KILEY BAXTER

Ioannis i s an internationally famous Greek-born artist and designer from Athens. In 1967 as a child he immigrated with his family to the United States. At an early age, he was influenced by American comic books, animation, fantasy art, and rock music. As a teenager, he was interested in pursuing a career in comic book art. He decided in his late teens to move in the direction of album cover art and was heavily influenced by the album cover art of Roger Dean and the album design work of Storm Thorgerson (Hipgnosis). Ioannis was still in college when he designed and painted his first record album cover and art directed his first MTV video for Sony Records, in 1983. That Ioannis album cover painting was for the group Art in America (Sony Records) and would later be featured in the book ‘1000 Record Covers’ by Michael Ochs as one of the best covers of the 80”s in a collection that spans forty years. By the summer of 1985, Ioannis was working at the prominent management company Lieber and Krebs (Aerosmith, AC/DC, Scorpions), designing logos and tour posters for their list of clients. He also designed covers for Metal Blade records – among them his legendary artwork for prog metal act Fates Warning.