Hipgnosis' approach to album design was strongly photography-oriented, and they pioneered the use of many innovative visual and packaging techniques. In particular, Thorgerson & Powell's surreal, elaborately manipulated photos (utilizing darkroom tricks, airbrush retouching, and mechanical cut-and-paste techniques) were a film-based forerunner of what would, much later, be called photoshopping.
Another Hipgnosis trademark is that many of their cover photos told "stories" directly related to the album's lyrics. Since both Powell and Thorgerson were film students, they often used models as "actors" and staged the photos in a highly theatrical manner. Hipgnosis covers rarely featured artists' photos on the outside, and most were in a gatefold cover format to provide ample space for their slickly photographed tableaux.
Many of Hipgnosis' covers also featured distinctively "high tech" pen and ink logos and illustrations (often by graphic designer George Hardie), stickers, fancy inner sleeves, and other packaging goodies.
Wish you were here
Some info on the Wish you were here sleeve- early experimentation with album sleves:
"The packaging for the original vinyl release was intended to be an anonymous, completely black cover. Record companies didn't like the idea, so an additional image sticker featuring the band name with a robotic handshake (with one of the hands wearing a diamond ring) over a theme of the four elements was included. Tearing through this stickered, all-black wrapper would then reveal the proper artwork with its now-famous cover - the businessman-on-fire handshake"
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