Vinyl The Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue

Aubrey Powell

The complete catalogue of design collective Hipgnosis, showcasing groundbreaking cover art created for iconic rock 'n' roll giants, including the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd.

The complete, definitive, and never-before-published catalogue of album covers created by the legendary design agency Hipgnosis, this volume finally does justice to the work of the most important design collective in music history. Founded in 1967 by Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey “Po" Powell, and Peter Christopherson, Hipgnosis gained a legendary status in graphic design, transforming the look of album art forever and winning five Grammy nominations for package design. Their revolutionary cover art departed from the conventional group shots favored by record companies of the day, resulting in groundbreaking, often surreal designs inextricable from the major albums of many of the biggest names in the history of popular music: AC/DC, Black Sabbath, The Police, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett, The Who, Wings, Yes, and XTC, to name but a few.

Arranged chronologically,  Vinyl . Album . Cover . Art  features stunning reproductions of every single Hipgnosis cover—more than 300 in total—for the first time, along with pertinent insights from the rock ’n’ roll legends whose albums are featured and behind-the-scenes photography. The text, written by Powell, and with contributions by Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, and Nick Mason, brims with information that illuminates the album art and the compelling stories behind each cover’s creation.

Contributors

Aubrey Powell

Author

Aubrey “Po” Powell co-founded the design agency Hipgnosis with Storm Thorgerson in 1968, creating over the next 15 years some of the most iconic record covers for artists such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney and Genesis. Powell is currently art director for Pink Floyd, responsible for designing and curating the record-breaking exhibition “Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains,” which premiered for five months in 2017 at the V&A in London.