The classic status of Alien, the movie, is in large part due to Academy-Award winning artist and designer H.R. Giger. This book provides a complete illustrated record of the months of painstaking work that went into designing the most frightening movie monster of them all.

HR Giger worked in the Shepperton Studios near London from February to November 1978, creating the figures and sets for the film Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott. The film became an international success, earning Giger an Oscar. In the transcribed Alien Diaries, published here for the first time as a facsimile, HR Giger describes his work in the studios. He writes, sketches, and takes photographs with his Polaroid SX70. With brutal honesty, sarcasm and occasional despair, Giger describes what it is like working for the film industry and how he struggles against all odds be it the stinginess of producers or the sluggishness of his staff to see his designs become reality. The Alien Diaries (in German transcription with an English translation) show a little-known personal side of the artist HR Giger and offer an unusual, detailed glimpse into the making of a movie classic through the eyes of a Swiss artist. The book contains almost completely unpublished material, including drawings, Polaroids showing the monster coming to life, and several still shots from the plentiful film material that Giger took in Shepperton.

Alien is one of the most original, thrilling, and beautiful franchises in cinema history. From Ridley Scott's elegant horror masterpiece and James Cameron's visceral and heart-pounding Aliens, to David Fincher's nihilistic Alien3, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's twisted Alien Resurrection, these are the films that birthed a monster and a cultural phenomenon. Alien: The Archive is a beautiful celebration of these landmark films, delving deep into the process of how all four films were created. From the earliest script ideas to final cut, this book showcases the making of the series in exhaustive and exclusive detail. Featuring storyboards from Ridley Scott, exclusive concept designs from Ron Cobb and Syd Mead, behind-the-scenes imagery of the xenomorphs being created, deleted scenes, unused ideas, costumes, weapons, and much more. This must have retrospective also includes brand new interviews with Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver, H.R. Giger, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Jenette Goldstein, and those whose vision and originality created a cinema legend. This book is for all fans of Alien, art lovers, and cinema and science fiction historians. Alien:The Archive is the final word on the series and showcases the breathtaking creation of a terrifying and beautiful filmic nightmare. TM & © 2014 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Giger's multi-faceted career: From surrealistic dream landscapes, to album cover designs, and sculpture For the last three decades H.R. Giger has reigned as one of the leading exponents of fantastic art. After he studied interior and industrial design for eight years at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich, Switzerland (1962-1970), he was soon gaining attention as an independent artist, with endeavors ranging from surrealistic dream landscapes created with a spray gun and stencils, to album cover designs for famous pop stars, and sculpture. In addition, Giger's multi-faceted career includes designing two bars, located in Tokyo and Chur, as well as work on various film projects--his creation of the set design and title figure for Ridley Scott's film Alien won him not only international fame but also an award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects (1980). "The more famous I get, the more I am tolerated, albeit with some head-shaking." --H.R. Giger About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions

This collectable group of 22 beautifully designed Tarot cards is available in a handsome boxed set in either German or English language. Each card is a careful reproduction of one of Giger's paintings, and is interpreted by philosopher-magician Akron in a booklet of instructions, included with the set. To Akron Tarot is like an inexhaustible mine of symbols, suited to manifest Giger's aesthetics of apocalypse in literary style. Akron resorts to the tradition of the Tarot in order to convey the messages of Baphomet - a medieval secret symbol -- which is of special significance in Giger's work. H.R. Giger is a painter, Oscar-award winner and cult figure of an international artistic community, for which his aesthetics of the apocalypse represent inspiration and spiritual healing. His pictures are gripping, indeed sometimes shocking visions - they shake us from our unconsciousness as they relentlessly point to the hidden inner world of all things. The art of Giger is a journey to the most ancient destination of mankind: to birth and death, love and war, hope and the destruction of life.

This volume brings together around 200 of Giger's paintings, sketches and photographs, as well as autobiographical passages and the artist's personal reflections on his work.

H. R. Giger created the world of the 1980 Alien movie without the benefit of a Mac and is still a major inspiration for today's obsessive digital artists. Now a collection of artists working in surrealist biomechanical graphis in art, computer games, and movies with far more powerful tools at their disposal to create their own alien art are pushing the boundaries of the visual--the new Gigers. This book features more than 50 top artists from around the world working in the genre where the boundaries between computer games and movies increasingly blur.