Roger Dean, the artist who designed the album covers of the band Yes

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Roger Dean is perhaps the best known artist in rock history. He became famous mainly for illustrating numerous album covers of the band Yes, among others as Osibisa and Asia. He is internationally recognized and has had breakthrough companies such as Dragon’s Dream and Paper Tiger publishers with his brother Martyn. Working in various fields, from painting to architecture, throughout his career he has produced a multitude of works such as album covers, posters, calendars, books, typography, logos, eco architecture, furniture design, stage set design and game design, for Psygnosis. He was also responsible for redesigning the logo of the famous game Tetris.

William Roger Dean was born on August 31, 1944 in Ashford, Kent, England. Between 1961 and 1965 he studied at Canterbury College of Art. There he received the National Diploma in Design (NDD). In 1965 he went to the Royal College of Art, where he remained until 1968, and where he also received the first Masters Degree (M.Des.RCA) and a silver medal for Work of Special Distinction. He also received the Honorary Doctorate from the San Francisco Academy of Art and the Honorary Fellowship from the Arts Institute of Bournemouth.

Roger made a thesis, The Psychology of the Built Environment, while studying, on which he based his architectural designs. He designed the Sea Urchin chair, which was exhibited at the Design Center in London and now belongs to the permanent collection of the Victoria Albert Museum, which also acquired several original Dean artworks for the album covers he produced for Yes, among others.

Roger Dean’s work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries, including V&A, The Royal Academy, The Royal Academy of Art and Daelim Contemporary Art Museum in Seoul, Korea, which produced the largest retrospective of his work. He also developed architectural prototypes, exhibited at the National Exhibition Center in Birmingham.

With his daughter Freyja Dean, he made costume designs for the 150th anniversary of the Puccini Festival, in 2007.

Roger Dean published four books with his works, produced by their own publishers: Views (1975), Magnetic Storm (1984). Dragons Dreams (2008) and The Flights of Icarus, with other artists, (1984).

Enjoy below some of the magnificent illustrations with the unmistakable trait of Roger Dean: