Greatest rock artists

Cafe Society
1

This is a spin-off of** Uncle Goat’s** excellent thread, the World’s Greatest Rock n Roll Album Covers. Since that thread is focused on individual albums, I thought it would be distracting to ask about the underlying artists. So, iconic works aside, who are the greatest graphic artists in music history?

Here’s my short list:[ul]
[li]Stanly Mouse, responsible for much of the Grateful Dead’s imagery and beyond. Very influential in the general psychedelia scene; [/li][li]Hipgnosis (speaking of psychedelia), most closely associated with Pink Floyd, but absurdly prolific beyond them; [/li][li]Storm Thorgerson deserves mention in his own right in addition to Hipgnosis; [/li][li]Pedro Bell, the artist behind much of Parliament Funkadelic. His visual work bleeds into their stage presence and act; and [/li][li]Derek Riggs, creator of one of the most famous mascots (Eddie) in rock history and a slew of album covers that can be stared at for hours on end. [/ul][/li]
Clearly this is a paltry list … who’s missing?

2

Roger Dean

3

Brian Schroeder aka Pushead

4

When I think of the 60’s, I think of Peter Max

Trivia note: Crosby, Stills & Nash’s C S N logo was designed by the late Phil Hartman

5

Gerald Scarfe immediately came to mind (the guy who did the animation for Pink Floyd’s The Wall)

6

H.R. Giger has done some notable album work, including ELP’s “Brain Salad Surgery” and an insert for Dead Kennedys’ “Frankenchrist” which resulted in an obscenity charge.

Giger also created the design for the title character in Alien among other movie work.

7

:smack: Can’t believe I forgot him! Knew it was a paltry list.

In some respects Giger could almost go in the Artists with a big volume of works who are only known for one or two.

8

Gotta add Frank Frazetta to the list, if only for his Molly Hatchet covers (although he did covers for several other acts).

9

Did he ever actually “do” an album cover? I was under the impression that all the Frazetta LP covers used pre-existing works.

10

Recent Frank Frazetta thread: RIP Frank Frazetta

11

My favourites are already listed, but Rodney Matthews has done loads, usually for prog-type bands like Barclay James Harvest, Asia, Rick Wakeman, Amon Duul II, etc.
Mark Wilkinson has done covers for Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Kylie Minogue, and others.

12

I just looked at his page, and he sure has done a lot of work that I know, especially the Priest work.

13

Stylorouge designed a lot of great covers for Britpop acts in the 1990s. My personal favorite, though, is Peter Saville, who designed all of the Joy Division and New Order records. Guy’s a badass.

14

Vaughan Oliver
eg: covers for the Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Breeders, This Mortal Coil, Pale Saints, Pixies, and Throwing Muses.

15

British Pop Artist Richard Hamilton “designed” the embossed cover for The Beatles White Album - a kind of statement to counter the the previous visual extravagance of the Sgt Pepper album (by another Briitish Pop artist - Peter Blake)

16

Definitely have to nominate Hapshash And The Coloured Coat (aka Nigel Weymouth and Michael English). The best of the British late 60’s concert poster designers!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapshash_and_the_Coloured_Coat
http://www.whocollection.com/hapshash_&_osiris_posters.htm

Also have to nominate Martin Sharp, most recognizable for his wonderful Cream album covers, for “Wheels Of File” & “Disraeli Gears”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sharp

17

Klaus Voorman