HYPERGALLERY: the art of the album

Time for some Secret 7"

2012-01-30T17:51:00.000Z

Once in a while it is nice to be reminded of what it is about sleeve design, album cover art, music and it's packaging that is so ruddy great and Secret 7" has done just that for this hypergallery blogger. Secret 7" combines music and art all in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust and you can find out more on the project's facebook page.

The basic premise is similar to the RCA Secret postcard show that has been such a success, year after year. But this is better, naturally! Because it is all about sleeve design and as the project's own campaign manager says, "Thereis something about vinyl that transcends every format that has followed in itspath ... [it] allowsthe listener to be absorbed by more than one of their senses."

More on this to come but do check out the facebook page in the meantime or follow Secret7s on twitter.

New signed book from Storm Thorgerson

2012-01-25T17:03:00.000Z

New signed book from Storm Thorgerson:

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Hypergallery's Andy interviewed on camera for the Daily Record

2012-01-09T16:11:00.000Z

2011: Year of NEW

2011-12-31T12:40:00.000Z

It's been a year of new things for hypergallery - NEW website, new editions published, NEW friends at the A&D Gallery and Centre Arts. We also launched our NEW Vimeo channel with videos of Storm Thorgerson and Steve Miller.

In the spirit of the best albums lists that dominate the culture pages at this time each year we'll start a NEW tradition: taking a look at those lists and illuminating some of the noteworthy album cover art from amongst the ordained. This is a gentle foray and by no means a top five list.

Björk - Biophilia

Artist: M/M Paris and Inez & Vinoodh

Never one to neglect the visual Björk has given us a real feast for the eyes and mind with her latest project. From a photo session with M/M Paris and Inez & Vinoodh that reportedly inspired her video for Moon, this image joins a lineage of extraordinary album cover portraits of Björk, instantly recognisable yet totally unique. Sporting the huge orange wig that she debuted at her Biophilia live shows (in which it provided a canvas for dramatic lighting and an expression of landscape, life forms and the Biophilia themes) she fills the square image with her pose. No little pixie here: she is a diva, an earth mother, a magician and a goddess.

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Artist: PJ Harvey and Michelle Henning

Featuring Harvey's own drawings the simple cover image works with the typography to almost onomatopoeic effect. Like Björk, Harvey is an artistic force that cannot be contained within the boundaries of the musical.

Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Artist: Gregor Euclide

Gregory Euclide has been thoughtful enough to document his work on this cover in progress and publish the photos on Flickr HERE and HERE. Such a treat and so rare for an artist to document and moreover share their studio practice so closely.

Euclide's work, etherial landscapes with a nod to east asian pictorial traditions and also perhaps to european childrens' story book illustrations, seems the perfect fit for Bon Iver's delicate, wintry music.

You can read an interview with Euclide all about the album artwork on the excellent My Love For You blog by Meighan O'Toole.

Staying on the path of exemplary singer songwriter whimsy we have a very different cover indeed for Rough Trade's Album of the Year 2011:

Josh T. Pearson - Last of the Country Gentlemen

Artist: Steve Gullick

Pearson begs forgiveness from the female figure, or woman-kind, striking a humble pose both striking and intimate. It may be an advance apology for the lyrics you are about to hear (depending on your take) or maybe for an unknown wrong. Whichever and whatever, this photograph that appears at first like fashion mag fodder is in fact an enduring and appropriate visual for the music within.

Steve Gullick has photographed portraits and album covers for a broad sweep of musical talent: Will Oldham, The Foals, Foo Fighters, Richard Hawley, Nick Cave, Patty Smith, Kurt Cobain, Beck...I could go on....and some beautiful landscapes to boot. His collection of work for and of Josh T. Pearson is a masterpiece.

Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind Of Fix

Artist: Katie Scott

Making Q's list of the top 50 albums of 2011 and graced by this psycho-anatomical wonderment from recent Brighton graduate Katie Scott. She has also provided art for Bombay Bicycle Club singles and deserves great success in 2012, we think! You can see more of her work, including interior photos of the album, on her Tumblr blog.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

2011-12-06T15:37:00.001Z

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was the first Hipgnosis album cover commission from Genesis / Peter Gabriel, a relationship that lasted for the first three Peter Gabriel solo albums (Car, Scratch and Melt). A while ago Storm Thorgerson told us what he remembered about The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway:

"We conceived of a story board or comic strip, but made of photographs.....A major part of this involved the character stepping outside the comic strip and taking a detached view, looking back at this life, a step considered necessary in the process of self-realisation. Thus the main character is seen literally stepping out of the picture, leaving a man-shaped white hole in his wake."

All the imagery was photographed in black and white negative and the resulting prints were reassembled, adjusted in size, comped together and recopied to provide a single flat artwork.

Fresh from a Peter Gabriel signing session today, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is back at Hypergallery HQ, safely tucked away in the plan chests ready to head off to new homes all around the world.

A nice strong signature from Peter Gabriel gives this print, the Hipgnosis album cover art from his final album with Genesis, a sense of completeness.

Photographs of Peter Gabriel signing the prints will be up on hypergallery.com soon!

Live in Cheltenham

2011-12-04T21:10:00.001Z

Centre Arts in Cheltenham is a small but perfectly formed, good vibey kind of place with awesome people stoking the fires of creativity.

The art courses, the knit and natter events, the ukelele lessons and more are drawing locals and those from further afield, hypergallery included, through the door....which is just off the high street.

So there's no excuse not to get yourself down there to see The Art of the Album!

A&D + Hypergallery

2011-11-25T13:11:00.001Z

Some pics from a very lovely November evening a the A&D as we launched the new-look hypergallery.com. If you missed it, you can catch us at Centre Arts in Cheltenham from Tuesday 29th November until Christmas.

the lovely A&D by night

the Peter Gabriel room

meet Andie Airfix

lovely Liz Kershaw

our very own Andy Wood (right)

Buy a piece of musical history at The Art behind the Album – Now. Here. This. – Time Out London

2011-11-23T14:53:00.000Z

Buy a piece of musical history at The Art behind the Album – Now. Here. This. – Time Out London:

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In With The New: Free postage in 2011

2011-11-23T11:51:00.001Z

We welcome in the first stage of the new hypergallery.com with free postage on all prints purchased in 2011!

Pretty soon there'll be lots more content to view on theproduct pages as we build an image, video and information rich hub for albumcover art fans to enjoy.

In the meantime, we're keeping things simple and easy tonavigate.

Happy browsing!

Christmas Order-By Dates!

2011-11-21T21:24:00.001Z

Don't worry, there's loads of time and frankly we haven't done a single bit of Christmas shopping ourselves yet BUT just in case you are wondering, here are the all the important 'order by' dates to guarantee your album cover art print / book / poster / collectable arrives before Christmas.

Rest of world*:
Order by Sunday 4th December

Eastern Europe, USA, and Canada:
Order by Wednesday 8th December

Western Europe:
Order by Sunday 11th December

UK:
Order by Monday 19th December

* Rest of world includes: South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand

We'll most likely be shipping your order within a couple of days so if you miss these dates you'll still probably be okay - if in doubt just call us to discuss it on (+44) 1491 637021.

Out With The Old

2011-11-18T07:45:00.001Z

As our new website approaches readiness the reality of leaving the old one for good looms ever closer, and it feels like we are moving home; exciting but a little sad.The system that frustrated us nevertheless embodies the concept of Hypergallery as it was: a virtual gallery in which we would 'hang' album cover art and through the galleries of which 'visitors' could browse one-artist shows and themed special exhibitions. In the end, the limitations of the format made us long for a new, image heavy website that leaves the gallery concept behind.

The new website follows a template that will be familiar to anyone who shops online with an ultra-simple, flexible structure on which we can build as we grow. Soon there will be videos, links and features that make hypergallery.com feel like a magazine and archive full of all the information an album cover lover could possibly fit in their boots - a veritable planet album art.

We have many bells and whistles up our sleeves but the basic site launches next week and we are holding a pop-up event at the real bricks-and-mortar A&D Gallery in Marylebone to celebrate this laying-to-rest of our own digital one.So long hypergallery.com #1; you may be only a website but we're awful fond of you.

BULLETIN: Pink Floyd

2011-11-07T13:32:00.000Z

More lovely design by Storm Thorgerson and StormStudios graces Pink Floyd SACD releases out today:

A Foot In The Door – The Best of Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here – 'Immersion' and 'Experience' editions, Vinyl LP, and digital editions

You can find out more at the official website: Why Pink Floyd?

And all this just after the Meddle's 40th anniversary. Meddle makes the case for album cover art all on its own: the full length image hanging on our walls is both a link to the music and a thing of beauty unto itself - a different beast entirely from the square image we all recognise from the album cover. See HERE.

Album Covers by Raymond Pettibon

2011-11-07T13:14:00.000Z

And another lazy re-post -

Raymond Pettibon this time.

How did Blag Flag pass me by until now? All I knew was the tattoo.

Album Covers by Raymond Pettibon:

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Steve Byram

2011-10-28T09:39:00.000+01:00

A bit of a cheat blog about Steve Byram from me but this is worth sharing. More on Columbia's Art Directors past coming soon....

Steve Byram | Theoryhaus:

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shop = community

2011-10-19T12:28:00.000+01:00

We are redesigning the hypergallery website this month with a launch due at the beginning of November. We're having great fun finding extra content for the product pages in the hope that our excitement about the artists, covers and music will spill over into each page and that hypergallery.com might become a place to visit to find out more.

We are not a local shop, and there is no chance of a gossip about the neighbours as you buy a pint of milk, but we sure hope we can emulate some of that community feeling with fellow fans of album cover art.

This short Jim Flora documentary video popped up in the @hypergallery twitter earlier today and it will certainly be featuring on our Jim Flora print pages soon. Enjoy!

BOOK Big-Up: Coast to Coast Album Covers

2011-10-11T18:17:00.000+01:00

Coast to Coast Album Covers: Classic Record Art From New York to LA is a celebration, an archive and further proof that the idea of album cover art as a subject and an art form has taken hold in the public conscious.As the Crossed Combs blog put it "...yet another coffee table book about record covers. And we're not complaining, au contraire."

This is a particularly special book from the authors who brought us The Cover Art of Blue Note Records in the 1990s. No doubt they have helped to generate some of the much deserved enthusiasm buzz surrounding the album cover art genre that is in evidence today. They certainly raised awareness about the work created by Reid Miles for Blue Note that reflected so eloquently the style of the music it held.

These two books by Graham Marsh and Glyn Callingham, Coast to Coast Album Covers and The Cover Art of Blue Note Records, alongside several other books that we consider to be gems of album cover art writing will hopefully be available to buy from our Hypergallery - Bookshop when we relaunch hypergallery.com soon. Lots of new goodies to browse; much new knowledge to imbibe!

Coast to Coast Album Covers and The Cover Art of Blue Note Records are both published by Collins & Brown, part of the Anova Books Group. Thanks to @harriharriharri for our preview.

Collecting

2011-09-30T23:05:00.000+01:00

Warning: This post is full of puns.

Sarah Green Eyes by Storm Thorgerson

Two pieces of sound advice for collectors courtesy of Edy de Wilde, Director of the Stedelijk from 1963 - 1985:

"One should collect not with one's ears but with ones eyes, with one's mind and with one's heart"

"One should avoid reading art magazines."

We say there isn't always harm in using your ears, but then Edy probably hadn't really 'got' album cover art. His loss, hey?

Pink Floyd pig flies again to mark albums reissue - latimes.com

2011-09-26T15:57:00.000+01:00

Pink Floyd pig flies again to mark albums reissue - latimes.com:

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T7BBC95D8E95

Psychedelic Sundaze: Sunday, October 2nd, 2-6pm - Idea Generation - Gallery

2011-09-26T13:02:00.000+01:00

Psychedelic Sundaze: Sunday, October 2nd, 2-6pm - Idea Generation - Gallery:

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Goosemusic — Storm thorgerson talks about synrise album cover

2011-09-19T11:23:00.000+01:00

Goosemusic — Storm thorgerson talks about synrise album cover:

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Pink Floyd's Discovery Box Set

2011-09-16T08:56:00.000+01:00

Pink Floyd are set to release DISCOVERY, an epic box set of 16 studio albums newly remastered by James Guthrie (co-producer of The Wall).

It will be released on 26 September 2011 but thanks to our generous friend Storm Thorgerson, Hypergallery have had a sneak preview and a good listen and we reckon you couldn't do better as an introduction to the band, if you have cash to splash all in one go.

It isn't bad value at all at less than a tenner per album and the sound quality is fab. CDs may be going out of fashion but an iTunes download doesn't offer the same audio-geek-out opportunity. We discovered a whole new layer of audio on Piper At The Gates of Dawn. Could just be that our old copy was particularly poor but I suspect that is the case for many fans.

You also get a lovely little booklet designed by Storm Thorgerson that features artwork he has designed for the band, lots of out takes, pictures of the band and discussions about his work for Pink Floyd over the years. He seemed pleased with it and rightly so; the booklet and the box set are neat, desirable, comprehensive and simply all that a box set should be.

The albums included are: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn; A Saucerful Of Secrets; More; Ummagumma; Atom Heart Mother; Meddle; Obscured By Clouds; The Dark Side Of The Moon; Wish You Were Here; Animals; The Wall; The Final Cut; A Momentary Lapse Of Reason; The Division Bell.

You can see all Pink Floyd art prints by Storm Thorgerson on the Pink Floyd wall at Hypergallery HERE.

You can see Hypergallery's full stock of Storm Thorgerson prints HERE.

Ten famous paintings on album sleeves « Artfinder – blogging the art of discovery

2011-09-14T12:20:00.000+01:00

Ten famous paintings on album sleeves « Artfinder – blogging the art of discovery:

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More OK Go fun & Storm Thorgerson

2011-09-13T14:27:00.001+01:00

We've been going bananas for the latest OK Go music video, for their single release All Is Not Lost.

All you need to do is think of something nice to say, type it in the box and get ready to be entertained: http://www.allisnotlo.st/index_en.html

It's not the first of OK Go's music video endeavours to tickle our fancy by a long shot - last year we were reminded of the one take ethos of Storm Thorgerson when their video for This Too Shall Pass made a splash with a Rube Goldberg machine. See more on how they made it HERE thanks to WIRED or HERE courtesy of the band themselves.

See the related blog post from last year HERE.

See a gallery of done-for-real album cover art photographs by Storm Thorgerson at HYPERGALLERY.

Delicate Sound of Thunder by Storm Thorgerson for Pink Floyd

Robert Mapplethorpe in the UK

2011-08-31T17:11:00.000+01:00

The Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour brings works by seminal American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe to Burgh Hall in Dunoon and Linlithgow Burgh Halls in West Lothian, as well as Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

His work is having somewhat of a moment in the UK, with the Scissor Sisters curating an exhibition of his work at the Alison Jaques Gallery earlier in the year and the ARTIST ROOMS tour covering Eastbourne, Sheffield and now Inverness.

I have my very own (sort of) to gaze at from my desk, lucky me. Here's my view!

Hypergallery HQ

You could have your very own Robert Mapplethorpe too. This limited edition giclée was published by Hypergallery and Peter Gabriel last year by permission of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

I have sung its praises before in this blog but it sure warrants the airspace. What is SO great about this photograph is that it shows off the absolute mastery of Mapplethorpe with such serenity. It sits almost in contrast to the sexually explicit images more commonly associated with his name but is, nevertheless, absolutely representative of his beautiful talent.

Peter Gabriel Shaking the Tree by Robert Mapplethorpe

The cover art for Patty Smith's Horses is another example of his portraiture in our chosen genre of album cover art but Shaking the Tree does it for me.

Check it out HERE you art lovers and photography buffs.

Jim Flora on Peppermint Candy

2011-08-26T17:26:00.001+01:00

The Broken Hearts gave us a taste of the music behind Jim Flora's covers yesterday on their Peppermint Candy programme for Jazz FM.

They described Jim Flora's quirky album cover art for Columbia and RCA Victor in the 40s and 50s as having "a cartoonish abstract style [with] an amazing sense of movement" saying "If he wanted to draw people dancing, for example, he's draw them with ten legs showing every single position of the movement."

The Broken Hearts think his works is "really perfect for album artwork as it gives a feel of the music" and we agree. As massive fans of Flora's work we blogged about him only last month and can boast that the art print of his cover for Louis Armstrong's Hot Five is available exclusively from Hypergallery.

You can hear the programme on Jazz FM's listen again feature and plenty of Flora's covers feature on their blog on the Jazz FM website.

If that catches your fancy, you can also see the advert for the Peppermint Candy album below.

You can see Hypergallery's full range of Jim Flora artwork here.
The comprehensive resource for all things Jim Flora is the wonderful JimFlora.com.

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Pink Floyd Animals LP altered by Shop Around... Deface Value

2011-08-25T13:24:00.000+01:00

Pink Floyd Animals LP altered by Shop Around... Deface Value

Floyd Extra! How Wish You Were Here Went Up In Flames - News - Mojo

2011-08-23T18:01:00.000+01:00

Floyd Extra! How Wish You Were Here Went Up In Flames - News - Mojo: "Speaking non-egocentrically, I still think the design for Wish You Were Here is great," says Thorgerson, whose company Hipgnosis designed almost all of Pink Floyd's album sleeves.

Liberty Rocks some album artwork

2011-08-23T17:14:00.000+01:00

Some simply fabulous British rock-inspired prints from Liberty were launched earlier this month including these by Storm Thorgerson, drawn from his work for Pink Floyd and Powderfinger using marbling techniques (see April's 'We've Lost our Marbles' post).

Each comes in four colour ways but you can see the whole collection HERE or read Liberty's launch blog HERE.

Storm A by
Storm Thorgerson
From his cover for Powderfinger's Golden Rule

Thorgerson A by
Storm Thorgerson
From his silkscreen print based on his cover
for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon

A Liberty print seems the perfect foil for the Golden Rule bird by Storm and is right at the top of our wish list. John Squire's prints are also great - his watercolours seen recently at the brilliant Idea Generation Gallery and Tate Britain's Watercolour exhibition (you can see John in this TateShots video talking about his work). Not to forget Edwyn Collins' beautiful Ornithology designs.

An all round success for an unusual idea. Bravo Liberty!

The Harrow & The Harvest - Making of the Album Cover - YouTube

2011-08-16T14:45:00.000+01:00

The Harrow & The Harvest - Making of the Album Cover - YouTube

20 Years Later: Kirk Weddle's outtakes from Nirvana's iconic Nevermind Album Cover - 2011-Aug-15 - CultureMap Austin

2011-08-16T14:23:00.000+01:00

20 Years Later: Kirk Weddle's outtakes from Nirvana's iconic Nevermind Album Cover - 2011-Aug-15 - CultureMap Austin

As Record Sales Shrink, so Does Album Cover Art - NYTimes.com

2011-08-15T13:56:00.000+01:00

As Record Sales Shrink, so Does Album Cover Art - NYTimes.com

How do you package Fire Music?

2011-08-14T23:41:00.001+01:00

How do you package Fire Music, the revolutionary jazz of 1960s and 1970s USA? Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker show us how in Freedom Rhythm and Sound, a book that looks at the sleeve art of often obscure jazz releases from this post heyday period. The album cover art of this period in jazz reflected the change in the music itself, with a move away from the styles established in the previous decades. This book is high on the Hypergallery bookshelf wish-list now, as is Coast to Coast Album Covers by Graham Marsh and Glyn Callingham, a recent publication referenced by Phil Daoust in the Guardian Weekend magazine yesterday (13.08.11, page 8, Big Picture: Jazz Albums of the 1950s and 60s, not to be found online, sadly).

Daoust, reluctantly according to his Twitter comments, writes about the period of great creativity in album cover art that grew around the east coast and west coast jazz of the 50s and 60s. The advent of the LP and the foot-square canvas it provided came just in time for the big jazz era and BOY did the record labels and their musicians make the most of it. The two main schools were able to use album cover art to give the music held within it an aesthetic. The visual identity emphasised the geographic one; as Daoust puts it, "the New York school favouring quirky graphics and bold typography" and the west coast "something more dreamy".

See Richard Williams' review of Freedom Rhythm and Sound for the Guardian here, or Phil Johnson's review for the Independent of the double album curated by Gilles Peterson here.

Coast To Coast Album Covers is also reviewed by Crossed Combs here and available on Amazon here.
We, meanwhile, have our heads stuck in these books and more as we work towards one day publishing some of the great album cover art they celebrate.

Finally, a little nod to Project Thirty-Three, a blog by Seattle's Jive Time Records that, in their own words, a "collection and shrine to circles and dots, squares and rectangles, and triangles, and the brilliant designers that made them come to life on album covers."

Coldplay's album cover adventures for Mylo Xyloto

2011-08-12T12:50:00.001+01:00

Coldplay are due to release Mylo Xyloto this October and have the "reversible" cover artwork available to view on their website. The basic album cover may not be anything terribly new but it works and I just love all the thought that has gone into the artwork across every part of this multi-format (digital, CD and vinyl) release. It's another pointer towards the exciting future of album cover art!

Mylo Xyloto image from Coldplay.com

The vinyl version will include a 12" x 36" poster which, since I was first shown a copy of The Beatles' The White Album with its original inserts in a moment of parent to pre-teen reverence building, has seemed to me like the coolest thing on earth. I still think you can't beat the simple excitement of it; the gold ticket in a Wonka Bar vibe.

Nevertheless, designers must try and the limited edition Pop-Up version does sound spectacular. It will include a 12" x 12" hardback book containing graffiti pop-up art designed by David A. Carter, vinyl, CD and exclusive content including photographs, excerpts from the studio diary and the band's personal notebooks.

Not forgetting the CDs, half of the which will be packaged with the full color artwork as the cover while the rest will have the CD booklet flipped, showing the silver initials "M X" via a die-cut sheet placed over the color image.

To see Hypergallery's range of album cover art prints just visit www.hypergallery.com!

Storm Thorgerson on Magritte

2011-08-06T13:01:00.000+01:00

Britain's biggest art institution the Tate, has made the connection between Magritte, subject of Tate Liverpool's current exhibition, and Storm Thorgerson, a master of our times, the subject of a recent TateShot video. It was great to see Storm interviewed by a museum of pictures; the interest in his work usually, naturally, comes through the music he makes it for.

Hypergallery's mission to celebrate album cover art comes from the believe not only that great sleeve design make the listening experience so much richer and vice versa, but that cover art so often stands alone and offers something valuable even when removed from the musical association.

This TateShot interview with Storm Thorgerson is a bit of a riff on that subject and also features an image designed by Storm for album cover art publishers, Rockoptic (pause at about 2.50mins through to see it).

Hypergallery grew out of the ashes of Rockoptic, as it were, and so there was some excitement when we saw that the Tate had featured this print. The role usually taken by a band, in commissioning Storm, was in this case filled by one of us!

A classic bit of Storm, in a Magritte-like vein, to celebrate the very concept of sleeve design. Neat, huh?

You can see the full collection of eyes and ears prints on Hypergallery's walls. They were each published in a very small edition of 25 prints only.

Photo diary: Storm signs Presence

2011-08-03T11:26:00.000+01:00

When we were at Storm Thorgerson's studio mucking about with teddy bears last week, we asked him to sign some more prints from the edition of Led Zeppelin's Presence having noticed that our plan chests were empty of all signed copies.

Here is Storm putting his mark on his work:

This is a popular print and that is all down to the artwork; the album wasn't one of the band's biggest or best received. The Grammy nominated artwork, though, is phenomenal. Using one of a series of staged scenes in which the focus is a strange black 'object', it plays on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and allegedly represents the power and force of Led Zeppelin's music.

Flowers for Tom Wilkes

2011-07-31T10:55:00.000+01:00

Last month marked the 2nd anniversary of the death of a great album cover artist, Tom Wilkes. Yesterday we celebrated his birthday, and for a more fitting tribute than I could offer you should turn to this post by Barney Hoskyns in which he transcribes some of an interview he did with Wilkes in 2003. Wilkes talks about his art and how he got into the business of sleeve art design.

Rolling Stones FLOWERS sleeve by Wilkes.

Photo diary: Storm Thorgerson and Kevin Godley

2011-07-27T10:06:00.001+01:00

Some Hamleys Toy Shop teddy bears got a foot-tickle from Storm Thorgerson the other day.

Kevin Godley (of 10cc and Godley and Creme) accompanied us on a visit to Storm at his north-west London studios as we knew that Storm, and Po (Aubrey Powell) had made some fantastic album covers for 10cc and Godley and Creme too.

We had persuaded Storm to sign a small number of the muddy-pawed cuddlies used famously in his cover art for Muse (for their single, Uprising) and the Steve Miller Band too (for their recent release, Bingo!).

Catching up

Storm signing, under duress

Making off with the newly honoured bears

Kevin Godley

You can see Storm Thorgerson's prints at HYPERGALLERY.

Columbia Records' Art Directors and the first exciting era of album cover art

2011-07-22T12:29:00.002+01:00

When Alex Steinweiss became Advertising Manager in 1943, Jim Flora took over as Art Director for Columbia Records. Flora brought his own unique style as you can see in these three examples of his work:

Jim Flora, Pete Jolly Duo
Edition of 125

Jim Flora, Mambo for Cats
Edition of 200

Jim Flora, Hot Five
Edition of 25

Click HERE to see Jim Flora's work at Hypergallery!

Click HERE to learn more about Jim Flora from our April 2009 blogpost!

Alex Steinweiss

2011-07-21T02:25:00.001+01:00

The gentleman who pretty much invented the album cover as we know it died on Sunday 17th July 2011 age 94. Time to mourn his passing and celebrate his achievements, namely some utterly beautiful LP sleeve art.

Alex Steinweiss was quoted as saying that he thought if he could be a good sign writer he'd be happy. What he actually achieved had a far greater impact on twentieth century culture than he could possibly have imagined. This is a man who opened the door to the kind of innovation we are seeing from Bjork's Biophilia project - the thought that you could attach visual ideas to musical works. So powerful was this attachment that the two are now inextricably linked. Even a plain album cover became a strong visual statement, just think of the Beatles' White Album.

A fantastically influential creative force is now lost to the world but he left us with some great stuff. We intend to commemorate his creative life by delving into our Taschen monograph dedicated to his work.

Steinweiss featured heavily in the Eisner Museum's exhibition The Art of the Album Cover and an online game / feature they created lists four eras of album cover art: the 70s, the 60s, the 50s and 'The Era Of Steinweiss'. That says it all, really. Check it out.

Also, here is the NY Times Obituary by Steven Heller from the 19th July.

R.I.P. Mr Steinweiss.

The rise or return of the LP sleeve

2011-07-20T14:51:00.002+01:00

As digital subscription services such as Spotify and Apple's iTunes grow and launch, more and more artists are releasing LPs with free digital downloads to address both the practical need for digital music and the emotional desire for a more visceral contact with our musical passions.

The way is paved for a resurgence of truly exciting album cover art and a new generation of artists and designers working in the genre. Let's hope that this is embraced by music lovers and creatives alike! It is such a unique and fertile forum for artistic exploration.

So many of my contemporaries are discovering (or rediscovering) the joy of the 12" record as an object, and the rich listening experience that goes along with it.

Up the album cover!

Bulletin

2011-07-20T14:33:00.000+01:00

Revolution and teddy bears are in the air for Muse. this Uprising print by Storm Thorgerson has finally arrived at Hypergallery, in an edition of only 50 prints.

SteelStacks

2011-06-25T22:49:00.000+01:00

SteelStacks

In May, Steve Miller came to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to perform at a fundraiser and also, to meet up with Hypergallery's Rob and Andy, sign some prints and talk up a Storm. Here he is writing a personal message to Storm on some Hypergallery packing card:

Writing to Storm Thorgerson

The ArtsQuest Center where the band played is a contemporary performing arts center that sits on a site formally occupied by The Bethlehem Steel Corporation (1857–2003), once the second-largest steel producer in the United States. The site of the company's former main plant, in Bethlehem, PA, is now home to an entire arts and entertainment district called SteelStacks. The plant's 5 blast furnaces have been left standing and serve as the back drop for this new campus. What a dramatic backdrop for a venue and what an inspiring place to be. Here are some more photos of SteelStacks and Steve Miller signing Hypergallery prints in their shadow:

SteelStacks

ArtsQuest

Bingo!

Let Your Hair Down

Steve Miller prints - fresh from signing in the USA

2011-06-24T12:15:00.000+01:00

As you may have seen from the @hypergallery Twitter feed, we have been on an American adventure to see Steve Miller play a charity gig.

While we were there he very kindly graced all the wonderful Storm Thorgerson album art we took over with his squiggle; a bit of a change of pace for those masterly guitar playing fingers. This means we can proudly launch a newly star-spangled Steve Miller wall at Hypergallery!

Bingo! was designed by Storm for the album of the same name that has been such a huge success ever since it was released in June 2010. It is one we are particularly proud of and we think Adrian at Senecio has made a stunning print that brings out all the colourful craziness of the original artwork.

Another vibrant piece of work is Water Guitar with its acid green grass and retro-dressed protagonists. You can see the making of the Water Guitar shoot below, which gives an idea of the lengths Storm and his team go to in their mission to do it 'for real'.

Peter Gabriel | Latest News

2011-06-08T23:30:00.002+01:00

So excited to see the footage from Peter's Hammersmith show, filmed in 3D. And these interviews: Peter Gabriel | Latest News

Tree of Half Life for Bowel Cancer UK

2011-06-06T17:32:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow night Hypergallery will be at a very special event indeed: Summer Champagne Party at Chelsea Physic Garden, in aid of Bowel Cancer UK. It is a chance to celebrate the work of the charity, raise awareness and to raise much needed funds in the most magical of surroundings. We are hoping that TREE OF HALF LIFE, chosen by us as a fitting piece of work for the occasion, raises a good sum for this most deserving cause.

THE TREE OF HALF LIFE was submitted as an image for a Floyd 30th anniversary campaign that never got fully realized. It was so liked by the band, and by Storm Thorgerson that it appeared as a t-shirt and as the frontispiece of the ‘Mind Over Matter’ book of Floyd imagery. A cover waiting wistfully for an album to go with it.

HERE IS WHAT STORM HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT:

Is the tree head a real physical thing? A fluke of nature?, or a sculpture of some mad topiary artist? Is it the spirit of the forest? Is the spirit taking the shape only briefly in order to communicate with us, to let us know there is intelligence there? Will it revert back to normal tree shape just as quickly? Look again and it will not be there. Was it in the mind all along? Are the branches like the neurons of the brain? The tree of knowledge, the tree of half life. The official story is that this tree profile head was achieved by helicopter topiary – a man hung from a ‘copter and cut the shape much as he might a hedge. Anybody who says different, who says the Tree Head was done on computer is a telltale and a stinking rotten liar.

Photographed on Hasselblad 500C with daylight transparency in a London Park in February with available light. The tree is still there, but you might not see it like this unless in the right frame of mind.

Old School

2011-06-01T10:58:00.004+01:00

A snazzy boxset has just been released for Alice Cooper's 1972 single release, SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER. The original design for the SCHOOLS OUT release was by Wilkes & Braun Inc., (Craig Braun and Tom Wilkes), who designed and directed many great covers including Rolling Stones' FLOWERS and BEGGARS BANQUET and Neil Young's HARVEST.

The school desk design, though, reminds me think of our visit to Lol Creme's studio in March when he talked about the cover he and Kevin Godley designed for their THINKS: SCHOOL STINKS release as Hotlegs in 1970.

THINKS was never a huge album, but the sleeve was great: the school desk crammed with cigarette butts, broken cookies, pin-up postcards, odd socks, and a creepily occupied gas mask that preceded the SCHOOL'S OUT release by two years.

Here are some more pics of Lol Creme's very own copy:

And a couple of shots of Lol himself, being a most obliging subject for a Hypergallery video (all of which will be on the website and on our Vimeo / YouTube channels in the near future:

I wonder, does anyone out there own this LP? Would make a great little display alongside the Alice Cooper vinyl. A hypergallery outing to the record store, as so often, beckons.

You're just the GREATEST!

2011-05-17T01:16:00.001+01:00

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon cover by Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and George Hardie (Hipgnosis) holds its place at the top of the pops for album cover art in a new 50 Greatest list by Music Radar.

As you might expect, several Hypergallery prints feature in the list but what really struck me, and not for the first time, was the cover for Patty Smith's Horses. I thought again how fortunate we were to get authorisation from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation for the Peter Gabriel cover, So.

Mapplethorpe of course has also featured in a few lists over the years: Time Magazine's 'Top Ten Persecuted Artists', the 'Top Ten Most Expensive Photos In The World Ever Sold'.

What value a top ten list? Well it's a seductive game and good to kick start an argument, if you find yourself so inclined.

We've lost our marbles

2011-04-09T14:05:00.011+01:00

Since leaving Hipgnosis, Storm Thorgerson has gone on to create artworks for a host of bands and musicians. In 2009, Australian band Powderfinger released their seventh studio album with an extraordinary cover designed by Storm for which he pushed the possibilities of the paper marbling technique. Once the graphic had been settled upon, Storm's team created a tray container in its shape, in which they poured the inks forming the magical image you see here.

Having developed this process for Powderfinger, Storm decided to revisit his undoubted classic sleeve art for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, with utterly beautiful results.

Paper marbling can be traced right back to early Japanese 墨流し (suminagashi) which means "floating ink" and appears throughout history, with stunning examples seen in East Asia, Central Asia and Europe. Perhaps Storm's interest in the technique can be traced back to the 60s and the fad for marbling that resonated with the imagery of pop-psychedelia.

BUG #25 The Evolution of Music Video

2011-04-05T23:23:00.006+01:00

Something else that caught my eye:

Adam Buxton's Bug video festival this year, at the BFI in May, concentrates on the art of the music video. It is worth trying to get hold of tickets - previous events have been full of inspiring work and good times, especially with Buxton at the helm.

Gig Posters

2011-04-05T22:58:00.006+01:00

Prevelant in America but less so in the UK, gig poster art sits alongside sleeve art as a genre rich in visual talent, offering music fans the opportunity to own something of true artistic value that reflects their love for the bands and musicians. The rock poster tradition, broadly speaking, developed in the America of the 60s and 70s at the same time as album cover design was inspiring British creative innovation.

Album covers are iconic, even symbolic, reference points in design history and in the histories and discographies of the bands they promoted. Often employing a more hand-made, throwaway aesthetic than is appropriate for an album cover, poster art can offer an intimate portrait of the artist as music fan; often having made the approach to the band for permission to design for them turning the accepted commissioning process on it's head. Art by a fan for the other fans to cherish.

There are so many out there but these are three of our favourites. We are always on the look out for more to lust after!

Aesthetic Apparatus
Small Stakes
Voodoo Catbox
Switch Open

Homage to The Who

2011-02-16T17:50:00.003Z

New to the Hypergallery British Artists room are two prints by Richard Evans that deserve a bit of attention. See for yourselves!

For the Love of Vinyl

2011-02-02T12:47:00.004Z

SIGNED COPIES!!

Now available in the Hypergallery book shop: Copies of 'For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis' by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell is quite simply a stunning collaboration / publication by these two incredible artists. The video below, courtesy of Picture Box (the publishers) gives a page by page view of the book for a real bookshop browsing experience.

Life on Marc: New Blood on the road

2011-01-22T14:44:00.000Z

Life on Marc: New Blood on the road: "For a couple of nights this March PG is taking his 'New Blood' show to the Hammersmith Apollo, these dates have been added to allow for the..."

For the love of artFor the love of vinyl

2011-01-20T00:12:00.005Z

A while ago I helped to curate an exhibition that addressed ideas about personal and public collecting.

We thought, broadly, about private collections as a taming or understanding of a particular and small world, and about museum collections as taming of the natural, human and artificial world around us and understanding of our place in it. (see Russell W. Belk, Collecting in a Consumer Society). This is, of course, simplistic but for me it was strange and lovely to think about these things again after a spell on the front line of selling at the gallery@oxo. On a quiet day in the gallery with just the pdq machine and an order book in front of you one could easily feel like a cynical sales person, hoping for someone to walk in and make your day! BUT...as we rehung the exhibition and incorporated new works, talked to enthusiastic visitors or collectors and to each other about the works, artists and musicians, I was reminded that whether one is an artist, publisher, buyer, collector or gallerist, we are all in this for the love of it.

Anyway, the point of this post really is that in researching for that past exhibition I built up a list of links to videos that might be of interest to anyone thinking about starting their own art collection. That includes our very own gallery assistant Shane, aka Der Blau Writer, who couldn't resist the sight of field of teddy bears emerging from the soil for Muse, nor the cuddly teddy bear with genuine rock'n'roll mud still attached that comes with it (keep your eyes on www.hypergallery.com for news of this Muse print that is at printer's proof stage and soon to be unleashed, though i'll probably announce it here).

VIDEO LIST

Art collectors discuss the art of collecting art

Major modern art collection goes under the hammer

Art collector Judith Greer on buying at Frieze

The Collector: Allan Stone's Life in Art

The Affordable Art Fair

How Not to Buy - Affordable Art Fair 2008

Paul Mellon Part 1, Paul Mellon Part 2. (There are also parts 3, 4 and 5. All very short.)

Icons

2010-12-20T22:23:00.003Z

Photograph by Michael Spencer Jones

In the gallery @oxo, a line of faces form the Hypergallery hall of fame, paying homage to some of our greatest musical heroes, from Gabriel to Gallaghers.

Spending time in the gallery with this enigmatic lineup has me thinking about the history of cover art portraiture.

Ian Inglis wrote of the Beatles' With The Beatles and Beatles For Sale covers that "there are no smiling faces, but here the challenge - both to the audience and to the conventions of the album cover portrait - is increased by the deliberately stretched and distorted features of the Beatles."

I'll be focussing some of the inevitable spare time in the oxo gallery afforded by this seasonal weather on reading 'Nothing You Can See That Isn't Shown' by Inglis, and thinking about convention and confrontation in the portraits on exhibition here.

Could be the beginning of something starry.

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In the sky with diamonds: The Art of the Album

2010-12-14T08:33:00.002Z

There is a wonderful review of our exhibition, with some nice thoughts on album cover art, here: In the sky with diamonds: The Art of the Album

Who's Richard Evans?

2010-11-28T15:19:00.001Z

Hypergallery had the honour and the pleasure of catching up with Mr R. Evans last week, and cadging a few of his ultra fab home made badges to boot, as he signed books and talked sleeve art at the Chelsea Arts Club launch of his new book, The Art of the Album Cover. We also ate a winner of an omelette aux herbes; any foodies out there take note.

Anyone that is interested in a signed copy of The Art of the Album Cover can come and buy one from us at the gallery@oxo on the Southbank, and see some of the artwork first hand, looking framed and beautiful in the reflected winter light by the Thames.

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Live show!

2010-11-24T16:18:00.006Z

Photographs by Michael Spencer Jones

Music lovers won't want to miss The Art of the Album, a new exhibition at the gallery @oxo on the Oxo Tower Wharf, presented by Real World and Hypergallery.

The phenomenal selection of album covers in the show, which cover six decades, include iconic sleeve design for bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Oasis and The Beatles. A hall of fame features portraits of rock's biggest stars including Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Ian Dury, Shaun Ryder and Louie Armstrong.

Music by the featured musicians plays in the gallery which is open every day from 11am until 6pm. The exhibition, which is sponsored by Peter Gabriel’s Real World, continues until January 9th.

Admission is free, and all work is available for sale until their edition runs out.

See hypergallery and realworldgalleries for further information regarding the work.

See coinstreet for gallery details.

Watch Peter Gabriel talk about album art and his covers here:

Carlos

2010-11-01T19:25:00.004Z

Here's a bit of Central Station in celebration of today's dvd release of the Carlos the Jackal movie.

This ultra colourful, possibly irreverent, definitely fun interpretation of the famous face with its giant sunglasses still retains the menace of the photograph from which it is taken.

The one-take ethos of Storm Thorgerson and Ok Go

2010-10-07T18:21:00.003+01:00

The 'one-take' concept of the OK GO videos by Trish Sie seems to me to recall the 'do it for real' aesthetic of Storm Thorgerson's photography.

"It seems more real if we do it in one take"

Speaking about their videos, Ok Go's bassist could be talking about Storm's photographs when he says, "People know it's a document of an event rather than an edited version."

The video for This Too Shall Pass was a YouTube phenomenon, following in the steps of Here It Goes Again, and loads of others that you can see on their YouTube channel.

The drummers version of This Too Shall Pass will make you smile over and over if it hasn't already and the new video for White Knuckle is a winner for Dog (and IKEA) lovers but it's the The Rube Goldberg Machine version of This Too Shall Pass that I think, exemplifies what they are doing. The integrity of the videos, the genuine artistry and technical precision is matched by humour and playfulness. We see the same qualities in the cover art Storm has created for Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and more recently for contemporaries of Ok Go, like Muse and Biffy Clyro.

Part of the magic of both is in the outrageous effort it took to create such simplicity. The stories Storm tells about his processes (see for example the tale of 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason'), enrich the experience we have looking at the cover and our perception of the albums themselves are inextricably linked to both the image and the story; they become part of the mythology. This is especially true for Ok Go, whose videos have contributed hugely to their (commercial) success as musicians and, as seen in a recent Guardian article, their identity as band.

In essence, it's all great fun and offers an insight into why we are SO passionate about Storm's work that we devote a whole gallery to it.

Enjoy.

For the love of Vinyl

2010-07-09T11:22:00.003+01:00

I went to the opening of Storm Thorgerson's new exhibition at the OXO Tower on London's Southbank last night. Particular fascinating to meet Chester, seen here with his owner admiring himself in Storm's cover for Thornley's 'Tiny Pictures' album.

We call this cover Mr Suitcase Head - it's a giant head composed of hundreds of old leather suitcases. A typical product of Storm's mind and a real talking piece to have on your wall. http://tinyurl.com/389mcpd

Glorious Gabriel!

2010-06-15T02:37:00.004+01:00

New work has gone up in the Peter Gabriel gallery and although it is time to down tools tonight, more will be appearing throughout the week. Visit the gallery to see what's new.

Our featured print is Scratch My Back from the fantastic first part of his reciprocal covers project.

Opifacts and Posters

2010-06-04T18:22:00.003+01:00

A thought about the art of the poster.

There is probably little need ever since Warhol, our very own Sir Peter Blake, or even Surrealism and Toulouse Lautrec, to debate the definitions of 'high art' and 'low art'. Perhaps more accurately, I wonder, is the debate now generally accepted as being far more complicated that was once proposed? Maybe it always was that way. It is clear, at least, that whilst the work changes, our need to categorize and rationalise remains.

We have become familiar with the dissolving and complex nature of those high/low art boundaries. Their definitions, I was reminded the other day, have been up for discussion since long before Warhol made his presence known. Roger Fry, writing in 1926, bemones the lack of vocabulary for the middle ground between craft or artefacts and fine art; he arrives at his own definition of optifact. Best to seek out the essay oneself if this is a topic that interests but he ends with a thought on the art of posters that I like, and consider it still rings true today.

"there is as yet no Royal Academy of Poster Designers, there is no fixed and traditional notion of the kind of thing a poster ought to be. There is as yet no pedantry, no culture, no lecturing [...] to hamper and harass the man who happens to have a gift for expression in this medium. For all these reasons the art of poster design holds out opportunities of a kind that are all too rare in modern life."

Art & Commerce was originally delivered as a lecture and subsequently published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London in 1926.

Posters in Hypergallery's gift shop.

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Biffy Clyro

2010-05-09T22:39:00.003+01:00

New Biffy Clyro prints, including this fantastic Only Revolutions cover art, arrived at Hypergallery this month and they have gone straight into the Perfect Storm gallery.

Biffy Clyro and Storm have built up a fantastic body of work over the course of the band's last few albums and we think that they positively glow on our walls.

Rolling Stones Lips Logo - V&A Video

2010-03-09T21:59:00.006Z

I've just found a great video about the John Pasche lips logo in the V&A collection that I blogged about in November 2009.

The artist talks about his years at the Royal College of Art (RA) as possibly the best three years of his life, and mentions classmates Storm Thorgerson and George Hardy, responsible for the iconic Dark Side of the Moon artwork.

He goes on to talk about the commission from Rolling Stones for their 1970 tour poster for Europe, and how Jagger liked the designs which represented the idea of touring itself, moving away from the band-photo format.

The video is on the V&A's new 'channel', full of fascinating insights into the museum and its collections. Well worth a regular look, in my humble opinion.

Scratch My Back

2010-02-08T15:49:00.006Z

Less than a week until Peter Gabriel's new covers project, 'Scratch My Back', is released.

What a tracklist!

'"Heroes"' (David Bowie)
'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' (Radiohead)
'The Book Of Love' (Magnetic Fields)
'Flume' (Bon Iver)
'My Body Is A Cage' (Arcade Fire)
'Listening Wind' (Talking Heads)
'I Think It's Going to Rain Today' (Randy Newman)
'Après Moi' (Regina Spektor or Eartha Kitt)
'Waterloo Sunset' (The Kinks)
'The Boy In The Bubble' (Paul Simon)
'The Power Of The Heart' (Lou Reed)
'Philadelphia' (Neil Young)
'Mirrorball' (Elbow)

Have a gander at his website for a preview video about the making of this album and visit Hypergallery to see Peter Gabriel prints on the walls and for news of more to come.

Houses of the Holy

2010-02-08T02:06:00.008Z

Stefan Gates is the star, along with his sister, of the famous Led Zeppelin album cover art for 'Houses of the Holy'by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell.

In a fascinating programme for Radio 4 (broadcast yesterday) he explores his feelings about the cover in which he appears age five. Talking to his sister, mother and the artists who created the image, he asks some interesting questions about this iconic image that remains disturbing and intriguing, not least to Stefan himself.

TODAY! rock'n'roll stamps issued

2010-01-07T10:54:00.006Z

As we mentioned in October (see Royal Mail Rocks below) the first set of stamps issued by the Royal Mail for 2010 are out today and feature classic album covers including Pink Floyd's Division Bell and Led Zeppelin 4.

NME headline online yesterday read: Jimmy Page hails Royal Mail's rock'n'roll stamp collection.

The Factory Club

2009-12-23T16:56:00.005Z

Thanks to the legendary Joy Division / New Order bassist Peter Hook who has ironically just written his first book, a true account of the life and times of the equally legendary Hacienda in Manchester.

Manchester's still vibrant Manchester music scene will have somewhere new to play and play with according to a rumour that the former Factory (Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, Durutti Column) Records headquarters at the back of Oxford Rd in Manchester is soon to be re-born as a club & music venue.

The image above, created for the Happy Mondays' album 'Bummed', was plastered over the headquarters to advertise its release in 1988.

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

2009-12-12T13:44:00.007Z

Mr Lovepants

The Ian Dury biopic looks impressive - I am excited to see Andy Serkis in the lead role and can't wait to get lost in the soundtrack.

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Relate

2009-11-18T12:28:00.005Z

I attended a fairly intimate and thought provoking talk last week, organised by the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, in line with their current exhibition, 'The Developing Process, The Sculptor's Education in Drawing and Photography'.

Richard Wentworth (Head of Department for sculpture at the Royal College of Art) giving the last lecture in the series, was an animated, cool, and amusing speaker who often had is audience in giggles. He mused on the idea of studying / teaching sculpture and art in general whilst touching quite often on ideas of architecture, Britain and cultural identity / the influence of place, especially pre-internet and even pre-television and radio.

His emphasis as I understood it was on the impact of the people around you and there was mention of Tracey Emin, Sir Peter Blake and Ian Dury (RIP) whose geographical proximity at one time could arguably have fostered creative relationships or at least common references. This struck quite a chord with me and two things came to mind quite regarding these artists.

There was a great little Tate video podcast a couple of years ago of Tracey Emin and Sir Peter Blake in conversation. It is a wonderful chance to hear Sir Peter's soft, anecdotal conversational style and Emin talks enthusiastically about what a great influence he had on her contemporaries and herself. Their discussion broaches on some similar themes to Wentworth's lecture in terms of supportiveness and influence. Click here should you want to see for yourself.

The other thing that came to mind was the geographical and social relationships linking Ian Dury, Sir Peter and Chris Gabrin that gave birth to, amongst other things, the fabulous and emotionally resonant album cover designs and silkscreen print for 'All New Boots and Panties'.

There is more information on the making of this cover on the Hypergallery website.

John Pasche at the V&A

2009-11-06T18:54:00.015Z

I was in the V&A last week and spent several hours intensively studying an exhibit for my museum studies course. I then took myself (and my stiff back) off for a wander to warm/wake up.

As I strode past the New Aquisitions gallery en route to the cafe (coffee vital) I recalled that the museum had recently bought some John Pasche work and popped in to see if it was there. There, magnificent, was this amazing rough of the now infamous Rolling Stones logo...

...and here it is >

View John Pasche prints at Hypergallery

Peter Gabriel

2009-10-30T11:25:00.012Z

When Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975 he embarked on a solo career that has spawned studio albums, film sound tracks, compilations and live recordings. For all these releases Gabriel took a keen interest in the artwork that adorned the packaging and eighteen months ago we at Hypergallery were approached to work with Real World to give these pieces their proper place as purchasable artworks in their own right.

Peter's journey in the artistic world is worth noting:

The first three albums - known by the fans as 'Car', 'Scratch' and ' Melt' were created by the world famous Hipgnosis studio who's track record in the music business was second to none and as well as classic covers for Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, they had designed several covers for Genesis so were well known to Gabriel.

In 1982 he moved away from Hipgnosis for the artwork for his fourth album 'Security' and made his first connections with the fine art world. In his words "The artwork on album 4 was something that I'd been working on with a sculptor called Malcolm Poynter who's work I thought was really strong, he used to do these things out of very dark heads".

1983's 'Plays Live' featured a close up of Peter in a mask and his soundtrack for the 'Birdy' used a still from the film, but for his next studio album 'So' he turned to the ex Factory Records designer Peter Saville, who combined a dramatic black and white close-up photograph of Gabriel with very simple, but equally dramatic, typography.

The next album release was the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's 'The Last Temptation of Christ'. For this cover he chose an existing artwork he had seen in an exhibition by the artist Julian Grater. 'Passion' is a stunning piece of work, part drawing, part collage, part painting and perfectly reflects and complements the music on the album. Passion was a Grammy Award winner and the artwork was awarded album cover of the year.

1990's 'Shaking the Tree' was a greatest hits album and Gabriel used a photograph taken by one of America's greatest photographers, Robert Mapplethorpe, who had died the year before.

Then came 'Us' with a cover by the photographer David Scheinmann. This was a quite extraordinary piece of work that involved a combination of techniques including painting Gabriel's suit with pure blue pigment, using long exposures and combining images on a very early Apple Mac that had very little memory.

The artist and musician Martha Ladly, formerly of the band Martha and the Muffins, worked for Gabriel as manager of Real World Design between 1992 and 2001 and was responsible for the cover of the next live album, 'Secret World'.

For the production of the multimedia CDROM program 'Eve' Gabriel had collaborated with a number of renowned artists including Helen Chadwick, Rebecca Horn, Nils Udo, Andy Goldsworthy, David Mach and Yayoi Kusama, and it was a spectacular 'nest' made by the German installation artist Nils Udo at the Real World Studios, that was chosen for the cover of 'Ovo', the soundtrack made for the Millenium Dome in 2000.

In 2002 'Up' was released, an album that had been almost completed four years earlier. The cover was the product of the photographic artist Susan Derges, who uses cameraless photography techniques to produce eerie images directly onto photographic paper.

Peter Gabriel has created much great music in his career, but the preceeding paragraphs demonstrate that he has also brought great art to us as well.

Soon it will be seen in a different light.

Peter Saville

2009-10-26T16:50:00.003Z

This is a while ago now, but just picked it up whilst searching:

Peter Saville, he of Factory Records fame, was interviewed in March at the D&AD 2009 President’s Lectures. I'd like to hear him debate with Storm Thorgerson after hearing these quotes "No one should be designing record covers after the age of 30", and "Music covers are not graphic design, they do not communicate anything, they have no purpose in that respect".

The report on the Eye Blog said 'Saville amused us with his directness – he was refreshingly opinionated'.

Indeed a formidable opponent for Storm.

Royal Mail Rocks

2009-10-23T13:28:00.003+01:00

Rumours abound that Pink Floyd's 'Division Bell', David Bowie's 'The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars' and Led Zeppelin's 'Led Zeppelin IV' will be amongst a selection of 10 classic album covers to feature on a special edition of Royal Mail stamps to be released on Jan 7th 2010.

The stamp collecting website Norvic Philatelics featured the news which was then picked up by nme.com and band fansites.

I am pleased as punch to see some of my Hypergallery favourites making the shortlist and will be snapping up a set or two for my own personal collection........of rock goodies, just to be clear.

Jim Flora

2009-04-17T15:57:00.001+01:00

How many people in Europe have heard of Jim Flora? In the world of album cover art he was a towering figure in the US in the 1940s and 1950s and his style was distinctive and innovative. His work at first seems childlike, but is actually truly diabolical and displays a strong hint of the influence of cubism. He had a devilish sense of humour which comes over strongly in all his work, which also included illustrations for children’s books, magazines and newspapers, advertisements, sales collateral and a whole host of other stuff.

He continued working until his death in 1988 at the age of 84 and his family and friends have taken on the task of cataloguing his work and making it available as limited edition art. I collected a few pieces when I first came across the site and then bought some stock to sell through the Hypergallery.

Because I was in touch with Irwin Chusid at Flora Art, he alerted me to the impending publication of a fabulous Louis Armstrong cover from 1947. I negotiated with him to give me exclusivity on this image and this has finally come to fruition. The print is an edition of 25 and will only be available from Hypergallery and from my friend Symon Bland at St Pauls in Birmingham. I was keen to get some endorsement on the print as we only normally sell work signed by the artists and therefore Irwin agreed to ask Jim’s son Joel to sign the prints.

I’m really excited to have this print for sale and hope that we may do this with other Flora subjects in due course.