storm Elvin Thorgerson
Melinda C Shepherd
imagineathena,com/ p9494/ Storm Thorgerson, Master of the Surreal Image.
C D Anderson 10 June 2014
A comparison of works by Storm Thorgerson and Man Ray
Le Violin d’Ingres by Man Ray Without shoes Jan 2008 Storm Thorgerson
Torso 1936 Man Ray Planet Anthem Storm Thorgerson
Cover for Pink Floyd’s album cover ‘Wish You Were Here’ Pink Floyd’s album coverAnimals
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