Documentary Review: ‘Square The Circle The Story Of Hipgnosis,’ Album Cover Artistes

When I started this blog, amongst my many goals for it was the wish that I’d find a community of like minded rock n roll fans out there. I had hoped we could open a dialogue about the music we love. As fate would have it, I may have accomplished that! I had a reader recently, David, who reached out in the comment section on our post about the Black Crowes latest vault release and alerted me to a great new documentary about Hipgnosis, the art firm that created some of the most iconic album cover artwork ever. I had no idea this documentary was out there but I’m so glad David told me about it. If you love music and you’ve collected vinyl at all, you’ll love this thing.

In my misspent youth I spent countless hours in my room, lying on my bed with tunes cranked up to 11, staring at the cover art on albums. Noel Gallagher, who I’m not a fan of – if anything we’re on team Liam around here… the Rock Chick loved As You Were and Why Me? Why Not. – says in the doc, something along the lines of, “Rich people have art they hang on the walls, poor folk have album covers.” If that’s true, then I had a quite robust “art collection” in my record crate. At one point, in the B&V labs I had 15 albums displayed on my wall, so perhaps Noel is on to something… Anyway, as I laid there in my room back in high school, staring at album art, I would also read the liner notes to the albums I loved. I wanted to know who produced the record, who played what, and of course, who designed the album art. And on my coolest records, the sleeve was designed by this mysterious company… Hipgnosis. Even their name was cool – Hip, ie, cool as in “aging hipster,” and gnosis, which is defined by Webster as “esoteric knowledge about spiritual truth.” What’s better than that?

Hipgnosis was founded by two art students from Cambridge and later London, Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Poe” Powell. Later they were joined by Peter Christopherson. Storm and Poe became friends with a few lads, Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Rick Wright and David Gilmour who you perhaps know better as Pink Floyd. Storm convinced Roger to allow Hipgnosis to design the album art for their second LP, A Saucer Full of Secrets. After that the company sort of took off. Storm was volatile and abrasive but he was the creative idea man. Poe was more practical and took many of the photographs that later graced my turntable.

These guys created so many iconic album covers from some of the greatest bands and albums of all time. They worked on many Pink Floyd albums including Atom Heart Mother, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals among others. They worked with Zeppelin on Houses Of The Holy, Presence and In Through The Out Door. They worked with Paul McCartney, AC/DC, Yes, the Scorpions, Genesis and later Peter Gabriel when he went solo, Yes, Bad Company and Wishbone Ash. I love that Wishbone Ash cover for Argus. They worked extensively with a band I know virtually nothing about, 10cc. I didn’t realize how extensive their catalog of customers was. What a Rolodex they must have had! And as proof of their relationships, many of the aforementioned rock stars show up in the documentary and tell the stories behind the creative process of their album art.

Sadly, Hipgnosis is sort of relegated to that bygone, distant past which has slipped away. Most people today buy their music digitally or stream and don’t even pay attention to the little square with the album cover displayed on the little phone screen. Hipgnosis thrived in the glory years of the late 60s, 70s and early 80s when record companies were spending money like it was going out of style. There was so much money they’d spare no expense on album covers. McCartney once bought a statue at auction and had Hipgnosis fly it to a mountain top so they could photograph it from the summit in snow. I guess now they’d just Photoshop it. But album art made a statement. The image on the cover of an album is going to stay with that music as long as it’s out there.

Album art was important to us. It could convey what the contents of this mysterious, round piece of vinyl might contain. Images that Hipgnosis created grace walls and screens all over the world even today. They truly created iconic images that are burned in my psyche to this day. How many of us stared at that weird artifact on the cover of Zeppelin’s Presence trying to make sense of it all?

Sadly, as the money got tight, Storm’s volatility and impracticality about money began to take its toll. The firm dissolved and Storm and Poe didn’t speak for years. Much like Pink Floyd, the band that helped Hipgnosis get it’s start, the relationships deteriorated. And just like that, an era that really defines classic rock and the artwork that adorned it passed into history. What a drag…

But how magnificent it was. To this day I’ll sprawl out in my rock n roll cave at the B&V labs and stare at those old iconic pictures. I was just listening to Bad Company’s Desolation Angels and staring at that album cover last weekend. Some things never change.

Do yourself a favor and check out Squaring The Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) and again, thanks to David for alerting me to it!

Cheers and shine on you crazy diamonds…