Hugh Syme

This article is about the Canadian graphic artist. For the Australian recipient of the George Cross, see Hugh Syme (GC).
Hugh Syme
Born
Hugh Syme

1953 (age 70–71)
Canada
Known forGraphic artist, keyboardist
Notable work
Websitewww.hughsyme.com

Hugh Syme is a Canadian Juno Award-winning graphic artist and member of the Premier Artists Collection (PAC), best known for his artwork and cover concepts for rock and metal bands. He is also a musician and has contributed as a keyboard player on several Rush albums. Syme has been responsible for all of Rush's album cover art since 1975's Caress of Steel and is the creator of Rush's famous Starman logo. In 1983, he told Jeffrey Morgan that he never imagined the band would use it as their main logo.[1] Syme also plays piano on the album Thrilling Women, which Morgan recorded with Dean Motter.[2]

His client base includes major record companies such as Geffen Records, EMI Records, Mercury Records, RCA Records, Capitol Records, Sony Music, Atlantic Records, Warner Records, and A&M Records.[3]

Iron Maiden fans remember him best as the designer of The X Factor cover, which depicts the band's mascot Eddie in a dissection. It is noted for its gritty realism. While all previous Maiden albums featured oil paintings, the X Factor Eddie was a puppet with some digital enhancements to improve its appearance. In some countries, the cover was deemed so gruesome that a less graphic alternative was offered (the alternative cover is actually the back of the original CD booklet).

Def Leppard's Retro Active album cover, which he co-designed with Nels Israelson, features a woman sitting at a dressing table, gazing into a mirror. From another perspective, the image takes the form of a skull (a type of vanitas art), with the woman's head forming the left eye socket and her reflected head in the mirror creating the right eye socket. The mirror itself shapes the skull, while the accessories on the dressing table form the nose, nostrils, and teeth. This design was inspired by Charles Allan Gilbert's most famous work, All Is Vanity (1892).

Other bands for which Syme has created artwork include Megadeth, Saga, Styx, Altered State, Fates Warning, Whitesnake, Queensrÿche, Aerosmith, and Dream Theater.

  1. ^ Morgan, Jeffrey. CREEM Magazine, 1983.
  2. ^ Thrilling Women: The Lost Air Pirates Sessions – Toronto: 1978 – 1980
  3. ^ "Hugh Syme". Hugh Syme. Archived from the original on 2014-07-30. Retrieved 2014-07-23.