London's Idea Generation Gallery was the venue last night for the official launch of BIG & SMALL, a brand new exhibition of the album cover art of Storm Thorgerson and StormStudios. Opening to the public on October 21st, and running until November 13th, Big & Small illustrates the vast diversity of format now facing music designers, from billboards to digital downloads and postage stamps. In particular, the show features enormous high quality fine art prints at 5-foot square that are by far the biggest they have ever attempted, of album covers from Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Muse, The Mars Volta et al derived from original art and individually supervised.

The exhibition also displays more manageable sized prints of recent StormStudios work including Pendulum, The Wombats, Younger Brother alongside more familiar works from Black Sabbath, Peter Gabriel, Steve Miller, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. There's also some new, never before seen in public works which are well worth checking out.

Idea Generation were the hosts of the excellent Syd Barrett: Art and Letters exhibition which took place in March/April this year. The presentation of that exhibition was a great showcase of Syd's artistic endeavours, and as we saw last night, they've done a great job at displaying Storm's work, which ranges over many years, for a wide range of musicians. The venue packed with guests ranging from other artists, to musicians, to members of various band management teams and record company personnel, a great time was had by all, as they explored the show - and more on the show, and our exclusive pictures, are below.

The new exhibition includes interactive installations that allow members of the public to make and take their own versions of certain album covers. Live events will also take place throughout the exhibition making this a truly immersive experience.

Storm: "Art is about flights of imagination, it's all about trying to find some way to translate the music into a picture. I guess we try to do a performance to echo that given by the musicians, but often in a remote place, which then needs to be recorded/photographed or nobody would bloody see it..."

With such stunning reproduction of the images, everyone had a chance to see them - even if there was one image (the Royal Mail postage stamp featuring Pink Floyd's Division Bell cover) was deliberately tucked away and not immediately noticed by many there last night! A few of the liquid swirl prints were present, including the now familiar Dark Side Of The Moon (you'll see the framework for this below) and the stunning Golden Rule image for Powderfinger, that Peter Curzon told me last night was one of his favourites from all those on display. All the StormStudios team seemed very pleased with how the show looked, and how well it was being received by last night's attendees.

Amongst the many surprises on display were some new Pink Floyd prints, including a cover they designed with a wire-frame cow (which itself was lurking over the entrance area of the gallery) with the hopes of a 40th anniversary Atom Heart Mother release, a print of the cover for the new Floyd compilation, A Foot In The Door, and a beautiful watercolour inspired by Syd. Of this, Storm said: "The image depicts a dysfunctional Syd walking alone beneath feather trees of sadness - an image of melancholy to reflect both Syd's reclusiveness and our own sadness at the premature loss of a friend and of a free flying creative spirit, like a comet briefly but beautifully illuminating the night sky".

If you are in, or able to visit, London in the next couple of weeks or so (as noted above, it runs until November 13th), we heartily recommend you pay a visit to the gallery. Entrance is free, and should you feel irresistibly drawn to any of the images on display, they are all available for purchase in strictly limited, high quality editions.

[Click the thumbnails above to view in more detail]

The Idea Generation Gallery is at 11 Chance Street, London E2 7JB, and more information can be found at their website: gallery.ideageneration.co.uk.