Aubrey Powell (designer)

Aubrey "Po" Powell, (born 23 September 1946), co-founded the album cover design company Hipgnosis with Storm Thorgerson in 1967. The company ran successfully for 15 years until 1982. Hipgnosis created some of the most innovative and surreal record cover art of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s for many of the most famous rock bands of the era including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Yes, Genesis, 10cc, Peter Gabriel, Bad Company, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Scorpions, Styx, Syd Barrett, and Black Sabbath. Hipgnosis was nominated five times for Grammy Awards.

Powell was born in Sussex. His parents lived abroad for most of his formative years and he attended The Kings School, Ely, Cambridgeshire. On leaving school he took several jobs including bus conductor, waiter, window dresser and clerk at the London Stock Exchange and he studied at the London School of Film Technique. He also met Storm Thorgerson and members of the nascent Pink Floyd in Cambridge and struck up lifelong friendships and working relationships.

In 1965, he secured a job in London as assistant scenic designer to Nick Pemberton, creating sets for the television series Z-Cars, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, and Emergency Ward 10. He shared an apartment with Storm Thorgerson where they conceived the idea of Hipgnosis, and in 1968 they produced their first album cover, for Pink Floyd's A Saucerful of Secrets. A studio was acquired at 6 Denmark Street in Soho and Hipgnosis thrived as one of the best-known photo design companies of the era. By the early 1980s, Hipgnosis had diversified into advertising, designing and producing campaigns for Peugeot, Kronenbourg 1664, Levi Jeans, Volvo, Gillette, Stella Artois, Rank Xerox and The Beatles.

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