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Who is Roger Dean

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Floating islands, round houses and alien landscapes

Roger Dean is a British illustrator and architect best known for the distinctive album cover designs he created for rock bands such as YES, Uriah Heep and Asia.

After creating some of the most-popular fantasy art of the 70s and 80s, spread intensely via posters as well as album covers, Dean moved towards his true vision: the architectural realization of his illustrations and paintings as practical buildings and real spaces.

take a look at

The Virgin Logo

One of Dean's first jobs out of art school was doing a design for the then-new Virgin Music label. This was the original logo for Virgin, before they switched to the now-known red and white signature.

This first logo has been nicknamed "Gemini" or "Twins" as it features a mirror-image of a woman. She's sitting on top of a large red lizard, and the company name. Long-time fans of Dean will recognize the word "virgin" in the lettering that he is now very well-known for.

Art Books by Roger Dean

experience Roger's art as music lovers see it

Roger Dean On The Web

Roger Dean: Welcome: The all new official Roger Dean website.
Roger Dean profile: Roger Dean was born in 1944 in Kent but his father's job took the family abroad to Cyprus, Greece and Hong Kong. They came back to Britain in 1959 and he went to school in Ashford, Kent until 1961 when he was accepted to do a three year course in Design, which started with him studying Silversmithing and then Furniture Design.
The South African Roger Dean Fansite: This page is dedicated to my favourite artist, Roger Dean. My name is Brian Currin and I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I have been a fan of Roger's work since the early 70s and a number of his album covers and calendars have been framed and hang all over my house.
Future Hi: Roger Dean's Retreat Pods: The idea is to have one of these to escape into, kind of like a floatation tank, but with room for two, and filled with all sorts of stimulating devices.
Roger Dean Covers: This is a fantastic list of nearly 100 Roger Dean album covers with pictures.
MobyGames - Roger Dean: Roger Dean has been credited on games developed by the following companies: Psygnosis Limited, M.C. Lothlorien, Blue Planet Software, Inc., Mastertronic Group Ltd., Art & Magic, Tetris Company, The, Psyclapse, Infomedia Franc...
Roger Dean Exhibition: Roger Dean has his first exhibition of work in London for about a decade, 12th-24th November 2001
Apple (UK and Ireland) - Creative - Roger Dean: Roger Dean is probably most famous for the innovative album covers he designed for bands such as Yes and Asia. Yet thirty years on, Roger is still at the cutting-edge of design, producing work which spans computer games, virtual reality, paintings and even architecture.
San Francisco Art Exchange - Roger Dean: Original Dean art and reproductions for sale.

The Fantasy Art of Roger Dean

books, posters, collectibles and more

Roger Dean's art has been reproduced as posters, postcards, calendars, t-shirts and some very unique trading cards.

The Architecture of Roger Dean

The fantastic houses and fantasy dwellings in Dean's illustrations aren't just fantasies, but actual renderings of his concepts for modern architecture. And for a lucky few in the world, they've been able to bring Roger Dean's ideas to life.

Dean's constructions use a material called gunnite, which is a form of sprayed concrete. Tooling up molds to make these structures can be costly, but for something like a hotel, once the molds were made, building a succession of suites or floors would go extremely quickly. The ovoid room shapes use heat very well, minimizing costs to climate control the spaces.

"70's Futurist" Artist Turned Green Architect/Planner

Roger Dean (YES album art) is an architect

Roger Dean on Architecture

The Willowwater House.

'Dracossoma Umbrostigma' by Roger Dean, Jubilee Place, Canary Wharf by Loz Flowers

Hand-Washes Our Prized Maiden by Epiclectic

Yes, original "Fragile" LP booklet insert by ocad123

automatically generated by Flickr

Collectibles & Cool Stuff

Most Dean collectibles are going to be centered around the band YES. Dean did their cover artwork for most of the band's history. What most people don't know is that all those worlds and creations are actually renderings of Dean's unique style of architecture. Many of the buildings and houses you see in the images could be built exactly as he's depicted them. His structures utilize ovoid forms, made from a sprayed concrete.

Dean also did the cover art and logo for 80s supergroup Asia, which collected John Wetton (King Crimson, Uriah Heep), Steve Howe (Yes), Geoff Downes (Buggles, Yes) and Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer). For their first album, he created the iconic image of a dragon chasing the pearl of wisdom, splashing down on an dark ocean.

The Worlds of Roger Dean

There is a short clip of Dean talking about designing a state set for the band YES and then there are a series of animations of his paintings/illustrations assembled by a fan of his art.

Yes - Roger Dean: by TheGatesofDelirium | video info

28 ratings | 29,899 views

curated content from YouTube

Dean-esque Architecture

other really cool buildings that might make you think of Roger Dean

DVICE: Shell-shaped Nautilus House is gorgeous inside and out: While not officially a Dean-designed structure, this house incorporates a lot of elements that are similar to his style.

Are You A Roger Dean Fan?

comments and feedback

Reply

Dimplefree Apr 23, 2012 @ 5:25 am | delete

Absolutely a fan, for years, I'm not going to tell you how many!

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Toni_Roman Jan 31, 2012 @ 1:09 am | delete

Yes, I'm a Roger Dean fan. This is a kick-ass lens (very good). You ought to do one on his brother Martyn Dean too.

To me, Roger Dean and Yes go together like love & marriage or peanut butter & jelly. Any time you want to collaborate on a project, just get in touch.

Reply

Bruce Oct 26, 2009 @ 8:12 pm | delete

I remember Magician's Birthday from the mid 70's as a picture of a 5 armed magician with fireworks in the backround. Is my memory off? Does anyone know where I can find this picture?

Reply

Cumberland Sep 18, 2008 @ 5:47 pm | delete

I found your lens through the "Find Out About Famous Artists" group. I was not familiar with Roger Dean. I like fantasy art and find his interesting.

I am also interested in unusual houses and thought those photos were also of interest.