Hipgnosis were an English art design group, based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, Wishbone Ash, UFO, 10cc, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, the Nice, Paul McCartney & Wings, the Alan Parsons Project, Yes, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Electric Light Orchestra, Rainbow, Styx and Al Stewart.
Hipgnosis consisted primarily of Cambridge natives Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, and later Peter Christopherson.The photodesigns of Hipgnosis The Goodbye look. Vermillion Hutchinson Publishing Group. 1982 The group dissolved in 1983, though Thorgerson worked on album designs until his death in 2013. Powell has worked with Paul McCartney and the Who in film and video production, and as the creative director for both Pink Floyd and their lead guitarist David Gilmour. Christopherson went on to produce music videos for many bands and shot some of the earliest promotional photography for the Sex Pistols, but worked primarily as an electronic musician in the bands Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and Coil until his death in 2010.
History
In 1968, Thorgerson and Powell were approached by their friends in Pink Floyd to design the cover for the group's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. This led to additional work for EMI, including photos and album covers for the Pretty Things, Free, Toe Fat and the Gods. Being film and art school students, they were able to use the darkroom at the Royal College of Art, but when they completed school, they had to set up their own facilities. They built a small darkroom in Powell's bathroom, but shortly thereafter, in early 1970, rented space and built a studio located at 6 Denmark Street.
When first starting out, Powell and Thorgerson adopted their name from graffiti they found on the door to their apartment. Thorgerson said they liked the word, not only for punning on "hypnosis", but for possessing "a nice sense of contradiction, of an impossible co-existence, from Hip = new, cool, and groovy, and gnosis, relating to ancient learning".Thorgerson, S: The Work of Hipgnosis: Walk Away René, page 87. Paper Tiger, 1978.
Hipgnosis gained major international prominence in 1973 with their cover design for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. The final design was one of several versions prepared for the band to choose from, but according to drummer Nick Mason, the 'prism/pyramid' design was the immediate and unanimous choice. The record itself became one of the biggest-selling and longest-charting albums of all time, and the cover has since been hailed as one of the best of all time (VH1 rated it as No. 4 in 2003). After that, the firm became highly sought-after and did many covers for high-profile bands and artists such as Led Zeppelin, Genesis, UFO, Black Sabbath, Peter Gabriel, the Alan Parsons Project, and Yes. They also designed the cover for a UK paperback edition of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams would describe Thorgerson as "The best album designer in the world"), as well as the original UK hardcover edition of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron.
Peter Christopherson joined Hipgnosis as an assistant in 1974 and later became a full partner. The firm employed many assistants and other staff members over the years, including freelance designers and illustrators Richard Evans, George Hardie, and Richard Manning.
Hipgnosis did not have a set fee for designing an album cover but instead asked the artists to "pay what they thought it was worth". (The italics are present in the original.)
Style
Hipgnosis's approach to album design was strongly photography-oriented, and they pioneered the use of many innovative visual and packaging techniques. In particular, Thorgerson and Powell's surreal, elaborately manipulated photos (utilizing darkroom tricks, multiple exposures, airbrush retouching, and mechanical cut-and-paste techniques) were a film-based forerunner of what would, much later, be called photoshopping. Hipgnosis mainly used Hasselblad medium format cameras for their work.
Hipgnosis covers were noted for their quirky humour, such as the cover for the Pink Floyd double-LP compilation A Nice Pair (1973), which featured an array of visual puns. Another example was the 1974 album There's the Rub for Wishbone Ash using a picture of a cricketer and ball.
Such humour once angered Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, when Hipgnosis created a visual pun based on "(tennis) racquet"/"(noise) racket" for the 1973 album Houses of the Holy. Hipgnosis almost lost Led Zeppelin as a client as a result.
Another trademark was that many of their cover photos visually related to the album's lyrics, often depicting puns or double meanings of words in the album title. Since both Powell and Thorgerson were film students, they often used models and staged the photos in a highly theatrical manner. Hipgnosis covers rarely featured artists' photos on the outside, and most were in a gatefold cover format to provide ample space for their imagery.
Many of Hipgnosis's covers also featured pen and ink logos and illustrations designed to appear high-tech (often by graphic designer George Hardie), stickers, fancy inner sleeves, and other packaging bonuses. One of the extras created by Hipgnosis was the specially printed inner sleeve for Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door (1979) LP, which was black and white but turned to colour when dampened with water (tying in with the main cover's photographic theme).
Catalogue Year Artist Album1968 Pink Floyd A Saucerful of Secrets A New Generation of Blues Genesis Till There Was You The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation1969 Pink Floyd MoreThe GunGun Sight To Samuel a SonPink Floyd Ummagumma Panama Limited Jug Band Panama Limited Jug BandHumble Pie Town and CountryIsland Records artists You Can All Join In1970 HorizonsPink Floyd Atom Heart MotherQuatermass Quatermass Parachute The Going's Easy The Madcap Laughs Five BridgesToe Fat Toe FatCochise CochiseHarvest Records artists Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air Panama Limited Indian Summer Sounds Nice Love at First SightGravy Train Gravy Train Barrett Remains to Be HeardArgent Ring of HandsJackson Heights King ProgressTwink Think PinkProbe Records artists Handle With Care1971 T. Rex Electric WarriorToe Fat Toe Fat 2Trees On the ShoreMarvin, Welch & Farrar Marvin, Welch & Farrar ElegyPink Floyd MeddleElectric Light Orchestra The Electric Light OrchestraAudience House on the Hill Edgar Broughton BandWishbone Ash PilgrimageClimax Blues Band Tightly KnitTear Gas Tear GasStackridge Stackridge Daddy Longlegs Oakdown Farm Master's Apprentices ChangesPink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Italian reissue) Rory Gallagher1972 Flash FlashWishbone Ash Argus Autumn '67 – Spring '68Fumble Fumble Distant LightRenaissance Prologue Inside OutAudience Lunch Freeway MadnessPink Floyd Obscured by CloudsEmerson, Lake & Palmer TrilogyBlue Mink A Time of Change Meanwhile...Back at the World Glencoe Glencoe Danta Danta Romany Olivia Crying Laughing Loving Lying1973 Electric Light Orchestra ELO 2Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon Minstrel in FlightElectric Light Orchestra On the Third Day Oora Past, Present and FutureArgent In DeepLed Zeppelin Houses of the HolyAudience You Can't Beat 'Em LifemaskRenaissance Ashes Are BurningWishbone Ash Wishbone FourLive DatesFlash Out of Our Hands Various artists Music from Free CreekHumble Pie ThunderboxVinegar Joe Rock 'n Roll GypsiesBabe Ruth Amar CaballeroPink Floyd A Nice Pair Public Foot the Roman Public Foot the Roman Rockin' with Curly Leads1974 Sharks Jab It in Yore Eye Uno UnoGenesis The Lamb Lies Down on BroadwayWishbone Ash There's the RubNazareth RampantRenaissance Turn of the Cards Valentine Somethin's Happening Flashes from the Archives of OblivionBad Company Bad CompanyBlue Mink FruityFumble Poetry in Lotion Syd Barrett10cc Sheet Music Silk TorpedoUFO Phenomenon Mind Wave HolliesSweet Desolation Boulevard1975 UFO Force It Savage EyePink Floyd Wish You Were HereBad Company Straight ShooterRenaissance Scheherazade and Other Stories HQ A Bunch of 45s The Greatest Show on Earth10cc The Original Soundtrack S. F. Sorrow / Parachute, double reissue (UK version only) Modern TimesWings Venus and MarsAlberto y Lost Trios Paranoias Alberto y Lost Trios ParanoiasCaravan Cunning StuntsSassafras Wheelin 'n' Dealin First Starring RoleStrife Rush The WinkiesSolution Cordon Bleu Subtle as a Flying Mallet Specs Appeal1976 AC/DC Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (International edition)Golden Earring To the HiltMontrose Jump on ItKevin Coyne HeartburnWings Wings at the Speed of Sound Year of the Cat Tales of Mystery and ImaginationBlack Sabbath Technical EcstasyGenesis A Trick of the Tail10cc How Dare You!Led Zeppelin The Song Remains the Same PresenceBrand X Unorthodox BehaviourWings Wings over America Olias of SunhillowNazareth Close Enough for Rock 'n' RollUFO No Heavy PettingWishbone Ash New EnglandGenesis Wind & Wuthering Stranger in the City Russian Roulette1977 Wishbone Ash Front Page News SongwriterUFO Lights Out I Robot10cc Deceptive Bends BullinamingvaseBrand X Moroccan RollLivestock Sammy Hagar The Early Years Musical ChairsBad Company Burnin' SkyPink Floyd AnimalsElectric Light Orchestra The Light Shines On Peter Gabriel (I) (aka "Car")Yes Going for the OneFabulous Poodles Mirror Stars Face to Face: A Live RecordingHawkwind Quark, Strangeness and CharmSpace DeliveranceStatus Quo Live!Strawbs Deadlines Caught Live + 5 (as "Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington") ThrillingtonWishbone Ash Classic Ash1978 Manset 2870Pezband Laughing in the DarkBe-Bop Deluxe Drastic Plastic Wet Dream David GilmourStyx Pieces of EightWings Wings Greatest Back to the BarsXTC Go 2 Caravan to MidnightYes TormatoGenesis …And Then There Were Three…Wishbone Ash No Smoke Without Fire Peter Gabriel (II) (aka "Scratch") Time Passages PyramidBlack Sabbath Never Say Die!Renaissance A Song for All SeasonsSynergy CordsUFO Obsession10cc Bloody Tourists Approved by the Motors (version 2)Version 1 of the album shows an image of all four members. This first cover was designed by Cooke Key Associates. After Ricky Slaughter and Bram Tchaikovsky left The Motors the album was reissued with a new cover. That new cover is designed by Hipgnosis. ZaragonHot Chocolate Every 1's a Winner Nite FlightsWings London Town Gerry RaffertyNovalis Vielleicht Bist Du Ein Clown?1979 UFO Strangers in the NightScorpions Lovedrive EveBad Company Desolation Angels The Dukes Parlez-Vous English (as the Broughtons)10cc Greatest Hits 1972–1978Led Zeppelin In Through the Out DoorBrand X ProductManfred Mann's Earth Band Angel Station No More Fear of Flying Live HeraldGodley & Creme Freeze FrameU.K. Danger Money Mick TaylorAshra Correlations Slide Away the ScreenThrobbing Gristle 20 Jazz Funk Greats Welcome to the CruiseWings Back to the EggSynergy Games1980 The Michael Schenker Group Cross TalkBrand X Do They Hurt? Smallcreep's Day10cc Look Hear? Peter Gabriel (III) (aka "Melt")Scorpions Animal MagnetismUFO No Place to Run Caught in the CrossfireWishbone Ash Just Testing Living in a Fantasy De Do Do Do, De Da Da DaWishbone Ash Live Dates 21981 UFO The Wild, the Willing and the InnocentPink Floyd A Collection of Great Dance SongsRainbow Difficult to Cure Fictitious Sports Fun in SpaceDef Leppard High 'n' Dry Sakuban Oaisimashō Nip in the Bud Tilt 19841982 Music Spoken Here Tug of WarRainbow Straight Between the Eyes Eye in the SkyBad Company Rough DiamondsLed Zeppelin Coda1983 Rainbow Bent Out of Shape VoyagerPrototypePrototype
References
External links [ AllMusic album credits]
Unofficial Hipgnosis website Squaring the Circle: the story of Hipgnosis