3 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 3 album covers documented under the "airbrush" design theme, spanning the 1970s, 1980s. These covers sit within the pop, rock, metal tradition and feature work by Duran Duran, Meat Loaf, Black Sabbath. Each entry below includes the cover artwork, the designers and photographers behind it, and a short story about the visual choices that defined the release.
Patrick Nagel's striking illustration of model Marielle Gomar became one of the 1980s most recognizable album covers, featuring bold geometric shapes and vivid colors that perfectly captured MTV's new aesthetic. The artwork was created as an illustration, not a photograph, using Nagel's signature airbrush technique.
Fantasy comic artist Richard Corben painted this hellish motorcycle scene after record executives rejected dozens of concepts. The underground comics legend created one of rock's most theatrical covers for an album that sat unreleased for two years.
Black Sabbath's Technical Ecstasy turns an escalator encounter into one of Hipgnosis's strangest mechanical romances. Storm Thorgerson developed the concept, George Hardie designed the male and female robots and handled the graphics, and Richard Manning executed the robot illustration and photographic retouching that made the impossible scene look almost plausible.