Technical ecstasy: the album cover art of Hipgnosis – in pictures

As design collective Hipgnosis, Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson gave 70s rock its techno-psychedelic visual identity

Main image: Pink Floyd, Animals, 1977 Photograph: Pink Floyd Music Ltd

  • 10cc, How Dare You!, 1976. Cover design: Hipgnosis/G Hardie. Photography: A Powell

    With their blend of surrealism, sex and suburban ennui, Hipgnosis defined album cover art in the prog-rock era. A book collecting their work, Vinyl. Album. Cover. Art: The Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue by Aubrey Powell, is out now, published by Thames & Hudson
    10cc, How Dare You!, 1976

  • Pink Floyd, Animals, 1977. Cover design: R Waters. Photography: A Powell with H Bartrop. Additional photography: P Christopherson, N Tucker

    Their fantastical yet eerily realistic imagery dovetailed perfectly with the music of the early to mid-70s, full of psychedelic visions and cosmic aspirations
    Pink Floyd, Animals, 1977

  • The Nice, Elegy, 1971. Photography: A Powell/S Thorgerson

    Hipgnosis began informally in 1968 when Pink Floyd asked their art student friends Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell to design the cover for A Saucerful of Secrets
    The Nice, Elegy, 1971

  • 10cc, Deceptive Bends, 1977. Photography: A Powell/S Thorgerson/P Christopherson. Graphics: G Hardie. Retouching: R Manning

    The name Hipgnosis – a blend of ‘hip’ with ‘gnosis’, meaning mystic thought – was coined by Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett
    10cc, Deceptive Bends, 1977

  • Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel, 1977. Photography: A Powell/S Thorgerson

    In 1974, Peter Christopherson joined the pair and became a full partner in 1978. He later went on to be a core member of industrial bands Throbbing Gristle and Coil
    Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel, 1977

  • Led Zeppelin, Presence, 1976. Cover design: Hipgnosis/G Hardie; photography: A Powell

    To hear Powell tell it, it was a miracle they ever got any work from Led Zeppelin. ‘I remember a meeting with Jimmy Page where Storm slipped an idea past me and presented a photo of a white tennis racquet on green grass. “What’s that?” Jimmy asked. “A racquet,” replied Storm. “Are you inferring Led Zeppelin make a racket?” Needless to say, we were hastily shown the door and lost the job’
    Led Zeppelin, Presence, 1976

  • Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy, 1973. Photography: A Powell. Hand tinting: P Crennell

    ‘One day I went to a presentation with Robert Plant who took a fancy to one of the ideas. He turned over the cardboard rough and on the back were the names of Genesis, Wishbone Ash, Bad Company, Asia, Todd Rundgren and Yes all crossed out in black ink. Storm had already tried to sell the idea several times over. I think we got called “a right couple of chancers”’
    Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy, 1973

  • Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973. Graphics: G Hardie

    Their album cover for The Dark Side of the Moon, featuring white light splitting as it hits a prism, is their most famous work, appearing on countless T-shirts and posters worldwide
    Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973

  • Yes, Going for the One, 1977. Photography: A Powell. Graphics: G Hardie. Yes logo: R Dean

    ‘At the start of Hipgnosis, Storm was my mentor,’ Powell wrote in 2013, ‘showing me the many skills of photography and, most importantly, how to use a camera. We were both young and inexperienced but it seemed effortless for Storm to conjure up an endless stream of ideas, plundering his subconscious, no matter what the project’
    Yes, Going For The One, 1977

  • Syd Barrett, The Madcap Laughs, 1970 (inner gatefold). Photography: S Thorgerson

    ‘And so we divided our labour – me taking most of the photographs and him doing most of the thinking. The relationship worked well. Whereas I had a vision to build a company, he had the intelligence to create an art house – and that’s exactly what Hipgnosis became’
    Syd Barrett, The Madcap Laughs, 1970 inner gatefold

  • Black Sabbath, Technical Ecstasy, 1976. Robots design: G Hardie. Robots illustration: R Manning. Graphics: G Hardie

    Their epic, symbolic visual style chafed against punk’s rough and ready minimalism when it came along in 1976. As the vogue for lavish album covers waned in the late 70s, Hipgnosis switched to advertising and then film work
    Black Sabbath, Technical Ecstasy, 1976

  • Pink Floyd, Ummagumma, 1969. Photography: A Powell/S Thorgerson

    Thorgerson continued to create album artwork for bands like Muse, the Mars Volta and Pendulum
    Pink Floyd, Ummagumma, 1969

  • Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, 1974. Photography: A Powell/S Thorgerson. Graphics: G Hardie. Retouching: R Manning

    Powell, meanwhile, created a production company, making commercials for, among others, Miller Lite, Nissan, Pan Am, and – teaming up with Robert Plant again – Coca-Cola. He was also the creative director for Paul McCartney’s 1989 world tour
    Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, 1974

  • Pretty Things, Silk Torpedo, 1974. Photography: A Powell. Hand tinting: R Manning

    Thorgerson died in 2013 after a battle with cancer. Powell later described their relationship: ‘We were like brothers ... We were very close, but, in the same way that siblings fight, so did we. Often I had to resort to violence with Storm, if he was trying to intellectually bamboozle me, by throwing heavy objects across the studio at him. But there were always apologies, we always made up ... Sometimes Storm really was so frustrating I had to resort to extreme violence … in the nicest possible way’
    Pretty Things, Silk Torpedo, 1974
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