TRIBUTES have been paid to a man who designed multi-million selling album covers.

Graphic designer Andie Airfix, who created covers for Def Leppard, Metallica and The Thompson Twins, has died aged 72.

Andy lived in Brighton’s North Laine with his partner Ricky Clark-Monks, 55.

Ricky said: “Somebody once wrote to Andie saying that he had designed the look of the Eighties. At the time I thought maybe that was an exaggerated compliment but, looking at the styles and themes of his work, I’ve come to agree.”

Andie was born in Scotland and grew up in Cheshire where he trained as a teacher. But he soon realised his passions lay elsewhere and started a graphic design company as he moved between London, America and India.

Ricky said: “Andie was all about the future, the past wasn’t something he talked about much.”

Andie was once doing a job with Paul McCartney in which he told the star’s manager that the photographs he had provided, which had cost thousands of pounds, were not good enough.

The manager was quick to beg Andie not to tell Paul, but he went to find the Beatles musician straight away to share his thoughts, to which Paul answered: “Phew, I thought they were s*** too.”

Andie moved to Brighton in 2010 and within six months had an exhibition at the Brighton Fringe festival. He gave two sold-out talks at the event’s Spiegeltent venue.

Audiences were surprised when Andie’s friend Herbie Flowers, the man behind the bass line for Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side, turned up and played the famous riff as Andie discussed his affair with transgender actress Holly Woodlawn.

Ricky said: “Celebrities meant nothing to him, he would always get straight to the point no matter who he was talking to.

“A lot of his clients became close friends because they were all just people to be dealt with to Andie and he talked to them as he would you or I. The band that supported him through everything was Metallica, when his mother died they flew him out to America to have a break. It was hugely important to him to do things himself, so any textures you see in his work are things he will have done physically on paper and then scanned in.

“For one client, he put a print of their logo in his pocket for a week before scanning it in to give it an authentic, screwed-up look.”

Andie also discovered a talent for writing later in his career, and there are plans to release his third book, Discovering Angels, posthumously.

Ricky said: “It’s the most beautiful piece of writing and so I am definitely going to get it published.”

The funeral in Brighton was a celebration of Andie’s life, with a rock and roll dress code, a performance from clients Geezers of Nazareth and a round of applause to finish, which Ricky felt would have suited Andie well.