- British Artist and Film Director, Nick Egan, occupies a distinctive 'Rock Star' venerability in a popular culture that has felt his influence since the early days of the Punk Rock Revolution. Egan is currently in the in the development stage to Direct a feature film that encompasses the vibrant pop cultures from early 80's UK to late 90's Southern California. He is also in the process of putting together an exhibition of his contemporary paintings and artworks as well as an historical one man show covering more than three decades of his most famous album and single sleeves, including some for the most influential artists in the history of contemporary music. With these projects , he again demonstrates a remarkable ability to effectively work with some of the most eccentric characters in film, fashion and rock and roll. This is a reputation to which has been attributed much of his previous award winning success in music videos, having directed in his recollection "over a hundred" for bands such as Oasis, Duran Duran, INXS, Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, Motley Crue and Kylie Minogue to name a few. Born in London, Nick attended Watford College of Art and Design , just outside of London, where he studied Graphic Design, which formed the basis of the visual language that would connect him with millions and by unintended design make of him; a Punk Rock Iconoclast. While still at college, he began to design single covers and posters for the then emerging, now historic bands like The Clash and The Ramones. His relationship with Bernard Rhodes, manager of The Clash, led to his designing the landmark album cover for Dexy's Midnight Runners. He then became involved with former Sex Pistols manager and fashion entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren, through which he designed the album artwork for Bow Wow Wow's - 'See Jungle! See Jungle!' which was voted by into the 'Top 100 Album Covers of All Time' by Rolling Stone Magazine (No. 10) His long time involvement with McLaren led him to design artwork for McLaren's own innovative albums 'Duck Rock', 'Fans' and 'Swamp Thing'. He would go on to design album covers for some of that eras most influential and recognized bands. He also had a close association with celebrated Film Directors of the time, Oliver Stone and John Hughes, designing the album covers for Stone's epic movies 'The Doors' and 'JFK' and Hughes logo for his Production Company Hughes Entertainment. Also during this period, he worked closely with celebrated fashion designer Vivienne Westwood on her 'Worlds End' collections, designing the invitations and art directing her fashion shows in London and Paris. Egan's stylistic vision helped shape the punk aesthetic and shook visual music and fashion culture allthe way from The Clash to the present. After five successful years in London's music and fashion scene, Egan relocated to New York for a different challenge, moving comfortably from a young up and coming scene in the UK to more established and legendary artists like Bob Dylan ('Biography' and 'Empire Burlesque'), Iggy Pop (Blah Blah Blah) as well as books for both Bob Dylan ('Drawn Blank') and John Lennon ('Listen To These Pictures'). He continued his experience in fashion by designing the 'Sketchbook' label for the first collection, for a then young fashion designer, Marc Jacobs. In addition to art directing his early fashion shows , Egan's collaboration with Jacob's continued closely all the way through his phenomenal rise in fashion that saw Jacob's named head designer at Perry Ellis and later win the coveted Fashion Designer of the Year Award. The pair also collaborated on the Sonic Youth video 'Sugar Kane' featuring the first on screen appearance by Chloe Sevigny. During his time in New York, Egan was asked to direct his first ever music video for Iggy Pop's 'Real Wild Child' which ultimately ended up being the reason he decided to move to Los Angeles and pursue music videos on a more permanent basis, after spending almost a year working in Sydney, Australia on the INXS multi platinum 'Kick' album. In a short time he became one of the World's premier and award winning music video directors, working with legendary Production Company, Propaganda Films (David Fincher, Michael Bay, Anton Fuqua, Mark Romanek, Spike Jonze) He also started a successful period as a commercial director responsible for directing spots for Levi's, Nike, Diet Coke, Nintendo and Sony Playstation. He continues his success in Los Angeles with several t shirt collections as well as spending time doing the thing he enjoys most, Painting, of which he has had several small solo and group shows in and around the Los Angeles area. He has also become a much in demand public speaker, where he has given key note speeches in Auckland, New Zealand, Brighton, England and various venues in the LA area. He is married to Executive Producer Ann Haugen and lives in the Hollywood Hills with Ann and his three children.
- SpouseAnn Haugen(June 13, 1998 - present) (3 children)
- ParentsDashiell EganAva EganRoman Rupert-Egan
- They (The Media) knew that, whatever he (Malcolm McLaren) did, it would be influencing the youth of the world in some way. People would be dancing to it, wearing it, looking at it and debating it for years to come.
- It's always more exciting when there is a low tolerance to things and then something left of field happens. It takes people by surprise and it upsets the status quo. Generally, you either have cultural upheaval or political upheaval, very rarely do you have both at the same time like it was with the Sex Pistols and The Clash at the end of the 1970's.
- I think they (album covers) have definitely documented a certain part of history, but more than anything they have indelibly put the idea of music and imagery together forever.
- Back then, the only way out of working in a bank was football or music. And in both cases, the chance of success in either was remote. Of course, punk changed all of that. The decade of the amateur began. This was an important moment for all of us because things literally changed overnight. It meant we didn't have to be virtuoso's. It was more about ideas and enthusiasm. So, this amazing wealth of talent evolved in areas that would probably never have had a chance pre-punk.
- I think a lot of great artists (referring to Bob Dylan) like to push boundaries to see how far they can get, almost daring someone to question it - 'it's so bad it's good' philosophy, which made it all the more interesting for me, a kind of creative subversion.
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