----------------------------------------------------- AUGUST 1, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Apple UK http://www.apple.com/uk/creative/rogerdean/ Roger Dean is probably most famous for the innovative album covers he designed for bands such as Yes and Asia. Thirty years on, Roger is still at the cutting-edge of design, and from his studio in Brighton produces work which spans computer games, virtual reality, paintings and even architecture. Roger’s studio is filled with sketchbooks and canvases, but the real creative workhorse is his Power Mac. At home, a converted barn outside the city, Roger uses a PowerBook. “Before the Mac came along, if I talked to kids at art school I would say they must get a pencil and draw and draw and draw”, Roger says. “Now I tell them to draw, but also to get a Mac and learn to use that as well”. Roger’s first encounter with a Mac came in 1984 when he was asked to design a house for Kai Krause. Kai, famous for Kai’s Power Tools and other innovative digital design packages, was at that time testing a beta version of Adobe Photoshop. The two men used trial and error to discover how to create ground-breaking visual effects with the program, with Kai developing procedures and Roger the brush strokes. These early experiments first appeared as sleeve art on Steve Howe’s album ‘Turbulence’. “Kai figured out what he thought we should be doing, and came up with the tools, which eventually became Kai’s Power Tools”, Roger explains. These early experiences impressed Roger so much that when he bought his first computer in 1989, it was a Mac. “I loved the intuitiveness of a Mac. With a PC, it seemed like you needed to know 26 combinations of keys and codes to turn it on, but with this you could just point and click”, he says. That first machine was a Macintosh Classic, boasting 2MB of memory — laughable today, considering many of Roger’s digital creations are dozens of times that size. “I used it for writing letters and keeping records, rather than for design”, says Roger. “I loved the fact that it could be used by someone like me, who didn’t consider themselves computer savvy”. In the 1990s, the Mac became an important tool in Roger’s work, as he and his brother Martyn became involved in a series of ventures in virtual reality and computer games, which involved designing characters and virtual worlds. “We upgraded to the Mac Quadra, which totally changed the way we worked”, says Roger. “Although it still couldn’t handle massive files, you could lay out pages and create basic prints using Photoshop and QuarkXPress. Martyn understands the machines and can do amazing things with them. I do the drawings and paintings; he makes it possible for me to push the envelope”. Today, Roger has a varied workload, encompassing work for Yes, as well as various other artistic and architectural endeavours. To handle these projects, he and Martyn have upgraded to G3s. Using these with a scanner, an external backup drive and “a stack of memory”, Roger has been able to create computerised and animated designs for overseas clients. “I’m working with a client in Malaysia on an architectural project, and having the Mac means I can quickly make changes and share drawings over the Internet”, he says. Roger uses his Web site, www.rogerdean.com, to showcase examples of his work, spanning architecture, design, music, publishing and computer gaming. More importantly, it has also allowed Roger to sell a new range of limited edition prints created specially for the site; “I wanted to be able to create and sell a wider range of my work”, he says. The prints, half-based on meticulous colour separations and half Mac creations, have been a resounding success, and Roger plans to extend the range using the Mac. “The knack to drawing is that you have to think about drawing a lot — except for when you are doing it. What I like about the Mac is that you can work with it like that, you can be totally immersed in the creative process without thinking about the technology”. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com