When I was a kid I used to absolutely love spending time on the sofa, headphones firmly stuck to my head, listening to a wide variety of LPs that were stacked in in the corner of our living room. I’d spend hours listening to a wide variety of music staring intently at the album covers as the music drifted into my ears and allowed my mind to create stories influenced by the pictures on the album art in front of me.

Now… I’m not going to confess what albums I used to listen to as a child, although am sure if my sister read this she would happily divulge the musical crimes of my youth (Mr Roboto by Styx may appear in that list of crimes), but one of the many album artists that had a profound impact on my imagination growing up was the incredibly talented Storm Thorgerson.

If you’re a fan of Pink Floyd then there’s no way you can have escaped the work of Storm Thorgerson. Covers for Animals, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Division Bell… to name but a few… Storm Thorgerson did them all… as well as covers for bands like Muse, 10CC, Alan Parsons, The Cranberries and Biffy Clyro.

Many of his designs are notable for their surreal elements. He often places objects out of their traditional contexts, especially with vast spaces around them, to give them an awkward appearance while highlighting their beauty. To quote Thorgerson, “I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing which is unreal. I like to mess with reality…to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not?”

One thing that gazing upon Storm Thorgerson’s designs showed me was that music can play an important part in the meaning of an image. Staring at an image whilst listening to different sounds can also alter what one feels emotionally towards an image… this is one lesson that has stayed with me throughout my life and I use often in my work.

As digital music increases in popularity, though, is it a lesson that will be lost on the next generation of young music listeners?

Tags: Advertising Design, Album Cover Designs, Album Photography, Biffy Clyro, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Agency, Manchester Advertising Agency, Manchester Design Agency, Photography, Pink Floyd, Storm Thorgerson, Styx

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 10:33 pm and is filed under We Like. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.