
No typography, no band name or title, just a photo of a Friesian cow in a field: that’s what left an EMI record company executive perplexed when this was presented to him as artwork for a major signing, namely Pink Floyd and their Atom Heart Mother LP. Subsequently, anyone walking down LA’s Sunset Strip in late 1970 would struggle to miss that cow, high up on a billboard staring back at them. Floyd had requested something ‘minimalist’ from Hipgnosis, the art team responsible, and received something that would become iconic.
Many such tales feature in Us And Them – the authorised story of Hipgnosis founders Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell and Storm Thorgerson, and their artistic commissions for rock royalty from Led Zeppelin to Peter Gabriel and Paul McCartney. Mark Blake first takes us back to 1960s counterculture in Cambridge: here, Powell and Thorgerson forged a friendship with the earlier incarnation of Pink Floyd, whose co-founder Syd Barrett looms large.
During the 1970s, for better or worse, Powell and Thorgerson were fully immersed in their clients’ rock’n’roll lifestyles, travelling the globe creating album covers that still resonate today. Predating graphic design’s modern era of Apple Macs and Photoshop, we’re treated to a detailed insight into the thought process behind sleeve designs such as Led Zeppelin’s Presence. Thorgerson – who died in 2013 – and Powell also spill the beans on some insane, hilarious and Indiana Jones-esque adventures.
With the 1980s came new trends: CDs took over from vinyl, Zeppelin split and Floyd endured their own troubles, as did Hipgnosis. It all makes for a detailed, hijinks-packed art and rock-fuelled adventure like no other that comes highly recommended.
Us And Them: The Authorised Story Of Hipgnosis, Mark Blake (Nine Eight)
Price: £22. Info: here
words DAVID NOBAKHT
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