Storm Thorgerson created iconic album artwork over his career using a complex process. He would start with researching the music and discussing ideas with the band to develop a concept. Then he would create rough designs, prototypes, photoshoots, and editing before finalizing the artwork. Some of his most memorable covers included Dark Side of the Moon, which used bright colors against a dark background, Puzzle by Biffy Clyro which portrayed a moving emotional image, and Absolution by Muse which placed the title in the corner above an abstract birds-eye view image.

1. STORM
THORGERSON

2. ◦ Storm thorgerson is one of the most well known digi-pack designers having made designs for Pink Floyd,
Audioslave, Biffy Clyro, The Cranberries and Muse. He has produced the most memorable and compelling album
artwork of the last 40 years. In the East-London Idea Generation Gallery, he held an exhibition and his thought
process became clear:
◦ 1) The Brief. The designer listens to the music, 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
decide upon a theme or big idea.
◦ 3) Tests. Once a rough is accepted and a budget agreed, a prototype is often created to ensure that the idea works.
◦ 4) Shoot. A location is researched and booked, possibly for a long-time and models are selected and positioned. 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.
◦ 6) Artwork. Finally, having chosen the perfect shot, any cleaning-up or final computer editing is performed, before
handing over the final product.
◦ Although written down the ideas seem simple, when considered, it is evident Storm Thorgerson’s work process is
very complex and would take up a lot of time.

3. Storm Thorgerson created many iconic
digipaks within his career that are classed as
some of the best rock album covers of all time.
Here are some of our favourites that we
decided to analyse in order to help us
understand what would make an incredible
album cover and, in result, an awesome digipak.

4. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
◦ or the artist name within it. It does however provide an
interesting concept to look at of light reflecting off a
prism and breaking into its component colours. These
colours allow a main focus point on the cover whilst the
other side is dark and bland to reflect the title ‘the dark
side of the moon’. Although we felt that the strange
idea of not including the artist name or title was clever
and effective within this particular cover, we decided
that it wouldn’t necessarily be clear to our audience and
so wouldn’t use this idea. However, we did like the use
of a strong focus point and the bright colours coming
off of a dark background and so these things will be
taken into consideration when creating our own digipak.

5. Puzzle – Biffy Clyro
◦ The album cover for Puzzle is a very strong image which leads to many
questions but also which looks extremely effective to an audience. The man
with his flesh made up by a puzzle is an obvious reflection of the title however,
with a piece missing, is more of a solemn image but also a moving and relatable
one. The empty room and unseen men dragging another out in the background
is also a reflection of this as it seems to show a sense of loneliness and a lack of
fulfilment whilst also the cruelty of certain situations. This image is so effective
as it really provokes an emotional reaction from the audience. Again, the title
and artist name are not included as it seems the cover is a strong enough image
to be recognisable as that album by that artist. From this album cover, we again
liked the concept of a lack of titles on the cover however wouldn’t want to use
this within our own product because we want to make sure that our audience
would know exactly what album and artist it was without having to question
themselves. We did however decide that this emotional image was very powerful
and would be something that we would hope to include within our album cover.

6. Absolution - Muse
◦ This is a much more typical album cover as it has the
artist name and album title featured on the cover. We
felt that the use of it being relatively small in the top
left corner looked very effective as it was out of the
way of the rest of the image but also draw your eyes
towards it. The image itself is a very creative one which
raises lots of questions whilst also looking well
produced and interesting. The birds eye view shot
makes the cover look like it has much more depth and
makes it stand out from other images. From this design
we feel that we will consider the placement of the title
and artist name in the top left hand corner with a
strong font and will think about making the image
seem more abstract with an interesting camera shot.