Iconic Album Cover Artist and Music Video Director Storm Thorgerson, Dead at 69
The late Storm Thorgerson, next to a few of the legendary album covers he designed.
Storm Thorgerson, the English graphic designer best known for creating a slew of iconic rock album covers, including those for Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, died Thursday at age 69. He is also recognized as a prolific and influential music video director during THE GOLDEN AGE OF MUSIC VIDEO, sometimes collaborating with Aubrey Powell under the monicker “Po & Storm”.
“His ending was peaceful and he was surrounded by family and friends. He had been ill for some time with cancer though he had made a remarkable recovery from his stroke in 2003. He was in his 70th year,” said his family in a release.
Born in 1944 in Middlesex, England, Thorgerson met Pink Floyd founders David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Syd Barrett while the four were in their teens. After embarking on a design career, Thorgerson formed the graphic art group Hipgnosis and created bold, bizarre and surreal album cover art for everyone from Paul McCartney & Wings to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, from Genesis to Muse, from Ween to AC/DC. His most memorable cover design was for Pink Floyd’s most famous and bestselling album The Dark Side of the Moon, which featured a prism with a refracting rainbow-colored beam emerging from it.
His solo-directed videos included equally surreal clips for Pink Floyd, Paul Young, Tony Carey, and Nick Kershaw, while his collaborations with Aubrey Powell included the highly popular clips “Big Log” and “In The Mood” for Robert Plant and the award-winning “Owner of a Lonely Heart” video for Yes.
RIP Storm Thorgerson. Check out some of his videos below.