THE DIVISION BELL These stone statues were a variant of the metal statues, and were for the same album. Because Pink Floyd liked both metal and stone heads we ended up making both of them and using them on different formats. I consider, unashamedly, this to be one of the best things I've ever done, can I say that? Not so much for the dialogue with the viewer and not so much for the implication of a third absent face, a spiritual face i.e. that of Syd Barrett, formed by the two eyes looking at you, rather than at each other, but more because the statues themselves, designed with wild-eyed Keith Breeden, were very imposing in their own right, majestic, elegant and monolithic, standing eerily in the fens of East Anglia. Storm Thorgerson
GASOLINE Memory is a devilish thing, a slippery thing, you think you got it down and then it eludes you, like trying to catch a fish with bare hands. This image of eyes on trees is an exterior installation - hundreds of photos of eyes attached temporarily to silver birch trees, but its derivation I am not too sure about. Being an image of romance (romantic obsession) and paranoia. Alternatively I dimly recall a lateral association with the phrase 'the walls have ears' (more paranoia) so the trees have eyes but why trees? I don't know, I remember that they had to be silver birches, not some other tree, which may have have been a simple visual preference. Either way Rupert and Sam made a sterling effort to adorn every tree in sight making, i think, an effective and eye catching (oh my) image. Storm Thorgerson
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON 30TH The stained glass window was made in the same proportions as the original design but substituting a deep purple hue for the black background since black glass does not admit any light and might defeat the whole purpose. The stained glass window was photographed outside against a winter sun (actually in the back garden of a house belonging to one of Pink Floyd) highlighting the texture and imperfections of the glass itself. All very radiant we thought, especially in the flesh. Storm Thorgerson
ON THE SHORE I'm not proud. If a good idea comes along I'll nab it. Good ideas, good insights, good designs, are all very useful and come from so many different sources that it is usually impossible to put your finger on exactly where they originate, but not in this case. The American artist John Blake was at the Royal College of Art at the same time as me, and occasionally slummed it in our Hipgnosis studio. I was talking to him about Trees, a folk-band from the early Seventies, and about their singer Celia who had a very distinctive voice. I told him the album was called On The Shore, and he said, 'I've got a thought, throwing water,' a procedure close to my heart, for I have done thrown water, thrown paint, thrown milk both in stills and in movie. Storm Thorgerson
PRESENCE I was greatly impressed that Led Zeppelin, the mighty Led Zeppelin, could take this low key, off the wall, domestic semi-kitsch, partially retro design... so obscure really. Impressed and delighted because I always felt that the understatement adds to the power of the image.
A standard, bourgeois family - mum, dad and two kids - sit around a table in some strange marina (actually an indoor boat show) not to eat or commune but to examine an oddly shaped black object that seems to enthral them. Seems they don't need much else - the table is bare. Does the black object represent Led Zeppelin? All the family needs is to bask in their musical emanations. Storm Thorgerson
ONION LADIES Wild Perry Farrell - a name possibly derived from 'peripheral' or 'partly feral'? One never knows - asked us to design a cover for Jane's Addiction, which seems a bit weird, I can tell you, since he designed a pretty good cover himself, Nothing Shocking. So why come to us? I should've read the signs and known the trouble it would cause. Perry said he wanted something very sexual and provocative, I think, in fact, he actually wanted sex. Not with me I presume.
Sitting around trying to think about something sexual as part of a job is harder than you think, a bit of a turn-off actually, like thinking of your parents having sex! Anyway we tried jolly hard, submitted several designs, of which he chose two. We discussed models, locations and so forth and shot the whole damn thing only to have him reject both of them. Storm Thorgerson
MR LOVE PANTS Raconteur, humourist, art teacher, rock 'n' roller and bon vivant Ian Durey employed us to design an album called Different Strokes but he wasn't very enamoured with any of our suggestions and dealt with this disappointment by telling us he'd changed the title to Mr. Lovepants at the last moment. 'What do you think?' he asked with a big grin. I said, through gritted teeth, that I thought it was 'great' whilst cursing under my breath that my ideas were now redundant. I left shortly after.
As I walked down his front steps it struck me, literally between the eyes, that Mr. Lovepants was not human but a dog, a dog who panted heavily, namely a boxer who wore pants or boxer shorts. Ho ho, job done. Storm Thorgerson
WISH YOU WERE HERE It was very difficult to design this cover following the phenomenal success of The Dark Side Of The Moon. After prolonged conversations with all of the band, especially with Roger, it seemed that 'absence' was a recurring theme, especially absence of commitment - either to relationships or to work. There in the flesh but not in the spirit. At this moment in time, the band was beginning to drift apart and Roger was getting divorced. I racked my brains for good ideas as to how to represent 'absence' whilst being present. I went through the motions, until perchance we stumbled upon the notion of traces ie: shadows, footsteps, things that indicate presence but are in themselves insubstantial or not very present. These ideas became intermingled with empty gestures, maybe a handshake where people grip your hand warmly but don't mean too much. From there to absent emotions and thence to people who were absent for fear of being hurt, or burnt, and from that to a person on fire. Storm Thorgerson
