Squaring the Circle documentary reviewed

 

The story of Seventies album cover designers Hipgnosis makes for an absorbing film by Anton Corbijn

 If you grew up in the Seventies or a fan of that decade’s music the chances are you owned albums which had covers designed by Hipgnosis. Distinctive, abstract and unusual they created a visual signature for prog, rock and beyond, so much so that is impossible to think of the likes of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin without imagining the images Hipgnosis created for them. This film about their work and the two creative people at the heart of the company is directed by Anton Corbijn, himself a renowned designer, so as you would expect he is empathic with the sort of creative process that leads to such well known images. In some ways the story of Hipgnosis is similar to that of the groups they worked for- struggling early days, a big breakthrough, an imperial period, and a downfall as trends changed followed by a bitter falling out.

 

The name Hipgnosis (a combination of `hip` and having ancient learning) came, like much of their early breaks by chance, from a slogan someone had painted on a door. Similarly, their formation came from chance encounters, flat shares and mingling with the nascent Pink Floyd who persuaded Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell to come up with a cover for `A Saucerful of Secrets`. This in turn led to other work, though it was a while before their more abstract images began to take precedence. By the mid Seventies they were designing album covers for many of the world’s biggest music artists. Often they were beyond just album covers and came to define that artist’s visual image. This was a time when albums ruled.  Unlike today’s miniature Spotify thumbnails, the picture on the front of an album defined it and many were turned into posters and have become symbolic of that time especially `Dark Side of the Moon`. 

I’d always imagined Hipgnosis worked from gleaming futuristic office at the posh end of London but nothing could be further from the reality. Their base of operations, a rundown premises above a shop in Denmark Street off Tottenham Court Road, could not be more different than their beautiful, imaginative work. We see their offices in archive footage, a ramshackle place with the look of a student den accessed via a steep wooden staircase, artwork all over the walls, stuff on the floor. Even more surprisingly the two people at the centre of the company - and for a while it was just the two of them- were unlikely cohorts.

Aubrey Powell (known to one and all as Po), whose new interview forms the core of the film, only became a photographer on a whim. He was `the reasonable one` by all accounts, practical and more often than not out in the field getting the photos. Storm Thorgerson was the ideas man, a difficult figure to get on with as everyone in the film attests to yet also a character who seemed to inspire a loyalty. Even grumpy Roger Waters, always one to keep a grudge, admits he still likes him despite them ultimately falling out. Given Thorgerson's name and Hipgnosi's keen sense of wide landscapes I’d assumed he was Scandinavian  but turns out he was a cheeky Southerner. He died ten years ago but is represented here by a surprisingly large amount of footage or photo sessions in which his abrasive yet mercurial personality is plain to see. As Po talks about their years working together it is difficult to imagine how two such different personalities gelled but somehow they did though later additional people were taken on as the studio became the world’s foremost album cover design company.

Storm and Po 

The processes they used were primitive by modern standards. These were the days before digital technology therefore if you wanted an image of alien children climbing a strange landscape you had to go outside, find that landscape, paint real children gold and take photos. For a man on fire you had to, yes, set a man on fire.  If you wanted large red globes stretching across a desert, you went to the Sahara, blew up the balls with a pump and placed them where you wanted them. We see footage of the infamous flying pig above Battersea Power Station including the moment it slipped its mooring and set off on its own flight.

There is a tale of having to somehow get a sheep to sit on a bench while the tide is coming in around it and then the photo ended up being reproduced as a tiny image on the album cover. Most bizarrely Po tells of when he had to take a helicopter to the top of Everest to take a shot of a statue with the vista beyond. All these things would nowadays be rendered digitally probably using stock images but back then it seems as if the challenge of doing things manually was half the adventure. 

Though they created designs for a wide number of artists, the film focusses on five clients in more detail- Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin of course as well as Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel and 10CC. So iconic covers for other acts are skimmed over but you sense there is probably an interesting story for every single one of them. Po is a great raconteur who is able to conjure up a vivid picture of that world, especially when talking of both the excess and the fun to be had. Despite their creative differences at times, he talks fondly of Storm and of the pioneering times they worked through. Not sure why but the film also features Noel Gallagher though when asked why he never used them says they were too expensive. In truth by the time he came along the studio was already gone though both its lynchpins carried on working in the industry.

Eventually as the 1980s progressed times changed and a different era needed a different aesthetic while the bands Hipgnosis worked for were splitting up. Storm and Po spilt too when the former’s refusal to take seriously financial problems after the duo had moved into the promo video market did not replicate their earlier stratospheric success, finally proved too much for his more responsible colleague. This film is an absorbing dive into a different era and after seeing where and how they worked and the personalities involved it’s amazing just how many stunningly rendered and imaginative images they produced and what an interesting story they have to tell.

 The 20 Best Hipgnosis Covers

Quatermass – Quatermass (1970) A stunningly realised monochrome image shows pterodactyls flying in front of a contemporary high rise office building shot from below. It sums up the appeal of mixing ancient and modern while predating the Jurassic Park films by decades. Appropriate for a band named after a sci-fi icon.

 

Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother (1970) Talked about in the film this unusual cover pictures a cow shot from the rear in an image completely at odds with the music within. Yet it became a selling point with enormous billboards of the animal displayed around the world and the visual became instantly linked forever with the album. Just think, that is the most famous cow in the history of the world.

 T Rex- Electric Warrior (1971) The opposite of `Atom Heart Mother` ’this cover totally sums up the music within highlighting Mark Bolan, his glam guitar, a big amp for that fat sound and for good measure it has a golden hue around the image.

 The Nice- Elegy (1971) Another cover the film features this is an early precursor of what became Hipgnosis’ signature style with a sense of being both arranged yet random, looking significant but maybe not meaning anything at all.

 Wishbone Ash- Argus (1972) The word Argus in ancient Greek means `watchful guardian` which is no doubt the inspiration behind one of the Seventies’ most enduring music images. I would hazard a guess though that many more people know this cover than have ever listened to the album, myself included. There is an urban myth that the look of Darth Vader was based on this picture and nowadays I’m sure some people think it’s a reference to Argos, the shop!

 

Renaissance- Prologue (1972) A non more Hipgnosis cover you’d be hard placed to find as this would fit any one of the artists they regularly worked with. It’s a striking image but this is one of the bands that time appears to have forgotten.

 Pink Floyd- The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) This is of course better known than probably any album cover ever. 

 Genesis- The Lamb Lies Down of Broadway (1974) The oddest Genesis album deserves their oddest cover and this photo montage rendered in monochrome is definitely unsettling in places. It’s a shame that the most stunning image- of the character Real crashing through glass- is stuck on the back.

 Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here (1975) There was clearly no health and safety regime back when this album cover was shot as the man on fire had to be set alight fourteen times to achieve the desired effect. It was only when a gust of wind blew the flames about dangerously that the actor declined further inflammation. According to the film, the picture represents insincerity in the music business.

Genesis- A Trick of the Tail (1976) Colin Elgie’s art dominates this Victorian styled cover; he was one of several additional creatives added to the Hipgnosis roster by the mid Seventies as their portfolio ballooned. Each figure in the tableau represents a character from one of the songs- I especially like the old woman staring into a mirror which shows a younger reflection.

 

Led Zeppelin- Presence (1976) In the film Po says there were only six of these objects made and the twist in the design which gives the item a more alien look came at the suggestion of Jimmy Page. The results are a great example of the studio’s love of utilising old photographs while changing their context.

 Genesis- Wind and Wuthering (1976) A less is more approach gives another Colin Elgie artwork a chance to shine. A visual pun, the `leaves` on the tree on the front cover turn out to be birds which fly away on the back.

 10CC- Deceptive Bends (1977) The source of some disagreement between Po and Storm, this stunning central image was, in Po’s opinion, weakened by the addition of the porthole view and I think he’s right.

  Strawbs- Deadlines (1978) An arresting image suggesting extreme pressure that you might expect from a band with a darker reputation finds its way onto an album by folk rock band Strawbs. Perhaps, as the film suggests often happened, this was an idea that had been offered to other artists first. Whatever its origins it is definitely memorable.

 

Peter Gabriel (1978) Because he’s like that Peter Gabriel called each of his first four solo albums by his name so over time they’ve come to be referred to in relation to the cover image. Hence this is `Scratch`. The film shows the process whereby they took shots of PG clawing at the air then stuck strips of paper on the image to make it seem as it he is erasing himself from the picture.

Alan Parsons Project- Pyramid (1978) Viewed by some as a sort of cut price Pink Floyd, TAPP were in fact some of the cream of the era’s most respected session players together with well known singers making conceptual albums though they did tend to sit on the more conservative side of the musical fence. Tailor made for Hipgnosis this is the best cover they had which is definitely redolent of the album’s theme of ancient pyramid power.

 Led Zeppelin- In Through the Out Door (1979) Discussed in the film, this was one of the studio’s most ambitious projects with six versions of the cover shot, each from the perspective of one of the characters depicted. Then if you spread water on the cover, it would colour itself in. Finally, the whole package was sold in a copy of a brown paper bag. Even Jimmy Page quips that the packaging was better than the music!

 Peter Gabriel (1980) Aka `Melt` in which PG’s face appears to do just that on the cover photo. Its not mentioned in the film but the effect was achieved by manipulating a half developed photo when it was still wet. PG himself was more than happy to help vandalise photos of himself!

 

Pink Floyd- A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981) An ironically titled compilation comes with a memorable image of two ballroom dances tethered to the ground which may be a comment on the music industry’s preference in the Eighties for commercial pop rather than albums music.

 Roger Tayor- Fun in Space (1981) The Queen drummer’s solo album came with an amusing cover that shows an alien reading a magazine that has Roger Taylor on the cover. On the back the image is reversed so its Roger looking at a magazine with the alien on it.