Music Visuals pt.I: Eye of the Storm

Storm Thorgerson is one of my primary inspirations in the realm of visual art. A fine artist most known for his exceptional and numerous album artworks, he is also a photographer and loves to experiment with models and film, mainly to support his design concepts. On top of all, he has a degree in filmmaking, which only contributes to his visions, which are beautiful in a challenging way.


Here is a bio in his own words: "Born, if that's the word, in Potters Bar Middx, in 1944, schooled at Summerhill free school and then Brunswick primary Cambridge. Secondary education at local grammar Cambs. High School for boys (no girls) and BA Hons in English and Philosophy from Leicester University (63 - 66) and finally an MA in film and TV from the Royal College of Art, London (66 - 69). Formed Hipgnosis in 1968 with Aubrey Powell (Po), a graphic design studio specializing in creative photography and working mainly in the music business designing album covers for many rock 'n' roll bands including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, 10cc, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett and Styx, amongst others. Started a series of books on album cover art with Roger Dean called Album Cover Album, and with Hipgnosis wrote and designed Walk Away Rene 1978 and The Goodbye Look 1982 about their own stuff.

In 1983 Storm, along with Po and Peter Christopherson, formed Green Back Films and embarked on producing numerous rock videos including material for Paul Young, Yes, Nik Kershaw, Robert Plant, Interferon, Nona Hendryx, Big Country and many others and also long forms for Barry Gibb (Voyager), Yumi Matsutoya (Train of Thought), and Channel Q a heavy metal compilation for Polygram Records. Green Back and its partners went up in smoke in 1985.
Storm went solo (because he had to) and continued making videos ("Learning To Fly" for Pink Floyd won "best director" at Billboard), and tried his hand at commercials (Tennants 'One Great Thing' won Golden Rose in Scotland). He continued designing album covers for Pink Floyd, Catherine Wheel, Alan Parsons, Anthrax, amongst others, and branched out into documentaries, making "Art Of Tripping" for Ch 4 in 1993, a two part exploration of the connections between drugs and artists.

In 1994 Storm directed six short films for Pink Floyd which were screened at concerts during their world tour, and also an hour long science documentary on the Hubble Constant for Equinox called "The Rubber Universe". In 1997 he compiled a book of his images for Pink Floyd called 'Mind Over Matter' published by Sanctuary Books. And in 97/98 wrote and directed an hour long documentary for Discovery channel about the (non) existence of Aliens subtitled "Are We Alone?" (Or was it We Are Alone)."

Storm continues to design album covers for Phish, Ian Dury, Cranberries, Pink Floyd, Catherine Wheel, Alan Parsons, Ween, The Mars Volta, to execute assorted graphics for DVDs, websites, programs, T-shirts and so on, and to direct the occasional film. He has written and designed several books including "100 Best Album Covers" (Dorling Kindersley) and "Eye Of The Storm".