Storm Thorgerson

Who is he?

• A British designer and artist responsible for more

classic album covers than you can possibly imagine

one person could create in a lifetime. He has

produced some of the most compelling and

memorable album artworks of the last 40 years.

Some of his work• An excellent

exhibition of his

work ran in the

east-London Idea

Generation

Gallery from April

2nd to May 2nd

2010. Part of his

exhibition

explained his

creative

process…

1) The Brief

• The designer only 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 scribblings.

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 the 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.

Finally…

• When written down in these ‘simple’ steps, the

process doesn’t look too complex. But when you

consider that some ideas involve 700 or 800 iron

beds arranged on a beach with tides approaching,

you begin to appreciate that it might not be so

simple after all.