Storm Thorgerson was an influential album cover designer who created covers for classic albums by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Muse. He had a six-step process for designing covers that included listening to the music, brainstorming concepts with the band, creating rough designs, testing prototypes, photographing a shoot, editing photos, and finalizing the artwork. The document outlines Thorgerson's process and notes that following his explicit guidelines may help achieve a great design.

2. • Storm Thorgerson (1944-2013) was an extremely influential album cover designer
and artist, producing some extremely classic covers to some extremely classic
albums.
• As a designer, Thorgerson uses a fairly specific six-segment planning process to
create his masterpieces. From studying this process my group have decided to
follow this guideline as it is explicit in its actions and will hopefully help us
achieve a great digipak.
Pink Floyd’s “Dark
Side Of The Moon”
Led Zeppelin’s
“Houses Of The Holy”
Muse’s
“Absolution”

3. His 6-Step Process:
The Brief:
First off, Thorgerson will listen to the
musical pieces, which at this stage are
usually in the mixing or demo process,
as well as studying the lyrics and talking
to the bands. From here he will figure
out roughly where to take it
conceptually. This is the “Brain Soup”.
Roughs:
He will then meet with the band over a
series of days to discuss where they
want the cover to go. He streamlines his
ideas. This stage is creative, where mood
boards are made and word play is often
used. These streamlined ideas will be
created into “roughs”
Tests:
After the roughs have been made and
analysed, and the budget has been
confirmed, a prototype is created to
ensure the idea will work. It depends of
what type of image is needed to what
type of prototype is made.
Shoot:
After the tests have been approved, a
location will be researched and booked.
It may have to be booked for a
prolonged period if it is outside due to
weather being unreliable. On the day
the models and volunteers will show up
and ensure the shoot goes well. A large
range of photographs are taken in
various filters
Editing:
This is the selection process, where the
best photo will be selected and edited
upon to create the finished image. This
can take a very long time.
Artwork:
This is after the perfect shot is chosen,
and will be where any post production
techniques will be finalised before it is
given officially back to the artist for
them to release their album.