{"id":22386,"date":"2022-02-01T05:30:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T10:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22386"},"modified":"2022-02-02T08:47:49","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T13:47:49","slug":"the-gem-of-the-idea-hipgnosis-aubrey-powell-looks-back-at-his-iconic-album-designs-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/01\/the-gem-of-the-idea-hipgnosis-aubrey-powell-looks-back-at-his-iconic-album-designs-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gem of the Idea: Hipgnosis\u2019 Aubrey Powell Looks Back at His Iconic Album Designs (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

An edited version of this feature was published in <\/em>Goldmine magazine. — bk<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The October release of an updated and remixed version of Pink Floyd\u2019s A Momentary Lapse of Reason <\/i>represents an opportunity to correct some of that album\u2019s shortcomings, making it a truer example of the band\u2019s strengths in the late \u201880s. It also marks an opportunity for Aubrey \u201cPo\u201d Powell, the band\u2019s longtime visual collaborator, to revisit his cover art for that record. Moreover, it presents an occasion to take a look back at the groundbreaking and influential work he did as part of Hipgnosis, the leading album design group of the rock era.<\/p>\n

More than any other artists or designers, the work of Hipgnosis defined the character of \u2013 and set a high standard for \u2013 rock album cover art. Between 1968 and 1983, the London-based art design group led by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell created a staggering body of work, developing iconic cover art and packaging for more than 250 albums.<\/p>\n

Beginning with Pink Floyd\u2019s second LP A Saucerful of Secrets<\/i> and continuing through to Rainbow\u2019s Bent Out of Shape<\/i>, Hipgnosis worked with virtually every big name in rock (especially British artists) and played an important role in elevating album cover art into a creative discipline of its own. Powell explains that it\u2019s in large part thanks to Floyd guitarist David Gilmour that he ever got into album design.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Cambridge, England, Powell was a childhood friend of Gilmour. A musician himself, Powell recalls asking his guitarist friend what he thought of his band, The Darktown Strutters. \u201cI don\u2019t think you should give up the day job,\u201d Gilmour told his fellow teenage instrumentalist. \u201cSo that was it,\u201d Powell says with a chuckle. \u201cI decided to stay working in graphics, photographs and stuff like that. And it turned out to be pretty successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell is greatly understating the matter. Browse the record collection of any aficionado of rock music and you\u2019re likely to encounter dozens (if not hundreds) of Hipgnosis designs. From the \u201cprism\u201d cover of Pink Floyd\u2019s The Dark Side of the Moon<\/i> to Led Zeppelin album covers (Houses of the Holy<\/i>, Presence<\/i> and In Through the Out Door<\/i>, to name a few) to Paul McCartney (Venus and Mars<\/i>, Wings at the Speed of Sound<\/i>, Wings Over America<\/i> and more), The Alan Parsons Project (I Robot<\/i>, Eve<\/i> and others), Hipgnosis has created the visuals that remain integral parts of those releases. They\u2019ve also done the same for Emerson Lake and Palmer, Electric Light Orchestra, Bad Company, 10cc, The Hollies, Caravan, Al Stewart, Black Sabbath, Genesis, Todd Rundgren, Hot Chocolate, Bad Company, Scorpions and even Throbbing Gristle along with many, many<\/em> more.<\/p>\n

In 1968, Powell was working as a scenic designer for the BBC, and his friend Thorgerson (who passed away in 2013) was studying at the Royal College of Art. The two began working together on creative projects. \u201cWe\u2019d been shooting book covers using infrared photography,\u201d Powell recalls, \u201cand David Gilmour had seen some. He said to Roger [Waters, Pink Floyd bassist and eventually lyricist], \u2018Why don’t we try with Storm and Powell, give them a chance to do an album cover, something different?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At the time, Pink Floyd was searching for a new approach and identity<\/a> in the wake of losing founding member, guitarist, focal point and songwriter Syd Barrett. Part of their strategy was asserting creative control over all components of their work. But at the time, the idea was almost without precedent. \u201cThe only other band on [Harvest Records\u2019 parent label] EMI that had creative control over their album covers was The Beatles,\u201d Powell notes. So when Pink Floyd got their way, it was a big deal for them and the entire music industry.<\/p>\n

It meant a lot for Powell and Thorgerson too, who named their new design outfit Hipgnosis, a pun based on the combination of \u201chip\u201d and \u201cgnostic\u201d (spiritual learning). And the creative success of their cover art for A Saucerful of Secrets<\/i> led to more work in a similar vein. Powell laughs at the memory: \u201cBryan Morrison, Pink Floyd\u2019s manager, said \u2018Ah, that\u2019s great! It only cost me $50. I\u2019ve got masses of other bands: The Pretty Things, Marc Bolan\u2019s T. Rex. You can do their album covers, too!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that his and Thorgerson\u2019s fateful meeting with Pink Floyd was informal and not a \u201cbusiness meeting,\u201d Powell emphasizes that had it not taken place, \u201cwe would never have gotten into the record industry.\u201d He believes he would have stayed on his then-current path. \u201cI probably would’ve gone on to be a production designer for movies,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd Storm would’ve probably gone onto a career in film or something. But by chance, that meeting changed the course of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cover and packaging for 1973\u2019s The Dark Side of the Moon<\/i> is perhaps the best-known Hipgnosis project. By that point, Powell and Thorgerson were well established, having already designed more than 60 album covers. \u201cOur career went into a trajectory that was absolutely off the block,\u201d Powell says.\u201d He still marvels at the path his life and career has taken. \u201cI had no idea that 53 years after forming Hipgnosis that I\u2019d be talking to you about album cover art,\u201d he says. \u201cI had not even the faintest thought of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An edited version of this feature was published in Goldmine magazine. — bk The October release of an updated and remixed version of Pink Floyd\u2019s A Momentary Lapse of Reason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62],"tags":[4762,4764,4763],"class_list":["post-22386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-aubrey-powell","tag-hipgnosis","tag-storm-thorgerson","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22386"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22423,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22386\/revisions\/22423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}