You probably haven’t heard of Hipgnosis, but one thing is definitely true: you’ve seen their work. The British art design duo is responsible for some of the most iconic album covers of all time. To name just a few, they designed the artwork for Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy and Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run – and that’s just from 1973.
The incredible stories behind these album covers and the lasting impact they made on music are uncovered in Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis), Anton Corbijn’s first feature documentary. Audiences can see it at the Varsity Cinema in Des Moines on Aug. 14 at 7 p.m. during its Iowa premiere.
The screening will feature a pop-up record shop hosted by Rogue Planet Music and a Q&A with local artists Jay Vigon and Margo Nahas, who designed the album covers for Prince’s Purple Rain and Van Halen’s 1984.
/ Cavalier Films Ltd
/ Cavalier Films Ltd
To open the film, Corbijn introduces us to Aubrey “Po” Powell in stunning black-and-white cinematography. Po walks through a crumbling, countryside cemetery, carrying an oversized folder on his back. He sits down at the end of a long hallway and opens the case. One by one, he takes out a series of photographs, giving each a glance before letting them fall to the floor.
The prints immediately draw your eye. They are showcased in vibrant color, a striking juxtaposition against the monochromatic surroundings. It doesn’t take more than a second for the excitement of what’s happening to kick in.
First, Po retrieves the artwork for Peter Gabriel’s debut album, followed by the covers for 10cc’s Deceptive Bends, Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother and Wish You Were Here – and so on. Po is showing us his life’s work, and it’s impressive.
"Hipgnosis was famous for being out of the ordinary, and we were very deliberate about our efforts to disrupt the norm. We called our album covers 'non-covers,' because they were designed to be art pieces. Record labels hated us. We rarely put band photos on the front, and in many cases we didn't even put the name of the band or the album title. But the artists appreciated that we were creating change hand in hand with their music, so they empowered us to do whatever we wanted,” Powell explains in the film.
What follows is an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at these iconic covers, told through contemporary interviews, archival footage and stylized animation – all of which bring these familiar still images to three-dimensional life. Numerous multi-Grammy winning music legends pop up to share an anecdote or two, among them Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and David Gilmour.
Throughout the film, we learn how Hipgnosis was first formed as a creative collaboration between Po and Storm Thorgerson. The two first met in Cambridge during the 1960s and became fast friends. Soon after, they both enrolled at the Royal College of Art. The founding of Hipgnosis — and their first commission — quickly followed.
It all started with a trippy photo collage Po and Storm made for their musician friends Syd, David and Roger, which would go on to become the cover for A Saucerful of Secrets – Pink Floyd’s second studio album.
As they say, the rest is history. But alas, this was the 1960s. And as another saying goes, “If you lived through the 60s, you don’t remember it.”
This is no truer than in the at-times conflicting firsthand accounts featured throughout the documentary. It all adds a bit of humor — and even endearing informality — to some truly pivotal moments in music history. Corbijn cuts between interviews, interjecting alternative versions of the same story, leaving the truth open for us to decide.
One such story is that Syd Barrett, one of Pink Floyd’s founding members, thought up the name Hipgnosis (“hip” meaning cool and “gnosis” meaning knowledge) — that is, until the next interviewee says it was definitely not Syd.
In the end, whichever version of events is actually true doesn’t really matter. As Po says at one point, “It was chaos. But out of that chaos came the most extraordinary work.”
It’s that extraordinary work which lives on, continuing to imprint itself on music fans across generations.
The Varsity Cinema is a sponsor of Iowa Public Radio.
