Sad news to start the day with: according to multiple sources including the BBC, Oscar-winning Alien designer and surrealist artist H. R. Giger passed away at a hospital yesterday after falling down a flight of stairs in his Zurich home. The news was revealed and confirmed by a spokesperson at Giger's museum in Gruyere.
Giger is best known for designing the creatures and the sets that are seen in Ridley Scott's Alien, most notably the "Xenomorph" alien in the film (which was based off of his 1976 lithograph, "Necronom IV"). He was also an accomplished artist, though, whose work was heavily based off of and inspired by the industrial design and architecture he studied in Zurich—he himself often described his work as "biomechanical." Additionally, Giger's art can be seen on the album covers for legendary bands and artists like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and Debbie Harry.
Giger was 74.
[via Uproxx]
