IOANNIS - More Than Meets The I Page 6
by Martin Popoff

In closing, here are a few comments on wrappers from various points in Ioannis' career...

Voivod - Nothingface
"What happened there is, at that point, I had made a decision that I was going to become a design firm. So it was going to be like, every time you hired me, you get my paintings, it would be like you hired Ioannis to become the art director, and I would work within the context of whatever the project entitled. Away had done the drawings for Voivod, and I thought he was extremely talented; he's just a great kid. So I remember flying up to Montreal, this was 1989, and meeting them. It was really cool going to Canada, because my uncle who brought us over to America, they had gone to Canada originally. So we took the drawings Away had done, and it was one of the first uses of computer-generated art, and we created backgrounds for it. So basically he gave me the main art and we just sort of pieced the cover together doing effects. That photograph of them with the background is something you can do in about 30 seconds in Photoshop now. Back then, it took like two whole days and cost of fortune, just to superimpose their photo against a fiery red background (laughs)."

Heaven - Knocking On Heaven's Door
"The first official band did a cover for, for Leber and Krebs, was an Australian band called Heaven, on Columbia. I did the art with the "corrupt" angel. And their manager, Paul O'Neill - there was Leber and Krebs, and then you had all the sub managers working under them - and I remember Paul O'Neill coming to me and saying: bigger tits and thinner stomach. And I'm like dude, she's starting to look like... (laughs). I kept bringing the painting back. 'No, you've got to make them bigger. She's got to stick out of the painting.' Everybody was infatuated with all the Iron Maiden stuff back then. So I did that, and then all of a sudden I started doing a slew of paintings for Metal Blade."

Dream Theater - When Dream And Day Unite
"That was my first job at MCA/Mechanic Records. I remember driving back after the meeting listening to the music in my tape deck. This was at the height of hair bands and these guys were doing progressive rock! And they could play! The cover photo was handed to me and I composed the packaging around it. The band was originally called Majesty. As a matter of fact the logo is what is being branded on the guys chest. Great bunch of kids; It's no surprise that they are as big as they are; extremely talented."

Slaughter - Revolution
"I was handed a black and white photo and was asked if I could do something interesting with it as they wanted a portrait for a cover. Based on the music and title, a psychedelic approach made sense. I scanned a piece of cloth for the textures and heavily digitally worked on the photo. The logos were hand-drawn. The band loved it although they were spooked that it looked like the guitarist's head looked like it was on fire. Sadly a year later he died in an accident. Nice bunch of guys and good memories."

IOANNIS - More Than Meets The I Page 7