I am a child of the 70s and thus my angst-ridden teenage years were the 80s when the music video usurped the album cover as the marketing vehicle of choice.
My father’s very battered copy of The Album Cover Album I spent many hours leafing through the pages and countless more staring at the details of the actual albums whilst trying to understand the lyrics of the songs I was listening to. Perhaps because he was a graphic designer, my dad also had an excellent book called The Album Cover Albumīy Storm Thorgerson and Roger Dean.
My father, a graphic designer with his own studio in Percy Street in London in those days, had plenty of Pink Floyd and the like in his record collection. My older brother was into Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Peter Gabriel. Like many, my first really conscious contact with graphic design was via record covers. To understand why this book hits all the right sweet spots, we have to travel back in time. For The Love Of Vinyl will be the rock book of 2008.For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosisīy Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell is quite simply the most engaging and entertaining design book I have read all year. Complementing it all is a lengthy critical and historical text examining Hipgnosis and its legacy. Also included are short essays by musicians (such as Pink Floyd's Nick Mason), artists (Peter Blake) and fellow designers (Paula Scher) on their favorite covers, as well as unseen photographs and ephemera. For The Love Of Vinyl is the first book to document their output in detail, focusing on over 60 package designs - from cover to label - written about in entertaining detail by the men who created them. For a dozen years, Hipgnosis created timeless rock iconography. Formed by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell in 1968, Hipgnosis was a graphic design studio specializing in creative photography and working mainly in the music business designing album covers for many rock 'n' roll bands including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, 10cc, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett and Styx, among others.
"Hipgnosis was the biggest and best design firm for the biggest and best bands of the classic rock era.
Hardcover, 232 pages, full color, $45.00 list price.
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