Roger Dean

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For the Australian politician, see Roger Dean (Australian politician).

Image:Arches Mist.jpg Roger Dean (born August 31, 1944, in Ashford, Kent, United Kingdom) is a contemporary artist best known for his work on album covers, which began in the late 1960s. He was born in England, but spent most of his childhood moving around the world with his British Army father. The family returned to England in 1959 and Dean earned a National Diploma of Design from the Canterbury School of Art. In 1968, he graduated from the Royal College of Art in London.

His first album cover work was for a group called Gun. In 1971, Dean produced the first album cover for the African group Osibisa, which attracted a lot of attention to his work. Later that year, he began the partnership for which he is best known, designing his first album cover (Fragile) for the progressive rock band Yes. Dean designed the classic Yes logo, which first appeared on the album Close to the Edge, and has created covers for the band as recently as 1999 (The Ladder). Yes guitarist Steve Howe said, "There is a pretty tight bond between our sound and Roger's art."

Known primarily for the dreamy, other-worldly scenes he has created for Yes, Budgie , Uriah Heep, Gentle Giant and other bands, Dean has said, "I don't really think of myself as a fantasy artist but as a landscape painter." Many of his paintings use mixed media including gouache, watercolor, ink, enamel, crayon and collage.

Two compilations of his work, Views (1975) and Magnetic Storm (1984), have been published. In addition, his architectural and furniture work has been exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum and in the Royal Academy. In recent years, he has focused a great deal on his architectural ideas, finally building a number of homes he has designed over the years.

In early 2005, Dean has announced plans to create a feature film titled Floating Islands. This film will be produced by Roger Dean and David Mousley. The story is based on the underlying theme depicted in the album artwork for Yes. It will feature 3D animated renderings of classic Dean images and music by Yes. Image:Yessongs Pathways.jpg

Roger travels every summer to the North East Art Rock Festival, or NEARFest, as the invited guest, and has designed their logo for most of the festival's history. He welcomes the chance to meet many of his fans in person and has signed thousands of autographs of his work.

Dean has lived in Brighton since 1972.

Also, Dean is responsible for the artwork for the videogame Tetris Worlds as well as a redesign of the Tetris logo, and the box cover art for Brataccas.