During the heyday of the LP era, several design houses provided the preeminent means of visual expression for recording artists. Perhaps the greatest was Hipgnosis, a London, England design collaborative begun in 1968 by contemporary artists, Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell. The two art students created their first album cover for then-psychedelic phenomenon Pink Floyd, and found that they enjoyed the unique opportunity that LP covers provided for prominent artistic expression. Thorgerson and Powell settled on the name of their venture as an effective concatenation of "hip," meaning "cool," and "gnostic," a term that refers to ancient wisdom.
Hipgnosis hit its stride as a renowned source for visual mastery on album packaging in the 1970s. The design house contributed imagery for many of that decade's greatest rock and roll artists, such as the aforementioned Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and many others. The predominant Hipgnosis design style incorporated sharp visual tones that regularly deployed sleight-of-hand darkroom tricks that were often used to depict fanciful or surreal events. Fans of the bands that employed Hipgnosis came to expect compelling imagery from all of their bands' LP releases. During the 1970s, Hipgnosis carried many well-regarded artists above its core staff, in order to capably meet the demand for their services.
Although Hipgnosis shut its doors for good in 1983, the original founder Storm Thorgerson carries on a semblance of the legendary operation's legacy, still contributing his eclectic vision to album artwork releases to this day.