STORM THORGERSON

BACKGROUND

Storm Thorgerson was born in Middlesex in 1944 and died in April 2013.

He went to school with two Pink Floyd founders, he was in the year below Roger Waters and a

year above Syd Barratt.

He was also a teenage friend of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmor, and was later best man at his

wedding in 1994.

In 2003 Storm has a stroke of which he was paralysed, he was then diagnosed with cancer

which he battled until he died in 2013 at 69 years old.

CAREER

In 1968 he and Audrey Powell founded a graphic design group called Hipnosis to create single

artwork which later became very famous.

Storm and Audrey then created Greenback Films where they produced music videos.

In the early 1990’s Storm decided to break away and set up StormStudios where he was joined

by an array of people such as Rupert Trueman (photographer) and Daniel Abbott (designer

and illustrator) to create album artwork that is now classed to be some of the best of all time.

Thorgerson and his team at StormStudios released many books over the years including The

Gathering Storm – A Quartet in Several Parts explaining about his album artwork over the past

five decades and photographs.

SIX STEPS TO CREATING A MUSIC VIDEO

Thorgerson devised a six step guide in order for him to create all of his artwork. These steps were:

1. The Brief. The designer listens to the music (possibly only demos at this stage), reads the lyrics, and talks to the band. These create a ‘brain soup’, from which ideas can be extracted to form the brief.

2. Roughs. Over a number of meetings/days, the designer meets the band again for discussions, in an attempt to pin-down a theme or big idea. This stage is creative, with word-play, honest thoughts, and scribbling's. The best are converted to more complete illustrations (the ‘roughs’).

3. Tests. Once a rough is accepted and a budget agreed, a prototype is often created to ensure that the idea works. Depending on the idea, this could involve the creation of scale models from clay or polystyrene. If everything works, the final models are constructed.

4. Shoot. A location is researched and booked, possibly for a long-time if outdoors and in uncertain weather. Models are erected and positioned, with help from volunteers if the shoot is big and complex. A wide range of photographs are then taken, under varying light/weather conditions and filters.

5. Editing. This could be called ‘selection’, where the best shot from the shoot is chosen. This can take several days, if hundreds of similar shots need to be compared.

6. Artwork. Finally, having chosen the perfect shot, any cleaning-up or final computer editing is performed, before handing over the final product.

SOME OF HIS WORK

Pink Floyd- The Dark Side of the

Moon Muse- Absolution

Biffy Clyro- Puzzle Villainy- Mode. Set. Clear.