GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY 2009: ROGER DEAN’S ‘YES” COVERS

1970's

ROGER DEAN’S ‘YES” COVERS

Roger Dean, born August 31^st 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.

In 1971 Roger produced the first Osibisa album cover, which attracted a lot of attention to his work as an album cover designer and late in that same year he designed his first album cover for "Yes". 1975 saw Roger and his brother, Martyn designing a stage set for "Yes". In America the auditoriums often have seating for as many as twenty thousand people, so the scale of production and the nature of the design are quite different to those of a theater

The most recognized album cover work is that of the English progressive rock band Yes. Dean first started creating Yes covers with the 1971 album Fragile. Along with the cover art he also developed their bubble logo, which appeared on the 1972 album Close to the Edge. He has also worked on video game art beginning in 1985, has done architectural pieces, and is currently working on a film project that will feature 3D renderings of his classic images, using music by Yes.

Dean has continued to paint album covers for the likes of YES, Uriah Heep, Osibisa, Asia and Budgie, whilst remaining involved in design work which now includes working with computer software.