The worlds of both music and design lost a man who was integral in shaping many of the visuals associated with some of the most iconic records of all time when Tom Wilkes passed away last week. He was remembered for his difficult nature as much as his 1973 Grammy for his work on The Who’s “Tommy.” That determined drive didn’t find it’s focus until Wilkes left advertising for a position with the Monterey Pop Festival, which then launched him into an art director’s chair at A&M Records, where he only stayed for two years, but never looked back as he paved his way through the music industry.

Wilkes would take his hand (and his eye for causal, yet breathtaking, photography) to records such as the Rolling Stone’s brilliant “Beggars Banquet,” George Harrison’s “Concert For Bangladesh” and “All Things Must Pass,” Neil Young’s typographical exercise, the stripped down “Harvest.” He managed a connection to the viewer that didn’t rely on brash color or doctored photos and in this day of bombast and digital manipulation, his work seems to have taken on an additional power.

He also beckons back to a simpler time when the designer would spend considerable time with the artist in preparing their packaging. He soon became good friends with many of the songwriters and was often asked about his relationship with Neil Young, especially given his access to the unreleased “Homegrown” record.

He also fully exploited the formats available, often adding full booklets to the package and tons of tiny details like embossing and foils and custom labels and was a master of the 12” layout.

Listing all of the places he worked might run this full column, which perhaps speaks to his brash and opinionated manner. He also managed to marry and divorce three times. It wasn’t until his later years as President of Project Interspeak (working on environmental and human rights issues) that he seemed to finally settle in. He continued to design and art direct up until his passing from a heart attack (he suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease) and had recently completed projects for artists as diverse as Spirit, Aretha Franklin and Liza Minnelli.

He was also well known for his photography, often taking the shots that adorned his covers himself. Shots of Harrison, Eric Clapton, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, REO Speedwagon, George Carlin and so many others have worked their way into our pop culture. In a funny (or is it sad?) turn he is likely to be best remembered as a photographer for his very plain cover shot of Janis Joplin for “Pearl,” as it was taken just hours before Joplin would soon meet her end via overdose. We could make a joke about the fact that his next cover victim was Barbara Streisand and what a shame it was that his streak came to an end but that would be tasteless – right?

In a career that stretched from The Stones to Jimmy Cliff, Captain Beefheart to Liza and Cocker to Clapton it only seems appropriate that we leave you with the work rather than the words:

It goes without saying that my favorites are the insanely controversial covers for Ike and Tina Turner.

John Foster owns his very own design firm, Bad People Good Things and is the author of For Sale: Over 200 Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design (HOW), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport), Maximum Page Design (HOW) as well as an upcoming collection of handmade graphics entitled Dirty Fingernails for Rockport and a monograph on Jeff Kleinsmith for Sub Pop Records