Storm Thorgerson RIP

Just saw this

https://twitter.com/garyjkemp/status/324955660963946496

And it's been confirmed by Dave Gilmour's wife Polly Samson. Absolutely one of THE iconic record cover designers.

RIP. he ruled.

Samson's tweet

https://twitter.com/PollySamson/status/324953896327979008

brilliant artist. something very recognizable and unique about his style, but completely at a loss to identify what that thing is.

you know, personally i never cared for this guy's work outside of "wish you were here" but what a legendary body of work. RIP.

Bummer. A good friend of mine works for him. Worked, I guess. RIP

RIP

you know, personally i never cared for this guy's work but RIP.

apparently he was behind the electric warrior sleeve for t.rex ..

i had no idea as its so very different to the usual ST style ..

rest in peace sir.

One of my favorite creators.

Bummed. RIP, Storm.

Pink Floyd Rules!

Goddammit, RIP sir.

His work for Catherine Wheel is underrated, RIP

Yeah, agreed, some lovely stuff for them, especially for Chrome.

not having a good week here folks. RIP

Rule In Peace

I have to admit, I didn't know the name. "Do I know any of his album covers?"

Oh.

rip Storm

Thank you for making Pink Floyd albums RULE for so many years.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OgDHOhwtRBc/Trm39xGenfI/AAAAAAAAAXc/vIb5xGaTl7E/s1600/Pink+Floyd+Atom+Heart+Mother+cover.jpg

Wow, I interviewed him once, wheeling him around the gallery in his chair. He was a really colorful guy, playful and subversive.

wow Josh!

I could never forgive him for his segregationist filibuster.

lol that was my first thought, followed by, wait didn't he already die?

Here's a sample of images you get right now (4/18/13) when you do a Google Image Search for Storm Thorgerson. I think he would have been proud.

http://tbo.com/storyimage/TB/20130418/AP/304189879/EP/1/3/EP-304189879.jpg

http://tbo.com/storyimage/TB/20130418/AP/304189879/EP/1/9/EP-304189879.jpg

http://tbo.com/storyimage/TB/20130418/AP/304189879/EP/1/2/EP-304189879.jpg

http://tbo.com/storyimage/TB/20130418/AP/304189879/EP/1/1/EP-304189879.jpg

apparently he was behind the electric warrior sleeve for t.rex ..

i had no idea as its so very different to the usual ST style ..

I get the impression that he often played more of a creative director role so he may not have been hands-on with everything he is credited for. He's sometimes credited for the Peter Gabriel face melting cover for example which I'm pretty sure was done by Peter Christopherson.

Storm RIP

Fascinating case, because he's one of the very sleeve designers most serious but mainstream rock fans could name – alongside Aubrey Powell, but then the pair are more or less inseparable, and maybe William S Harvey – but is he not also one of main players in rock's slide into self importance?

His sleevees made things into Grand Gestures whether or not the music inside merited them - even at his most minimal, you could never say he embraced understatement, because everything he did screamed HERE IS MEANING! And, as a listener, I prefer to make my own mind up about whether there is meaning inside the sleeve.

The cow seems pretty openly meaningless to me?

Most of the sleeves are pretty meaningless. But I bet he didn't see it that way …

The very fact of it being a cow with no text is a deliberate gesture, and is intended to say something about the meaning of the music within: this is not a pop frippery. To be fair, that's my favourite of his sleeves. Clearly they aren't all horrible, but they mirror many of rock's most unappealing tropes.

The band's name was purposefully left of AHM's cover, against the wishes of EMI, that kinda says something.

Yeah point taken, I guess it presents a kind of ~challenge~ to the consumer. It's just, it's a cow! Idk.

He was definitely a good fit for Floyd - pompous but not entirely without humour

Was The Wall him, or was it all Gerald Scarfe?

Looked it up, that was Scarfe. Apparently, Waters and Storm had a falling out.

shocking

Yeah, really out of character for Rog.

rmde yeah rog is like the 'Punch' puppet in human form

The story about how they did the inside cover picture of the person diving into the water on Wish You Were Here is fascinating.

The AHM sleeve was a conscious attempt to produce something "as un-psychedelic and as un-Floyd-like as possible," much like how the album itself was meant to steer them away from being tagged as psychedelic "space rock" (a label they all hated) and try something different. Inspired by Andy Warhol's "cow wallpaper" he went out to the country as photographed the first cow he saw. The cow's name was Lulubelle III.

Hipgnosis sleeves made such a huge impression on me when I was a kid getting babysat at the homes of various people who had teenage kids. I would ask the teenagers if I could look at their record collections and spend hours, literally hours, flipping through album sleeves. The Hipgnosis ones - the effect on my perception, the way they'd draw me in and hold me - were what I was looking for. Presence and Wish You Were Here were the two I remember spending the most time with. Just vanishing into what felt like self-contained worlds of uncrackable code. Technical Ecstasy too. And How Dare You!.

He also did the video/short film for "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

I could never forgive him for his segregationist filibuster.

I'm hilarious, haven't you caught on to that yet?

Gotcha