In 1939, Columbia Records hired a young graphic designer, Alex Steinweiss, to create marketing materials for its burgeoning popular recording department. At the age of 23, he proposed to his bosses that instead of the basic brown paper covers that record albums were sold in, Columbia should use some of his art to interpret the music instead. Steinweiss had talent as well as business acumen: within months Columbia saw its record sales increase by over 800%. The rest is contemporary music history.
For the next 15 years, Steinweiss was the sole designer for all Columbia's records and later also worked for Decca, a legendary label known as much for its musicians as its artwork. He estimates he designed about 2500 albums. Taschen has recently released the massive retrospective of his work, Alex Steinweiss, The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover, which, appropriately, evokes the size and format of a bound LP book (and at 422 pages,...
For the next 15 years, Steinweiss was the sole designer for all Columbia's records and later also worked for Decca, a legendary label known as much for its musicians as its artwork. He estimates he designed about 2500 albums. Taschen has recently released the massive retrospective of his work, Alex Steinweiss, The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover, which, appropriately, evokes the size and format of a bound LP book (and at 422 pages,...
- 12/23/2009
- by Alissa Walker
- Fast Company
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