Beatlemania - Thames TV

Design: HIPGNOSIS.

Co-design: George Hardie.

1977 - U.K.

Poster

Walk Away Renee. The Work of Hipgnosis

Finding A Path

Through The Prism. Untold Rock Stories From The Hipgnosis Archive

The Beatles Story

      About the work:

Hipgnosis were approached by Thames Television in 1977 about a thirteen-part documentary on the Beatles. In order to make a good impression on a band who still argued privately and publicly, their brief was to design a packaging concept to grab the four’s immediate attention. The presentation would inevitably be complicated and diplomacy was perceived to be an important ingredient in the process. The company knew if they went down the obvious commercial route of celebrating the ‘Fab Four’ they were going to lose the Beatles from the off. Thames Television wanted art. They were not interested in ‘pop’ stories. They wanted Hipgnosis’ representational imagery, as abstract as we liked, combined with a brief synopsis of each episode. Thames also knew that I was particularly well in with Paul McCartney, virtually his creative director for much of the seventies, and felt that a design by Hipgnosis would be well received. Thames gave us chapter titles and a decent budget and, to their credit, complete freedom apart from a deadline.

As time was tight, the studio gathered its skirts and called upon the resourcefulness of George Hardie and others to come and join us in the challenge.

- Aubrey Powell.