Hugh Syme

Art Director, Illustrator and Graphic Designer, M17

hughsyme.com

Hugh Syme is a graphic artist whose works are exhibited in select museums and art galleries. Hugh is 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 gain such international recognizably. In 2015, Hugh published his 276 page tome, dedicated to his 3 daughters, and celebrating 40 years as art director for the band Rush (“Art Of Rush / Serving A Life Sentence”).a 279 page table top book called THE ART OF RUSH by Hugh Syme.  It sold out their "Collector Editions" at $ 1000 per book within 48 minutes after it was made available.  The second tier ($499) 'Special Edition" book sold out in 28 minutes. But, who's counting? http://www.rush.com/the-art-of-rush/

Hugh designed and created all the graphics for Steve Binder’s Elvis Comeback Special book (http://www.meteor17.com/elvis-comeback-special/) and extensions. He worked closely with producer/director Binder and Spencer in art directing and designing the Book which celebrates the landmark NBC television special.  It is already a best seller via Costco, Walmart and Target stores as well as airports. The book will be further marketed to mass retail outlets around the world, tied in with the Binder/Elvis Comeback documentary, Reinventing Elvis, as well as the successful Baz Luhrmann/ Warner Brothers big screen movie bio pic, “Elvis'“, starring Tom Hanks and Austin Butler which Steve consulted on. Baz graciously wrote the moving Foreword to Steve’s book..

Additionally, Syme created the art and graphic design for the illustrated book by Graham Nash (dedication by Carole King), based upon Nash’s #1 timeless hit, “Our House”. Hugh worked closely with Spencer, Meteor 17’s Vice Chair, Judith A. Proffer and Nash for nearly 4 years, in order to have the song come to life in print, for M17’s Padaro Books division. http://www.meteor17.com/our-house.

Syme collaborated with Judy and Huqua Press illustrator Yoko Matsuoka, to design “Broadway Baby”, a whimsical love letter to Broadway and celebration of the importance of theatre and creativity. https://www.meteor17.com/broadway-baby. The book - out in 2023 will coincide with a major Tony Awards show and campaign via M17.

Musicians Syme has designed and created artwork for include Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Don McLean, Scorpions, Meatloaf, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Styx, Queensrÿche, Stray Cats, Asia, 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.

Syme first started working with Spencer Proffer in the 80’s on all of Proffer’s Pasha/CBS Records company artwork. As resident Art Director for Pasha, Hugh and Spencer collaborated on more than 26 album cover projects as well as CBS Records ’national ad campaigns, during a 10 year span before Hugh was hired away to work for David Geffen and his music company.as Art Director.

Hugh designed the M17 graphic look, including logo, many Huqua/Padaro/Meteor 17 book covers and graphic materials.  Hugh is overseeing and handling all the album cover and graphic design for M17 media projects including the graphic elements to M17’s venture, Jimi Hendrix: The Acoustic Experience recordings,  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”) and he has photography and design credit on Celine Dion's 1990 album, "Unison." In addition, Syme designed all the covers for the albums recorded by Max Webster - a group of fellow Canadians also on the SRO/Anthem label. In addition, he has completed designs for the following covers: Megadeth’s "Cryptic Writings"; 1992’s "Countdown to Extinction”, 1994’s "Youthanasia" and 2001’s “The World Needs A Hero”; Whitesnake’s 1987 debut album “Serpens Albus”, "Slip of the Tongue" and “Restless Heart”; David Coverdale and Jimmy Page’s album “Merge”; and Queensryche's albums, "Hear In The Now Frontier", “Promised Land, and “American Soldier”.

He has also worked with such jazz notables as Chick Corea, Bob Mover and Steve Kovan.

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 advertisements 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 Abbe.