Who Built Pandora?
Roger Dean has been an; architect, graphic designer and the most prolific album cover designer of the 1970’s and 80’s. Rogers connection with music started only a few years out of art college in 1970 when he started designing logos and images for Richard Branson, who at the time was starting up Virgin Records.
Rogers style of distinct detail in his work makes every inch of a picture interesting. After his graduation from art college in 1968, Rogers first book, ‘Views’ was released in 1975 and received a brilliant reception as a showcase of his early works.
Views, along with Magnetic Storm in 1985 and later Dragons Dream in 2008 have been aspirational books that have shown the true extent of Rogers talents in the construction of epic landscapes, striking worlds and truly wonderful characters.
Any fan of his work would have seen the startling contrast between Rogers work and that of the new film from James Cameron, Avatar. The film has broken box office records, being the highest netting film ever. With a global turn over in excess of $TWO Billion, the film has already won several awards and has been hailed a true adventure epic.
However, the question remains, what was the inspiration for this incredible film. The links to Roger Deans work can be seen in the floating islands and dragons that dominate the startling scenery of Pandora, the world where the story is set.
Its seems very hard to distinguish between drawing inspiration from another artists work or simply taking their entire concept without permission. It is undecided which it is, or if it is either. There can be no mistake, James Cameron is a brilliant Director and Roger Dean an inspirational artist.