SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/81862
Under Hipgnosis: New Film Examines Iconic Sleeve Design Studio by Les Jacobs F to listen to Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy and not see the apoca- lyptic glow engulfi ng pale, naked, alien-like children climbing across the treacherous rocks of the album's cover. Music has always been visual, as well as aural. In the years before cas- settes and CDs tipped the world in favor of ever more compact media, vinyl records and their gloriously full-sized 12" by 12" covers gave artists a powerful outlet on which to catch listeners' eyes as well as their ears. Few have done more with that square canvas than artist and designer or many, it's virtually impossible to hear Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and not see that album's iconic light blue prism refracting a sharp rainbow across a deep black background, or Storm Th orgerson and his colleagues at Hipgnosis, the graphic arts studio behind the famous Dark Side of the Moon and Houses of the Holy album covers, along with almost 200 others from the late '60s through the early '80s. Peter Gabriel's melted face, an endless trail of beds stretching along the shoreline of an empty beach, and a lone fl oating pig above the Battersea Power Station in London were all images that were either con- ceived or executed by the Hipgnosis team. Each has left an indelible mark on record buyers and music lovers across the globe. Filmmaker Roddy Bogawa is one of those impressionable souls. Festival, combines interviews and refl ections from Th orgerson and fellow Hipgnosis designer and photographer Aubrey Powell with rare, never-before-seen photographs and footage from their collections and from those of the musicians with whom they worked. Th e fi lm also includes interviews with rock legends David Gilmour and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Steve Miller and Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant. Bogawa also reached out to current artists who have worked with Th orgerson recently, such as Dominic Howard of Muse and Cedric Bixler Zavala of Th e Mars Volta. Bogawa began working on the project three years ago after a conver- sation with a friend led him to Th e Work of Hipgnosis: Walk Away Renee, a book that helped connect the dots between Th orgerson and the many LP covers Bogawa had grown up with. His latest documentary, Taken By Storm: Th e Art of Storm Th orgerson and Hipgnosis, gives an in-depth look at the man and the studio behind some of the most captivating and imaginative album covers in rock history. Th e fi lm, which made its world premiere at this year's SXSW Film Storm Thorgerson years, because really I've known about Storm's work since about the age of 15 or so," said Bogawa, who grew up in the Los Angeles punk scene, but now lives and works in New York. "Like millions, I had a lot of his designs in my record collection without even knowing necessarily that they were all done by the same people …" "When I looked at the body of work that he had created— we're "I've talked with some people jokingly that this is a fi lm made over 33 and fi lms, is known for his surreal juxtaposition of objects and people in landscapes and situations where they wouldn't normally appear. His penchant for distorting reality contrasts with his desire to convert his wild concepts into real, live events without the help of digital manipu- lation. Th at image of 700-plus beds on a beach from Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason? Th orgerson actually had his crew drag 700 beds onto a real beach to make that happen. Rapidly developing technology has made it signifi cantly easier for talking major design work that's pivotal in the music world in how bands were marketed visually— I realized that this was something that was really far-reaching." Th orgerson, who continues to design covers as well as produce videos work and the cultural and social importance of his art, but it's also a fi lm about the growing emptiness that technology leaves in its void," Bogawa said. "I think the fi lm is really timely in that way and shows that, in the end, we all want to be together, enjoying each others' company rather than sitting alone in front of a computer screen." ■ Roddy Bogawa 30 SXSW ORLD / M ARCH M USIC 201 1 Taken By Storm screens at the SXSW Film Festival at the State Theater (719 Congress Ave.) on Saturday, March 19 at 2pm. artists to do digitally what Th orgerson prefers to do physically. At the same time, digital music distribution has not only altered the paradigm through which listeners acquire music, but has also largely severed them from the tangible experience of looking at and physically handling the art that comes with it. Th e canvas shrank with tapes and CDs, and now downloading music has practically made that the album cover medium obsolete. Yet Th orgerson's determined eff ort to circumvent technology and do things the hard way makes his elaborate, real world sculptures and tab- leaus that much more magical. For Bogawa, who shoots exclusively on 16mm fi lm, a dying breed among the popularity of digital video, this defi ance of technology resonates deeply. "Th e fi lm is a story about [Th orgerson's] life and inherently about his RUPERT TRUMAN