Storm Thorgerson – a Legend in Album Cover Design

For nearly five decades, Thorgerson designed record album covers for some of the most famous rock and roll bands in the world, including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Genesis, the Cranberries, Styx, and many, many more. Thorgerson moved album cover design away from simple photos of the musical artist to images reflecting the music on the record album. Although Thorgerson worked mainly with photography, many of his designs are notable for their surreal elements where he would have objects placed out of their traditional contexts. Thorgerson once stated “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?” To this end Thorgerson would sometimes give objects on his iconic album cover designs an awkward appearance while still highlighting their beauty by surrounding them with vast spaces. Thorgerson used an extraordinary coupling of the exotic, the extravagant, and the improvised to convey a sense of magic and wonder in the unrestrained reality that he created on an album cover.

Thorgerson was born in England in 1944 and grew up with Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, three of the members of Pink Floyd. It is this relationship that ultimately lead Thorgerson to become an album cover designer. The story goes that while sharing an apartment with friend, Aubrey Powell, Thorgerson volunteered, to design the album cover for Pink Floyd’s second album, “A Saucerful of Secrets”; after Powell declined the bands request for help. Thorgerson and Powell would later formed Hipgnosis, one of the most well-known album cover design firms in rock and roll history. Considered by many to be the greatest album cover of all time, Pink Floyd’s eighth record album, “The Dark Side of the Moon” was designed by Thorgerson and Powell at Hipgnosis. Between 1968 and 1983, Thorgerson designed hundreds of record album covers through the Hipgnosis designed firm, many of which are considered some of the greatest album covers of all time.

On 18 April 2013, at the age of 69, Storm Thorgerson died after struggling for several years with cancer. In September 2013, Thorgerson’s final book “The Gathering Storm – A Quartet in Several Parts” was released, featuring album covers, artwork, photographs, and anecdotes, spanning more than fifty years of Thorgerson’s life from his early days at Hipgnosis through his work with StormStudios, the design firm he started in the 1990s.

The following are some of the great album covers that Storm Thorgerson was involved in:

Pink Floyd

A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
Ummagumma (1969)
Atom Heart Mother (1970)
Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
A Nice Pair (1973)
Wish You Were Here (1975)

Animals (1977)
A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981)
A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)[9]
The Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988)
Shine On (1992)[9]
The Division Bell (1994)
P*U*L*S*E (1995), including the blinking LED light that was featured in early CD packaging.[17]
Relics re-release (1996)
Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81 (2000)
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001)
Oh, by the Way (2007)

David Gilmour

David Gilmour (1978)
About Face (1984)

Led Zeppelin

Houses of the Holy (1973)
Presence (1976)
The Song Remains the Same (1976)
In Through the Out Door (1979)
Coda (1982)

The Scorpions

Lovedrive (1979)
Animal Magnetism (1980)

AC/DC

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976)

Black Sabbath

Technical Ecstasy (1976)
Never Say Die! (1978)

10cc

Sheet Music (1974)

How Dare You! (1976)
Deceptive Bends (1977)
Bloody Tourists (1978)
Greatest Hits 1972–1978 (1979)
Mirror Mirror (1994)

Tenology (2012)

UFO

Phenomenon (1974)
Force It (1975)
No Heavy Petting (1976)
Lights Out (1977)
Obsession (1978)
Strangers in the Night (1979)
No Place to Run (1980)
The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent (1981)
Making Contact (1983)

The Cranberries

Promises (1999)

Bury the Hatchet (1999)
Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001)

Styx

Pieces of Eight (1978)
Cyclorama (2003)

The Alan Parsons Project

Tales of Mystery and Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe (1976)
Pyramid (1978)
Eve (1979)
Eye in the Sky (1982)

Alan Parsons

Try Anything Once (1993)
On Air (1996)
The Time Machine (1999)
A Valid Path (2004)

Paul McCartney

Tug of War (1982)

Wings

Venus and Mars (1975)
Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976)

Bad Company

Bad Company (1974)
Straight Shooter (1975)
Burnin’ Sky (1977)
Desolation Angels (1979)
Rough Diamonds 1982

Genesis

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)
…And Then There Were Three… (1978)

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel (1977)
Peter Gabriel (1978)
Peter Gabriel (1980)

Mars Volta

De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)

Frances the Mute (2004)
The Widow (2005)

Rainbow

Difficult to Cure (1981)
Straight Between the Eyes (1982)
Bent Out of Shape (1983)

Steve Miller Band

Bingo! (2010)
Let Your Hair Down (2011)

Catherine Wheel

Chrome (1993)
Happy Days (1995)
Like Cats and Dogs (1996)
Adam And Eve (1997)
Wishville (2000)

Al Stewart

The Early Years (1977)
Time Passages (1978)

Yourcodenameis:milo

Rapt. Dept. (2005)
17 (2005)
Ignoto (2005)

Rick Wright

Wet Dream (1978)
Broken China (1996)

Younger Brother

Last Days of Gravity (2007)
Vaccine (2011)

Thunder

Laughing On Judgement Day (1992)
Behind Closed Doors (1995)

Umphrey’s McGee

Safety In Numbers (2006)
The Bottom Half (2007)

Thornley

Come Again (2004)
Tiny Pictures (2009)

Trees

The Garden of Jane Delawney (1970)
On the Shore (1971)

Electric Light Orchestra

ELO 2 (1973)
On the Third Day (1973)
The Light Shines On (1977)

Robin Trower
Caravan to Midnight (1978)

Helloween

Pink Bubbles Go Ape (1991)

Europe

Secret Society (2006)

Wishbone Ash

No Smoke Without Fire (1978)
New England (1976)

Phish

Slip Stitch and Pass (1997)

The Offspring

Splinter (2003)

Audioslave

Audioslave (2002)

The Answer

New Horizon (2013)

Biffy Clyro

Puzzle (2007)

Anthrax

Stomp 442 (1995)

Muse

Absolution (2003)

Slow Earth

Latitude and 023 (2013)

Bruce Dickinson

Skunkworks (1996)

Dream Theater

A Change of Seasons (1995)
Falling into Infinity (1997)

goodbyemotel

If (2014)

Powderfinger

Golden Rule (2009)

Ellis, Beggs, & Howard

Homelands (1989)

Herman Rarebell

Nip in the Bud (1981)

Disco Biscuits

Planet Anthem (2010)

Mike Rutherford

Smallcreep’s Day (1980)

Ian Dury and The Blockheads

Mr. Love Pants (1998)

Rival Sons

Pressure & Time (2011)

The Plea

The Dreamers Stadium (2012)

Villainy

Mode. Set. Clear. (2012)

The Wombats

This Modern Glitch (2011)

Ethnix

Home Is Where The Head Is (2002)

Program the Dead

Program The Dead (2005)

Ween

The Mollusk (1997)

Shpongle

Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland (2009)

Pendulum

Immersion (2010)

The Pineapple Thief

Someone Here Is Missing (2010)

The Pretty Things

Parachute (1970)

Climax Blues Band

Sense of Direction (1974)

Neil Ardley

Harmony of the Spheres (1979)

Jane’s Addiction

Strays (2003)

Megadeth

Rude Awakening (2002)

Healing Sixes

Enormosound (2002)

Renaissance

Ashes Are Burning (1973)
Da Capo (1995)

Deepest Blue

Late September (2004)