Squaring The Circle

The story of British design firm Hipgnosis, and the genesis behind some of the most famous album artwork in rock and roll history.

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There is an unabashed hedonism to the story of Hipgnosis, the famous British graphic design outfit that created some of the most iconic covers in rock and roll history. Working with artists like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, and Paul McCartney, Hipgnosis would go to literally the ends of the Earth to capture the most striking images. From extended photo shoots in the Sahara to flying a huge inflatable pig over a London power station, Hipgnosis saw no limitation too great in the pursuit of the perfect cover.

Founded in Cambridge in the late 60s, Hipgnosis was the brain child of art students Aubrey “Po” Powell and Storm Thorgeson. The pair quickly combined their talents; Powell was an eager, if nascent photographer, and Thorgeson was a whiz in the darkroom. Without intending to set up a business, the pair began work as Hipgnosis completing futuristic album art and posters for the art rock band, Pink Floyd.

Hipgnosis found some of their most ardent and earliest supporters in Pink Floyd. Thorgeson developed a particularly tight relationship with Floyd member Roger Waters, as the pair shared a particularly eccentric approach to album design and the ideas of art, in general.

Squaring The Circle, directed by the terrific Dutch music photographer, Anton Corbijn, deftly recalls the history of the great work Hipgnosis would produce over the arc of more than a decade. Corbijn has amassed an impressive set of subjects for interview including lengthy contributions from Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Noel Gallagher, Peter Gabriel, and Robert Plant.

While Thorgeson died in 2013, we are treated to a series of first-hand interviews with “Po” recounting the work that Hipgnosis cranked out, as well as the tumultuous relationship he and the staff had with his late partner. Powell is open and honest about the challenges of working with a difficult visionary like Thorgeson and how those challenges led to both great personal pain, and incredible artistic results. There is an also an ample array of archival interviews with Thorgeson to add both his voice and his demeanor to the film and the story of Hipgnosis.

The outlandish stories that abound in pursuit of these album covers are fiendishly entertaining. Waters and Powell recount the story of capturing the cover for Pink Floyd’s Animals only to have a massive inflatable pig fly away into the London skyline and directly into the flight paths for Heathrow Airport.

Ultimately, Squaring The Circle is the chronicle of a forgotten time in rock music; an era when the album was treated truly as a piece of art. Instead of what Noel Gallagher refers to as “That little picture of the album on your phone’”, there was a time when we dedicated money, time, talent and resources to crafting an image and packaging to relay the themes and sonic ideas of the music it held inside. Now, a cover seems little more than an avatar.

As a designer, musician, and record collector, it’s almost impossible for me to be objective about this film. You’ll hear the story behind how Powell and Thorgeson managed to capture a man shaking hands while aflame for the cover of Pink Floyd’s, Wish You Were Here. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page share the story behind the recreation of children ascending to heaven for Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. Learn the detail and the inspiration behind Peter Gabriel’s infamous 'Scratch’ cover, and much more.

While the film will certainly give you a deeper appreciation for Powell, Thorgeson and the work of Hipgnosis, it will also make you pine for a moment when our attention to album art was more deliberate, if perhaps a bit too excessive. The work of Hipgnosis, and the era in which it flourished, are now a bygone age, but we still have the artwork, and the records. Like all true art, that will last.

Cheers,
Matty C