2. Who is he?
British designer
Responsible for many different album covers including:
Pink Floyd
Audioslave
The Cranberries
Muse
Biffy Clyro
He has produced some of the most compelling album covers of the last 40 years
3. His creative process:
1. The Brief. The designer 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.
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’).
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.
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 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.
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.
6. Artwork. Finally, having chosen the perfect shot, any cleaning-up or final computer editing is performed, before handing over
the final product.
