2. Who is he?
• A British designer and artist responsible for more
classic album covers than you can possibly imagine
one person could create in a lifetime. He has
produced some of the most compelling and
memorable album artworks of the last 40 years.
3. Some of his work
• An excellent
exhibition of his
work ran in the
east-London Idea
Generation
Gallery from April
2nd to May 2nd
2010. Part of his
exhibition
explained his
creative
process…
4. 1) The Brief
• The designer only listens to the music (possibly only
demos at this stage), reads the lyrics and talks to
the band. These create a ‘brain soup’, from which
ideas can be extracted to form the brief.
5. 2) Roughs
• Over a number of meetings/days the designer meets
the band again for discussions, in an attempt to pin-down
a theme or big idea. This stage is creative,
with word play, honest thoughts, and scribblings.
The best are converted to more complete
illustrations (the ‘roughs’).
6. 3) Tests
• Once a rough is accepted and a budget agreed, a
prototype is often created to ensure that the idea
works. Depending on the idea, this could involve the
creation of scale models from clay or polystyrene. If
everything works, the final models are constructed.
7. 4) Shoot
• A location is researched and booked, possibly for a
long-time if outdoors and in uncertain weather.
Models are erected and positioned, with the help
from volunteers if the shoot is big and complex. A
wide range of photographs are then taken, under
varying light/weather conditions and filters.
8. 5) Editing
• This could be called ‘selection’ where the best shot
from the shoot is chosen. This can take several
days, if hundreds of similar shots need to be
compared.
9. 6) Artwork
• Finally, having chosen the perfect shot, any
cleaning-up or final computer editing is performed,
before handing over the final product.
10. Finally…
• When written down in these ‘simple’ steps, the
process doesn’t look too complex. But when you
consider that some ideas involve 700 or 800 iron
beds arranged on a beach with tides approaching,
you begin to appreciate that it might not be so
simple after all.
