Storm Thorgerson

About…

• Storm Thorgerson was born 28th February 1944 in Middlesex and died on the 18th April. When he was a teenager, he went to school with Pink Floyds founders Syd Barrett. Strom was well known for this work as a graphic designer. His best known work is with rock artists such as Pink Floyd, Biffy Clyro, Scorpions & Black Sabbath etc.

• Storm went to the University of Leicester studying English and Philosophy while also graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours.

• After Storm got his degree, he then went off to study Film and Television at the Royal College of Art. This is how he began his carer as he graduated with a Master of Arts degree. By this stage Storm was a teenage friend of Pink Floyds guitarist David Gilmour and Storm was his best man at his wedding so he already had some connections before he went in his graphic designer career.

Career…• Storm’s career began in 1968 along with Aubrey Powell when

he founded the graphic art group Hipgnosis. This is how he started designing many famous and album covers.

• Storm’s most famous designs are Pink Floyd of his design for ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’. He has also worked with other known artists such as Biffy Clyro, Scorpions & Black Sabbath etc.

• Storms way of creating this images/designs are the way he places objects out of their traditional backgrounds this is so Storm can give them an awkward presence while emphasizing their magnificence of the image.

• Storm Thorgerson Quote “I like photography because it is a reality…to bend reality. Some of my works bed the question of is it real or not?”

Hipgnosis…• This was Founded by Storm Thorgerson himself alongside

Aubrey Powell. This was a British art design company that focused on creating CD covers art for rock music artists. They worked on over 15 well known artists when designing covers for them.

• In 1968, friends in Pink Floyd approach Storm and Aubrey to create an album design for their second album, ‘A Saurcerful of Secrets’. This is when Hipgnosis was gaining major international prominence in 1973 when pink Floyds album cover was coming to fame of the design.

• After the amount of fame they got from Pink Floyds design, Hipgnosis began to do many covers for high-profile bands.

• Hipgnosis used primarily Hasselblad medium format cameras for their work, the square film format being especially suited to album cover imagery.

• Unfortunately, the group disbanded in 1983, although, Storm still created album designs while Aubrey was working in video.

6 Steps…• Storm came up with a 6 step theory for creating his most extravagant designs. This is how he created the

designs for Pink Floyd, Muse etc.

• 1. THE BREIF: This is only the first steps into creating a design. This is when the designer (Storm Thorgerson) listens to the music, also reading the lyrics to the song to find out the meanings and discuss it to the band. This is called a ‘brain soup’ from which designs can be extracted to form the brief.

• 2. ROUGHS: The designer then meets the band for further discussions about the type of design they was looking for. This is so they are able to pin-point a theme/idea. In this stage, they begin to be creative as they are doing drafts.

• 3. TESTS: When a rough is confirmed, normally there is a proto-type that is created to make sure that everything fits in place and what it is working properly. Depending what the idea is, they can create clays models.

• 4. SHOOT: They will then need to research a location, this is then booked. Waiting for the right time could be difficult if the shoot will take place outside as they would have to wait for the right weather. Then a wide range of photos is then taken.

• 5. EDITING: They then go through the photos they have taken and pick out the best one from the shoot. This isn’t just a simple 10 minute job, this can take several days or so.

• 6. ARTWORK: When the shot has been chosen, they will clean up the shot or final computer editing is used before the final product is being handed over to be released and finalized.

His Work…

• He has created so many album covers for high listed artists. Here is a few examples of his work he has created…