During the mid to late 70s there was a brief window in time where an
album cover wasn't a real album cover unless it featured some out of
this world, crazy sci-fi themes and illustrations. Whether it be
R&B, Disco, Rock or Funk, cosmic themes of space travel and science
fiction fantasy were as much a part of the identity of the band as was
their music. Along with illustrative gurus such as Hajime Sorayama,
Japanese illustrator Shusei Nagaoka was pretty much the go to guy for
hyper realistic, sci-fi gold and his work was featured on the albums
covers of big names such as, Earth, Wind & Fire, ELO and Deep
Purple. A seriously talented airbrush artist who's style would still
standard up to the best best of the best of today's hyper-real fantasy
illustrators even considering all the new technologies at their
disposal. Respect.
Pictured to the right of this post is a few samples of his amazing work from over the years and for more please visit
shuesei-nagaoka.com
some samples of his crazy type work
here also