Category: Graphics Design

Posted on

Taken By Storm: The Art Of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis – A Film by Roddy Bogawa

The DELUXE PACKAGE only available here  (limited distribution) gets you both the rental of the feature-length film and the SPECIAL DIGITAL EXTRAS material as well as two folders of images for your enjoyment!!! One folder has eight portraits of Storm taken by StormStudios photographer Rupert Truman on their various adventures together – traveling by train through the Rockies from Chicago to San Francisco, on a beach in Capetown for a cover shoot, the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote where the cover for Audioslave first record was shot, and more! Also included are two poster designs that were made for the film for the first screening of the film at South By Southwest and Storm’s own design for a screening of the film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Downloadable and printable for your wall!!!!

Posted on

Vinyl . Album . Cover . Art: The Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue

The complete, definitive and never-before-published catalog of Hipgnosis, Vinyl • Album • Cover • Art finally does justice to the work of the most important design collective in music history, which, according to Roddy Bogawa, director of the documentary Taken by Storm (2011), ‘designed half your record collection’.

Founded in 1967 by Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell and Peter Christopherson, Hipgnosis gained legendary status in graphic design, transforming the look of album art forever and winning five Grammy nominations for package design.

Their revolutionary cover art moved away from the conventional group shots favoured by record companies of the day, resulting in the ground-breaking, often surreal designs which define the albums of many of the biggest names in the history of popular music: 10cc, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Peter Gabriel, The Police, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Syd Barrett, Throbbing Gristle, T. Rex, Wings, Yes and XTC, to name but a few.

Arranged chronologically, Vinyl • Album • Cover • Art features stunning reproductions of every single Hipgnosis cover – 372 in total – coupled with detailed information by Po and Storm Thorgerson on the artworks and the compelling stories behind their creation. Additional contributions by Peter Gabriel, Marcus Bradbury, and Pentagram’s Harry Pearce provide engrossing insights into the way these incredible artworks came into being; place the covers in a context, and reflect on their enduring impact on album design.

Posted on

Pat Metheny Unity Group – KIN (←→)

I dig Pat Metheny. He is a creative musician who composes and performs rich, textured music that I love to get lost inside.  I was informed this past week that the Pat Metheny Unity Group will be releasing a new album,  KIN (←→).

My affinity for vinyl prompted me to pre-order the German pressed 140-gram 2 LP set that includes a complete CD and an exclusive print of the cover art signed by Pat himself 😉

I love the graphics design for the album cover.

“The core quartet of Chris, Ben, Antonio and I played over 100 concerts over the year that followed the release of our Unity Band record. Over the course of that period, the band became one of those rare combinations of players where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts – it gelled in every way, and that just seemed to beg for expansion and further research. Concurrently, I had been kind of itching to write more in the style that I had developed over the years with my regular groups and projects where there is a lush and more orchestrated kind of compositional conception that went beyond the sonic limits of what a straight ahead quartet might invoke. But I really didn’t want to lose the energy, focus and intensity of what this band had developed. I wanted to take it further. If the first Unity Band record was a thoughtful, black and white documentary of four musicians in a recording studio playing, this record is more like the Technicolor, IMAX version of what a band like this could be—but with that hardcore thing still sitting right in the middle of it all.” ~ Pat Metheny

The Pat Metheny Unity Group consists of Pat Metheny (Guitar), Chris Potter (Sax), Antonio Sanchez (Drums), Ben Williams (Bass), and Giulio Carmassi (Multi-Instrumentalist).

I see that the Pat Metheny Unity Group has announced a world tour and that a concert is taking place at the Quick Center for the Arts on the Fairfield University campus on March 25th, 2014. I plan to make that our first concert ticket buy for 2014 😉

Related articles
Posted on

Good News For People Who Love Bad News

I thought I would share my son Matt Jennings’s music graphic design art with you today.  He is a fan of Modest Mouse among other artists. Matt has designed the first in a new series of album inspired art for sale on Society6.

is the ingenious new platform for empowering artists by connecting them with supporters and matching them with grants.

5807574_5902587_lz

Matt based his first album inspiration art on the 2004 Modest Mouse recording,  Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Inspired by the Album with the same name by Modest Mouse. Released in 2004, and has still remained one of my favorite albums to date. – Matt Jennings

You can learn more about Matt’s slant on art via his Tumblr page.

Posted on

Pink Floyd 40th Anniversary, Unite to Darken the Moon

Wow has it been 40 years already since the release of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon? I remember well March 17, 1973 when that recording debuted (US release date according to Capitol Records). The FM radio station I listened to out of New York City, WNEW-FM 102.7 leaned on it strongly. I bought my vinyl LP copy on  the Saturday afternoon it was released here in the States.  On the following day, Sunday the 18th of March 1973 I was fortunate to witness Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon 1973 Tour. They performed at The Palace in Waterbury, Ct. I wrote about that experience in the blog post hyper-linked below.

Pink Floyd In Concert 1973 – The Dark Side of the Moon Tour

Pink Floyd and EMI Music will mark the 40th Anniversary of the original UK release of The Dark Side of The Moon on 24 March 2013, as fans around the globe unite to turn a specially designed moon dark. Centred around a global playback of the album on PinkFloyd.com, each memory, thought and photo tweeted as fans rediscover the album will count towards the creation of a dark side of the moon.

Starting at 00:01am GMT on 24 March 2013, for the entire day fans all over the world will be able to share thoughts and comments via twitter using #DarkSide40 and witness the impact as the volume of messages combine to turn the moon dark.

DSOTM

Storm Thorgerson

When it comes to branding and logo there may not be a more discernible icon than the Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon “Prism”.  (Well perhaps the Rolling Stones Lips might top it…) It was designed by Storm Thorgerson when he was with Hipignosis. I have been a major fan of Storm Thorgerson for decades.

I wish I could afford the deluxe edition of his collectible book, Taken By Storm, The Album Art of Storm Thorgerson by the high-end music book publishing house Genesis Publications.

Keep watching the Pink Floyd Web page, http://darkside40.pinkfloyd.com/ for the variants of the Dark Side of the Moon prism. Each day another square in the diagram gets filled in and I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon 😉

Related articles
Posted on

The Latest About Roger Dean

Roger Dean logo
Roger Dean logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roger Dean has been art designer for the progressive rock bands, Yes and Asia for decades.  He designs worlds that immerse us in compelling art illustrations.

The last time I saw Yes in concert was 2004 at Mohegan Sun Casino Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. It was their 35 anniversary Songs From Tsongas Tour. Roger Dean designed a full stage experience that engulfed members of Yes. The event has been preserved on DVD. Here is song from that historic tour, “Going For The One”,

Yes - Songs from Tsongas - 35th Anniversary Concert, 2005

Roger Dean has two unique world events coming up, the first one will take place in England next month in November. The Roger Dean Art Exhibition will include Roger Dean and Rick Wakeman in person together. They will appear on November 3rd, 2012 at Trading Boundaries, Sheffield Green, Sussex, England.

An informal evening of conversation between Rick Wakeman and Roger Dean.

The other event is the science fiction convention called Arisia which takes place in Boston, Massachusetts  January 18-23, 2013. Roger Dean will be on several panels during the convention, and will also be giving a talk about his own work. The image posted below is his T shirt design for this event.

Posted on

The Rock Poster Society Event in San Francisco Tomorrow 8/18

I love my hobby within my main music hobby, rock poster art collecting. I just renewed my membership with The Rock Poster Society based in San Francisco, California. They sent me a cool t-shirt based on this poster by EMEK for renewing 😉

It is my sincere wish to visit San Francisco with Rosemary in the near future. We’ve developed some very nice friendships there and would love to visit with our west coast friends someday 🙂 I’d love to include a Rock Poster Society Event in those travels 😉

The Cannery

Speaking of Rock Poster Society Events that is the purpose of my music blog post today. Tomorrow The Rock Poster Soci­ety (TRPS) will hold the rock poster art event of the sum­mer! TRPS is team­ing up with the Acad­emy of Art Uni­ver­sity to present Rock Art By the Bay on Sat­ur­day August 18, 2012 at the Can­nery near San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The show will run from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admis­sion: FREE

Join the event on Facebook Here

Rock Art by the Bay 2012 poster by Carolyn Ferris

Posted on

Why Pink Floyd? Product Day in North America

What an exciting week  for Pink Floyd fans and music collectors. The Why Pink Floyd?  EMI/Capitol sales and distribution campaign commences today for North America. All the studio albums are newly remastered including unreleased music from the archives & collectors’ box sets.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is celebrating Why Pink Floyd? all week. Tonight’s show features Roger Waters and The Foo Fighters as his backing band performing, “in the Flesh” from The Wall.

The first phase of  newly remastered Pink Floyd recordings includes:

  1. 14 Remastered ‘Discovery Edition’ Studio Albums on CD and digital download.
  2. A Discovery Box Set featuring all 14 remastered studio albums.
  3. The Dark Side Of The Moon – Immersion, Experience, Discovery & Vinyl Editions.
Tomorrow I will share my reflections about how I got into Pink Floyd in 1970,  the films Zabriskie Point and Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii (1972), Meddle (1972) and Dark Side of the Moon.
Posted on

7 Walkers Looking Down From Heaven

 The concert I have looked forward to all year is tonight!!!!

Copyright Rob Chapman

7 Walkers will be appearing in an intimate, 300 seat setting in Torrington, Ct. Backstage at the Nancy Marine Studio.

Studio Theatre

The McLovins are the opening act. Pinch me to see if I am dreaming. Can you think of a better way to spend a cool summer evening?

Posted on

Elements for Constructing Social Learning Environments

As I conduct my viral research for my Capella University course project on edublogging I keep discovering these tasty graphics that illustrate social learning admirably.

The graphic was created by Abhijit Kadle on the Upside Learning Web site. I just started following him on Twitter ;). Thank you Abhijit for such an insightful graphic.

Thank you Jason Rhode for uploading this image to Flickr, I see you are an alumni of Capella University and that you have a Ph. D. in Instructional Design for Online Learning. That is my Masters in Education pursuit.

I plan to ask you a couple of questions about edublogging for my paper once I can assimilate your content on your Web site.

Thanks Gentlemen,
Ed Jennings

Enhanced by Zemanta
%d bloggers like this: