THE 1975 ALBUM COVER PAINTING TV
He laughs now when he remembers that his introduction to rock and roll came from watching TV with his cousins. Ioannis emigrated to the United States with his family in 1967 and says he immediately immersed himself in American culture.
THE 1975 ALBUM COVER PAINTING SERIES
He modestly attributes his success to a series of happy accidents that plucked an art and music-loving boy from his lonesome Athens bedroom and dropped him in the middle of a rock and roll world he couldn’t have imagined. Ioannis’s story of how a kid from New Haven (by way of Greece) became one the best-known album cover artists in his field has served as inspiration to many artists struggling for a breakthrough. These trailblazing artists took what had once been considered the domain of a record label’s art department and made it available to anyone with the skill, imagination and good fortune to follow suit.īeginning in the 1980s, a next-generation self-taught artist and rock-obsessed fan known simply as Ioannis began designing artwork that has since appeared on more than 175 albums, singles and concert posters for a vast array of artists including rockers Deep Purple, The Allman Brothers Band, Bon Jovi, Styx, Starship, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blue Oyster Cult.įantasy images by Ioannis have graced albums for numerous heavy metal bands including Fate’s Warning, Quiet Riot, Heaven and Souls at Zero. Psychedelic poster artists Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley produced eye-popping album art for the Grateful Dead, Journey and The Steve Miller Band. The surreal imagery of graphic designer Storm Thorgerson graced all-time classic LPs by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Phish. The fantasy landscapes of Roger Dean’s work provided appropriately fantastical visual accompaniment for the progressive rock experimentation of YES. In the world of album cover artists, a handful of names have become synonymous with the genre. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “American Beauty,” “House of the Holy,” “Dark Side of the Moon,” “Fragile” and “Who’s Next” are each adorned with touchstone images that are impossible to separate from the music contained within. When you consider some of the most iconic rock albums of all time, there’s a good chance that the first thing to appear in your mind is the cover art image.
It was a preposterous dream, about as ridiculous as a dream can get.” - Ioannis “I was 15 years old and daydreaming that I wanted to work with bands to create visuals and graphics.