Hipgnosis est un collectif britannique de graphistes qui a réalisé une bonne centaine de pochettes de disques entre 1968 et 1983. Le groupe a rapidement acquis une notoriété internationale grâce à la création de pochettes d’albums novatrices pour des groupes de rock progressif au cours des années 1970, notamment Pink Floyd ou Led Zeppelin.
Storm Thorgerson, l’un des membres de Hignosis, a ensuite continué sa collaboration avec certains groupes, dont Pink Floyd.
Les pochettes d’Hipgnosis comme celles de Thorgerson se caractérisent par des photos souvent très soignées et très composées, et jouent fréquemment sur le non-sens ou sur le surréaliste. Beaucoup leur reprochent d’être aussi belles que vides de sens.
En réalité, les réalisations d’Hipgnosis sont très diverses tant par le style graphique que par les thèmes traités et il y a en d’excellentes comme il y en a de très médiocres.
Chacun pourra se faire une idée en consultant les 172 exemples figurant ci-dessous (ils sont classés par ordre alphabétique d’artistes et pas par ordre chronologique):
10cc - Deceptive Bends (1977)
10cc - How dare you - intérieur (1976)
10cc - How dare you (1976)
10cc - Sheet Music (1974)
10cc - The Original Sountrack (1975)
AC-DC - Dirty Deeds (1976)
Al Stewart - The Early Years (1977)
Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat (1976)
Alan Parsons - On Air (1996)
Alan Parsons - Try Anything Once (1993)
Allan Clarke - Headroom (1973)
Alvin Lee - Rocket Fuel (1978)
Another Animal - Another Animal (2007)
Anthrax - Stomp 442 (1995)
Audience - The House On The Hill (1971)
Audience - You Can't Beat Them (1973)
B For Bang - Rewires The Beatles (2010)
Bad Company - Desolation Angels (1979)
Bad Company - Straight Shooter (1975)
Badfinger - Wish You Were Here (1974)
Be Bop Deluxe - Futurama (1975)
Beggar's Opera - Act One (1970)
Bethnal - Crash Landing (1978)
Biffy Clyro - Opposites (2013)
Biffy Clyro - Puzzle (2007)
Billy Karloff & the Extremes - Let Your Fingers Do The Talking (1981)
Birth Control - Increase (1977)
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy (1976)
Black Sabbath - Never Say Die (1978)
Brand X - Do they hurt (1980)
Brand X - Product (1979)
Brand X - Unorthodox Behaviour (1976)
Bruce Dickinson - Skunkworks (1996)
Buddy Bohn - A Drop In The Ocean (1971)
Capability Brown - Voice (1973)
Catherine Wheel - Like Cats And Dogs (1996)
Catherine Wheel - Adam And Eve (1997)
The Catherine Wheel - Wishville (2000)
City Boy - Young men Gone West (1977)
Climax Blues Band - Rich Man (1972)
Cochise - Cochise (1970)
Cranberries - Bury The Hatchet (1999)
Danta - Danta (1972)
Dire Straits - Communiqué (1979)
Douglas Adams - The Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy Part Two
Edgar Broughton Band - Edgar Broughton Band (1971)
Electric Light Orchestra - ELO 2 (1973)
Europe - Secret Society (2006)
Flash - Flash (1972)
Flash - In the Can (1972)
Flash - Out of our Hands (1974)
Freeze Frame - Godley Creme (1979)
Fumble - Poetry in London (1974)
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail (1976)
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)
Gentlemen without weapons - Transmissions (1988)
Golden Earring - To The Hilt (1976)
Goodbye Motel - If (2014)
Goose - Synrise (2010)
Graham Gouldman - Love and Work (2012)
Harlequin - Love Crimes (1980)
Hawkwind - Quark Strangeness And Charm (1977)
Heavy Metal Kids - Kitsch (1977)
Helloween - Pink bubbles go ape (1991)
Hmaun Sexual Response - Fig.14 (1980)
Humble Pie - Hot'n'Nasty (1994)
Humble Pie - Thunderbox (1974)
Hydra - Hydra (1974)
Hydra - Land Of Money (1975)
Jack Magnet - Jack Magnet (1981)
Jackson Heights - King Progress (1970)
Jon Anderson - Olias Of Sunhillow [1] (1976)
Jon Anderson - Olias Of Sunhillow [2] (1976)
Jon Anderson - Olias Of Sunhillow [3] (1976)
Jung Yong Hwa - First album (2015)
Kashmir - Symphonic Led Zeppelin (1997)
Kula Shaker - Peasant, Pigs and Astronauts (1999)
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the holy (1973)
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (1975)
Led Zeppelin - Presence (1976)
Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same (1976)
Leisure Cruise - Sailling (2014)
Leisure Cruise - Double digit love (2014)
Leisure Cruise - Leisure Cruise (2014)
Life - Life After Death (1974)
Lindisfarne's Finest Hour (1975)
Mars Volta - Frances The Mute (2015)
Marsha Swanson - Sentient Stardust (2007)
Matt Reynolds - Been Long Gone (2015)
Matthew Ellis - Matthew Ellis (1971)
Megadeth - Rude Awakening (2001)
Montrose - Jump on It (back)
Montrose - Jump on It (front) (1976)
Moodswings - Psychedelicatessen (1997)
Music From Free Creek - Music From Free Creek (1974)
Nazareth - Hair Of The Dog (1975)
Nice - Elegy (1971)
Nine Days Wonder - Nine Days Wonder (1971)
Nutz - Nutz (1974)
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (1969)
Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother (1970)
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)
Pink Floyd - Wish you were here (1975)
Pink Floyd - Animals (1977)
Pink Floyd - A momentary lapse of reason (1987)
Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound Of Thunder (1988)
Pink Floyd - Brave New World (1997)
Pink Floyd - The endless river (2014)
Pretty Things - Savage Eye (1975)
Pretty Things - Silk Torpedo (1975)
Principle Edwards Magic - The Asmoto Running Band (1971)
Program The Dead - Program The Dead (2005)
Quatermass - Quatermass (1970)
Rainbow - Difficult to Cure (1981)
Rainbow - Straight Between the Eyes (1982)
Renaissance - Turn of the Cards (1974)
Riff Raff - Vinyl Futures (1981)
Roger Taylor - Fun In Space (1981)
Roy Harper - Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion (censuré)
Roy Harper - Life mask (1973)
Sad Café - Misplaced Ideals (1978)
Sammy Hagar - Sammy Hagar (1977)
Scorpions - Lovedrive (1979)
Southern Comfort - Stir Don't Shake (1972)
Space - Deliverance (complete) (1977)
Stackridge - Stackridge (1971)
Stars - Stars (1975)
Strawbs - Dead Lines (1978)
String Driven Thing - Keep Yer 'And On It (1975)
String Driven Thing - Please Mind Your Head (1974)
String Driven Thing - The Machine That Cried (1973)
Styx - Pieces of eight (1978)
Sweet - Desolation Boulevard (1975)
Syd Barrett - An Introduction To Syd Barrett (2010)
Syd Barrett - Barrett (1970)
T Rex - Electric Warrior (1971)
The Amplifetes - Where Is The Light (2013)
The Cortinas - Defiant Pose (1977)
The Cranberries - Wake Up And Smell The Coffee (2001)
The Creation - '66-'67 (1973)
The Cross - New Dark Ages (1991)
The Greatest Show on Earth - Horizons (1970)
The Greatest Show on Earth - The Going's Easy (1970)
The Greatest Show On Earth - The Greatest Show On Earth (1975)
The Hollies - Distant Light (1971)
The Hollies - Out On The Road (1973)
The Hollies - Romany (1972)
The Mars Volta - De-Loused In The Comatorium - (2003)
The Pineapple Thief - Someone Here Is Missing (2010)
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - SAHB Stories (1976)
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - The Penthouse Tapes (2) (1976)
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - The Penthouse Tapes (1976)
The Who - Who's Next (1971)
Thighpaulsandra - Thighpaulsandra (2001)
Thornley - Come Again (2004)
Thornley - Tiny Pictures (2009)
Thunder - Laughing On Judgement Day (1992)
Toe Fat - Toe Fat (1971)
UFO - Force it (1975)
UFO - Phenomenon (1974)
Various artists - Liverpool 1963-1964 Volume Two (1983)
Villaimy - Mode. Set. Clear. (2012)
Whitley Heights - Whitley Heights (2011)
Wings - Band On The Run (1973)
Wings - Venus and Mars (1975)
Wings Over America (1976)
Wishbone Ash - Argus
Wishbone Ash - Classic Ash (1977)
Wishbone Ash - Live dates 2
XTC - This Is Pop (1978)
Yes - Going For The One (1977)
Yumi Matsutoya - Train Of Thought (1984)