Fact #117409

Storm Thorgerson (sleeve designer, Hipgnosis) : We’re very fond of that cover. From the title of the piece, Technical Ecstasy, I thought of something ecstatic rather than something technical, and I immediately thought of ecstasy in sexual terms: some sort of mechanical copulation, which would be tricky to do. I then thought of ecstasy as falling in love, perhaps during a brief encounter on an escalator - and, since it was 'technical', I thought of two robots. It's really quite simple he's (graphic designer George Hardie) just done curves for the female and hard, angular, macho lines for the male. It's really quite sexist, actually - stereotyped. Anyway, it's love at first sight, but I felt robots wouldn't do it like humans would do it, so instead they're squirting lubricating fluid at one another.
(Source : interview in Zoom magazine, 1979)