Some of you might not know him by name, but go through your music collection and you are bound to own more than one album with a cover designed by Storm Thorgerson.
Sadly, the famed artist passed away on April 18th after a long battle with cancer. He was 69.
Growing up at school with the likes of Roger Waters and Syd Barrett, Thorgerson went on to do the cover art for one of the most famous albums of all time, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The cover was drawn by fellow colleague George Hardie based on Thorgerson’s design. He went on to do another 15 covers for them.
Some of the other notable bands he has worked for are Anthrax, Bruce Dickinson, Led Zeppelin, Megadeth, Helloween, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Rainbow, Dream Theater, Audioslave, The Mars Volta and Australia’s own Powderfinger.
Known for his surreal style of placing objects out of their context, often with vast space around them, his career spanned over four decades. He also directed music videos for Bruce Dickinson, Rainbow and Pink Floyd.
Many of the bands Thorgerson worked with have paid tribute to the “graphic design genius” including this post by Dream Theater on their Facebook page,
“We are very saddened to hear of the passing of Storm Thorgerson. The world lost one of its greatest artistic talents yesterday. We are so grateful and proud to have had the opportunity to work together. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”
