Hugh Syme
Artist Information:
Hugh Syme is a painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. Apart from producing his own personal body of work over the years, he is probably best known as the man responsible for all but the first 2 of Rush’s album cover art. He also created Rush’s famous starman logo, though he never imagined the band would adopt it as their key brand for decades to come, nor that it would become so internationally recognizable. In 2015, Hugh published his 276-page signed and numbered tome, dedicated to his 3 daughters, and celebrating 40 years as art director for the band Rush (“Art Of Rush / Serving A Life Sentence”). It sold out their 250 “Collector Editions” at $1000 per book within 48 minutes after it was made available. The second tier book ($499) “Special Edition” sold out in 28 minutes. But, who’s counting? Musicians Syme has designed and created artwork for include Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Scorpions, Meatloaf, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Styx, Jimmy Page, Queensrÿche, Stray Cats, Asia, The Band, KISS, Roger Clinton (yes, that Clinton), Joe Walsh, Earth Wind and Fire and of course, RUSH, along with hundreds more.
Additionally, being a fellow musician, he has also contributed piano and keyboards on 4 Rush albums ... and contributed piano, guitar and string arrangements for The Yardbird’s drummer (Jim McCarty)’s latest album of songs. When Syme relocated to Los Angeles for 16 years ... Syme first started freelancing with CBS Records company art department. As resident Art Director for Spencer Proffer’s Pasha division of CBS, Hugh produced more than 24 album cover projects as well as CBS Record’s national ad campaigns, during a 10 year span before Hugh was hired to work with David Geffen, interfacing closely with A&R guru, John Kalodner, as art director.
Hugh designed and created all the graphics for author, producer, director Steve Binder’s Elvis ’68 Comeback Special book and and all ancillary elements. The book was was launched in 2018, the year of the 50th Anniversary celebrating the landmark NBC television special. Similarly, Hugh is crafting the visual marketing materials for Meteor17’s (M17) production of Alanna Nash’s The Colonel documentary and feature film about Elvis and his manager, both to be directed by Joe Berlinger.
Hugh Syme created the art and graphic design for the illustrated book by Graham Nash (dedication by Carole King), based on Nash’s #1 timeless hit, “Our House”. Hugh worked with Spencer and Nash for nearly 3 years in order to make the song come to life in print. He designed the M17 corporate brand and sub-brands, including all logos — their Fathom Events venture with Diana Ross, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix: The Acoustic Experience, along with multiple film, television and book enterprises.
Hugh Syme is as versatile as his art. In 1996, he designed the cover for Neil Peart’s travel book, The “Masked Rider”, and has continued to design covers for Neil (“The Ghost Rider”, “Traveling Music”, “Roadshow”). He has photography and design credit on Celine Dion’s 1990 debut album, “Unison.” In addition, Syme designed several coversfor the albums recorded by Max Webster - a group of fellow Canadians also on the SRO/Anthem label. He has also worked with such jazz notables as Chick Corea, Bob Mover and Steve Kovan.
Despite drawing and painting from an early age ... Syme’s art education came from the Toronto New School of Art in Toronto and York University in York, England. In addition to the album covers for which he is now internationally-renowned, Syme has worked on advertising campaigns for such companies as Accenture, Denon, Xerox, AT&T, The David Geffen Company, The Washington Post, Virgin, Bausch & Lomb, Universal Studios, Miramax, Forbes, Panasonic, Paramount, MGM Grand, Microsoft, Sony, Alpine Audio, Disney, Time Warner, E. I. Lily Pharmaceutical, Samuel Adams Beer, numerous international advertising agencies; he has contributed his vision and artistic style to a wide range of video and packaging designs. He is also an accomplished portrait artist.
He lives and works between Toronto and Indiana, where he lives with his 3 daughters, Hadley, Maggie and Abbey.
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