George Hardie (artist)

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George Hardie (born 1944) is a graphic designer, illustrator and educator, known for his work producing cover art for the albums of rock musicians and bands as a member of the British art design group Hipgnosis.

Hardie was trained at St Martin’s and the Royal College of Art in London. He was a partner at NTA studios and designed many legendary record covers with Hipgnosis, where he collaborated with Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell. His work included the cover artwork for Led Zeppelin's albums Led Zeppelin (1968), The Song Remains the Same (1976) and Presence (1976), as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and Wish You Were Here (1975).

Hardie has also worked as a designer/illustrator, commissioned to make illustrations for a variety of international clients (and in fourteen countries to date). His work primarily involves ideas that are carefully composed and crafted into graphic art.^[1] For more than three decades Hardie has established a significant national and international reputation.^[2]

Hardie pursues graphics research which he calls 'Graphics without Clients', involving book arts and self-publication. He produces an annual image for the Tricket & Webb Calendar that involves the interpretation of a phrase or verbal curiosity. He has also explored the traditional before and after nature of the 'spot the difference' pictures and their narrative possibilities.^[2] In 1996 'Umberto Verdi Chimney Sweep' addressed this theme and was awarded the Pentagram Prize and exhibited at the subsequent prizewinners' exhibition (1997). Two further pictures - 'Sympatico' and 'Antipatico' - for the Children's Dictionary published by Media Vaca (Spain, 2003) further develop this idea. In 2003 Professor Hardie worked on an invited eight-page 'spot the difference' narrative Acquisition for Ganszfeld (USA), a yearly publication. His 'The Same Difference' (a print commissioned as the Pentagram directors' and staff Christmas Present 2001 also appeared in Abitare (Italy) in an article on Hardie's work, published in 2002.^[2]

Following previous commissioned work for the Royal Mail, including one of 48 Millennium Stamps (winning a D&AD Silver Award), Hardie has completed the Royal Mail Christmas Aerogram for 2002. Hardie was commissioned in 2002 to provide the introductory illustration and the second recipe illustration for L'Arte della Cucina Di Pariet, a portfolio of A3 images commissioned by Roland Scotoni (Young & Rubicam, Zurich) for a pharmaceutical company.^[2]

Since 1990 Hardie has been Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Brighton where he teaches on postgraduate courses. He is a member (elected 1994) and the International Secretary of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and . In 2005 he was elected a Royal Designer for Industry. In 2006 he toured Australia as AGDA International Speaker and taught and exhibited at Nagoya University of Arts as a visiting professor.^[1]