IOANNIS - More Than Meets The I
by Martin Popoff

Cover artist Ioannis is known for many cool hard rock and heavy metal cover designs. Among his best - from two very different approaches and eras - are those for the second and third Fates Warning albums, and those for the latest two Deep Purples. His company, Vivid Images Design (www.vividimagesdesign.com) has recently spawned a side business in high quality prints of some of the man's greatest hits. Dangerous Age offers that and much more, and can be viewed at www.dangerousage.com. Hardradio caught up with the Ioannis for a bit of a Q&A profile on his long, quite varied career thus far.

Where are you based?

"In Connecticut. I was in New York City most of the time, but now it doesn't really matter. With FedEx and the internet, I can be in the middle of the Mojave Desert and you can get stuff done. But I usually just drive in or fly in, depending on the situation where the band is I have to work with. But God, there are people I've known forever, if I pass them on the street, I would never know who they where, like people in Japan, the people at Pony Canyon or in Germany; it's just unreal. You talk to these guys and you're friends; you trade stories, and you never met them. You don't know what they look like."

How do you pronounce your name?

"'Johannes.' My full name is very long. The idea where I got the idea to use one name, is from Vangelis, the synthesizer player. And the slang word for Ioannis is Yanni, so good thing I didn't go with that (laughs). Me and my brother are both authentic, right from the banana boat Greeks. We came to the United States when we were kids, in the late '60s, and we're the real thing. We're the only two guys in the family that don't run restaurants (laughs). We discovered rock 'n' roll. I try to explain to my father that I do record covers for a living. It's like I told him I was going to go to the moon (laughs)."

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