SQUARING THE CIRCLE (THE STORY OF HIPGNOSIS)

Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis, Utopia

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | June 6, 2023

The impact of the album cover has diminished along with the decline in physical media. There was a time, however, when recording artists would pay good and, sometimes, very good money for artwork that could catch the attention of customers in a record store. Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) presents the history of one of those design companies, arguably the most successful during the heights of 1970s rock, by way of some of their most iconic designs.

What this really means for director Anton Corbijn's documentary, though, is a series of talking heads describing imagery that we can see right in front of us. Some of it is admittedly insightful—not only about the intentions of the art, but also about the process of bringing these pieces to their final forms. Most of it amounts to occasionally amusing stories that give one the sense that you really had to be there to get the significance or the joke of the experience.

The major selling point of this movie is to hear these anecdotes directly from the artists and the musicians themselves. That only takes the material so far. It's initially impressive to see the likes of Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Led Zeppelin front men Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and David Gilmour sit down for interviews. The star-struck appeal of those names and/or faces, though, doesn't last, as soon as it becomes clear that visual art isn't exactly these musicians' forte.

That's fine, in theory, because Corbijn also interviews the design company's co-founder Aubrey "Po" Powell and includes archival interviews with its other leader, the late Storm (no nickname required with that first name) Thorgerson. Their company, which came about and found its success almost entirely by a series of fortunate chances, was called Hipgnosis—a punny portmanteau of "hip," as in being cool and with it, and the Greek word for knowledge. If you ask about half a dozen people associated with the company who initially came up with that name, by the way, you'll get four or five different answers. We know that, because Corbihn does ask about that many people with about that many distinct responses.

Such is another issue with this anecdote-based narrative. We're never entirely sure what's true and what's exaggeration, who's being honest and who's hyperbolizing for effect, and whether or not most of this is just people misremembering things or believing the legends they've told themselves and others for decades.

Some of it is undeniable, such as how Powell and others attempted to stage a giant pig floating over a power station for Pink Floyd's Animals, because the failed shoot was recorded. A lot of it, though, comes down to whose version of these stories we should believe, and Corbijn seems too impressed and/or cowed by the people in front of him to offer any challenges or a more extensive line of questioning.

That mostly, then, leaves us with a discussion of a selection of album covers designed by the company over its 15-year existence. Once again, a few of those discussions are more involved than the rest. Powell dissects the various influences, inspirations, and sources for the cover for Pink Floyd's second album A Saucerful of Secrets, Hipgnosis' first official design that came about simply because Powell and Thorgerson hung out with the band's members. The tale of how the company formed and gained any kind of foothold by way of sheer happenstance is far more intriguing than almost any of the design discussions, by the way, if only because it kind of admits that the pair and their partners were making it up as they went along.

They really were in general, if one reads between the lines of these interviews, and that observation isn't meant to undermine the obvious artistic talents of Powell, Thorgerson, and others. These artists knew how to create striking art—a fact that's undeniable just from their prismatic design for The Dark Side of the Moon, the Pink Floyd album that's about as iconic as any piece of cover art could be. "Iconic," though, is a word that's tossed around pretty casually here, especially by the musicians, which should give one an idea of the limited analysis happening whenever Powell isn't the one talking.

Beneath the superficial stuff, there is the undercurrent of a more interesting and personal history. We learn how LSD use, which Powell and Thorgerson were able to quit with the aid of therapy, ruined the career of Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett (In case it isn't clear, that band figures into a lot of the documentary, with Led Zeppelin a close second and McCartney's post-Beatles career a distant third). A difference of design philosophy began to drive a wedge between the company's co-founders, but by the time the relationship ends with the end of the specific excesses of the '70s, the movie's narrative has been too busy with everything else for it to mean much.

One gets the sense that the stories of Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) mean a lot to the participants. That meaning doesn't translate to us, because, yes, you probably had to be there.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products