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Hipgnosis was a British art design group which specialized in creating cover art for rock albums, most notably for Pink Floyd, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Yes and Black Sabbath. Hipgnosis consisted primarily of Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson. The group dissolved in 1983, but Thorgerson still works on album designs.

Contents 1 History 2 Style 3 Catalogue of Work 4 References

In 1968 Thorgerson and Powell were asked by their friends in Pink Floyd, if they were interested in designing the cover for their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. They did, and did additional work for EMI, including photos and album covers for 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.

When first starting out, Powell and Thorgerson adopted their name from graffiti they found on the door to their apartment. They liked the word, not only for sounding like "hypnosis," but for combining two somewhat contradictory terms, "hip", or new and cool, with "gnosis," relating to ancient learning.

Hipgnosis got its big break in 1973, with the cover for Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The record itself was wildly successful, which put it in the hands of millions of fans, and it has since been hailed as one of the best album covers of all time (VH1 rated the cover as #4, in 2003). After that, the firm became in-demand, and did many covers for high-profile bands such as Led Zeppelin, Genesis, UFO, Peter Gabriel and The Alan Parsons Project. They also designed the cover for the original UK paperback of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

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. Of particular note were freelance artists, George Hardie, Colin Elgie, Richard Evans and Richard Manning.

One notable fact was that 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" a policy that only occasionally backfired according to Thorgerson in his book on album cover design.

Hipgnosis' approach to album design was strongly photography-oriented, and they pioneered the use of many innovative visual and packaging techniques. In particular, Thorgerson & Powell's surreal, elaborately manipulated photos (utilizing darkroom tricks, airbrush retouching, and mechanical cut-and-paste techniques) were a film-based forerunner of what would, much later, be called photoshopping. Hipgnosis used primarily Hasselblad medium format cameras for their work, the square film format being especially suited to album cover imagery.

Another Hipgnosis trademark is that many of their cover photos told "stories" directly related to the album's lyrics. Since both Powell and Thorgerson were film students, they often used models as "actors" 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 slickly photographed tableaux.

Many of Hipgnosis' covers also featured distinctively "high tech" pen and ink logos and illustrations (often by graphic designer George Hardie), stickers, fancy inner sleeves, and other packaging goodies.

• Alphabet City, ABC, 1987
• The Alan Parsons Project
  • 1976, Tales of Mystery and Imagination
  • 1977, I Robot
  • 1978, Pyramid
  • 1979, Eve
  • 1982, Eye in the Sky
• Audience
  • 1971, House on the Hill
  • 1972, Lunch
  • 1973, You Can't Beat 'em

• Black Sabbath
  • 1976, Technical Ecstasy
  • 1978, Never Say Die!
• The Electric Light Orchestra/No Answer, Electric Light Orchestra, 1971
• Genesis
  • 1974, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
  • 1976, A Trick of the Tail
  • 1977, Wind & Wuthering
  • 1978, ...And Then There Were Three...

• Led Zeppelin
  • 1973, Houses of the Holy
  • 1976, The Song Remains the Same, Led Zeppelin,
  • 1976, Presence, Led Zeppelin,
  • 1979, In Through the Out Door, Led Zeppelin,
  • 1982, Coda, Led Zeppelin,
• Pink Floyd
  • 1968, A Saucerful of Secrets
  • 1969, Ummagumma
  • 1970, Atom Heart Mother
  • 1971, Meddle
  • 1971, Relics
  • 1972, Obscured by Clouds
  • 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon
  • 1974, A Nice Pair
  • 1975, Wish You Were Here
  • 1977, Animals
  • 1981, A Collection of Great Dance Songs
  • 1994, The Division Bell

• Al Stewart
  • 1973, Past, Present and Future
  • 1975, Modern Times
  • 1976, Year of the Cat
  • 1978, Time Passages
• UFO
  • 1974, Phenomenon
  • 1975, Force It
  • 1976, No Heavy Petting
  • 1977, Lights Out
  • 1978, Obsession
  • 1979, Strangers In The Night
  • 1980, No Place to Run
  • 1981, The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent
• Cochise, Cochise, 1970
• The Madcap Laughs, Syd Barrett, 1970
• Electric Warrior, T. Rex, 1971
• Elegy, The Nice, 1971

• Argus, Wishbone Ash, 1972
• Thunderbox, Humble Pie, 1974
• Uno, Uno, 1974
• Bad Company, Bad Company, 1974
• Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, 1975
• The Original Soundtrack, 10cc, 1975
• Straight Shooter, Bad Company, 1975
• Savage Eye, Pretty Things, 1975
• Cunning Stunts, Caravan, 1975
• HQ, Roy Harper, 1975
• Venus and Mars, Wings, 1975

• Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, AC/DC, 1976
• Jump On It, Montrose, 1976
• Wings at the Speed of Sound, Wings, 1976
• Wings over America, Wings, 1976
• How Dare You!, 10cc, 1976
• Peter Gabriel (I), Peter Gabriel, 1977
• Burnin' Sky, Bad Company, 1977
• Sammy Hagar, Sammy Hagar, 1977
• Deceptive Bends, 10cc, 1977

• Going For The One, Yes, 1977
• Peter Gabriel (II), Peter Gabriel, 1978
• Wet Dream, Richard Wright, 1978
• David Gilmour, David Gilmour, 1978
• Pieces of Eight, Styx, 1978
• Tormato, Yes, 1978
• Bloody Tourists, 10cc, 1978
• A Song for All Seasons, Renaissance, 1978
• Back to the Bars, Todd Rundgren, 1978
• Go 2, XTC, 1978
• Live Herald, Steve Hillage, 1979
• Lovedrive, Scorpions, 1979
• Desolation Angels, Bad Company, 1979

• Def Leppard
• Freeze Frame, Godley & Creme, 1979
• Danger Money, UK, 1979
• Peter Gabriel (III), Peter Gabriel, 1980
• Difficult to Cure, Rainbow, 1980
• Do They Hurt?, Brand X, 1980
• Fictitious Sports, Nick Mason, 1981
• Fun in Space, Roger Taylor, 1981
• High 'n Dry, Def Leppard, 1981
• Sakuban oai shimasho, Yumi Matsutoya, 1981
• Tug of War, Paul McCartney, 1982
• Rough Diamonds, Bad Company, 1982
• Tightly Knit, Climax Blues Band
• Toe Fat, Toe Fat

• The Pink Floyd who's who
• Partial List of Hipgnosis Works
• Storm Thorgerson's official website

Pink Floyd
David Gilmour • Richard Wright • Nick Mason Syd Barrett • Bob Klose • Roger Waters
Discography
Studio albums	The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) • A Saucerful of Secrets (1968) • Ummagumma (1969) • Atom Heart Mother (1970) • Meddle (1971) • The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) • Wish You Were Here (1975) • Animals (1977) • The Wall (1979) • The Final Cut (1983) • A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) • The Division Bell (1994)
Soundtracks	Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (1968) • More (1969) • Zabriskie Point (1970) • Obscured by Clouds (1972)
Live albums	Ummagumma (1969) • Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988) • P*U*L*S*E (1995) • Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (2000)
Compilations	Relics (1971) • A Nice Pair (1973) • Masters of Rock (1974) • A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981) • Works (1983) • Shine On (The Early Singles) (1992) • 1967 Singles Sampler (1997) • Echoes (2001)
Films
Live at Pompeii • The Wall • Delicate Sound of Thunder • La Carrera Panamericana • London '66-'67 • The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon • P*U*L*S*E • The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story
Related articles
Alan Parsons • Storm Thorgerson/Hipgnosis • Steve O'Rourke • Contributors • Live performances • Trivia • A Tree Full of Secrets • Pigs • Publius Enigma • Dark Side of the Rainbow • The Man and the Journey • List of ROIOs
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