|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Roger Dean (artist) |
Roger Dean (born August 31, 1944, is an English artist, designer, architect and publisher. He is best known for his work on album covers for musicians which he began painting in the late 1960s. The covers usually feature exotic, fantastic landscapes.
Contents |
Dean was born in in Ashford, Kent but he spent most of his childhood moving around the world with his British Army father. The family returned to England in 1959 where he was educated at The Norton Knatchbull School. He later earned a National Diploma of Design from the Canterbury School of Art. In 1968, he graduated from the Royal College of Art in London. He has lived in Brighton since 1972.
Beginning in the field of design, he preferred to distinguish between design (the reworking of existing models), and invention (making something new). One of his inventions was the "sea urchin chair." It was a foam chair, which, though appearing spherical, would conform to the sitter, who could obtain a seated position of varying angles. Later, he was asked to design a "landscape" of similar seating for a club belonging to Ronnie Scott. 1. His "retreat pod" chair design was featured in the film A Clockwork Orange.
His first album cover work was in 1968 for a group called Gun. In 1971, Dean produced the cover for the first album by the African/Caribbean band Osibisa which attracted widespread attention to his work. Later that year, he began the partnership with the progressive rock band Yes for which he is best known. His first design for the band was for their album Fragile. Dean designed the now-classic Yes "bubble" logo, which first appeared on the album Close to the Edge, and continued to create covers for the band until as recently as 1999 (The Ladder). Yes guitarist Steve Howe said, "There is a pretty tight bond between our sound and Roger's art." In addition to their album covers, Dean also contributed to his brother Martyn Dean's stage set designs for the band.2
Known primarily for the dreamy, other-worldly scenes he has created for Yes, Budgie, Uriah Heep, Gentle Giant and other bands, Dean has said, "I don't really think of myself as a fantasy artist but as a landscape painter." Characteristic landscapes show graceful stone arches (as shown in Arches Mist, above) or floating islands, while many paintings show organic appearing habitats (such as shown in the cover for Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe). Though he primarily works with watercolour paints, many of his paintings make use of multiple media, including gouache, ink, enamel, crayon and collage. In addition to his cover paintings, Dean is respected for his calligraphic work, designing logos and titles to go with his paintings.
Beginning in 1985 with the software company Psygnosis, Dean has been responsible for the cover artwork for several video games, including Tetris Worlds as well as a redesign of the Tetris logo.3
Two compilations of his work, Views (1975)1 (the success of which led him to form publishing house Paper Tiger Books) and Magnetic Storm (1984)2, have been published. In addition, his architectural and furniture work have been exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum and in the Royal Academy.
In early 2005, Dean announced plans to create a feature film titled Floating Islands. This film will be produced by Roger Dean and David Mousley. The story is based on the underlying theme depicted in the album artwork for Yes. It will feature animated 3D renderings of classic Dean images and music by Yes.
In recent years, Roger Dean has focused a great deal on his architectural ideas. He has designed both homes and sustainable villages. As a designer, Dean has developed all aspects of his homes, from construction techniques to emotional comfort and security. The design of these homes is based on his Home For Life concept, a house that is artistically beautiful and environmentally kind, but cheap and quick to build.4
Roger travels every summer to the North East Art Rock Festival, or NEARfest, as the invited guest, and has designed the festival logo every year since 2001. He welcomes the chance to meet many of his fans in person and has signed thousands of autographs of his work.
Some of the following links are to images.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
