Alex Steinweiss
Encyclopedia
Alexander "Alex" Steinweiss (March 24, 1917 – July 17, 2011) was a graphic designer
known for inventing the album cover
.
and his mother was a seamstress from Riga
, Latvia
. They moved to the Lower East Side
of Manhattan
and eventually settled in the Brighton Beach
section of Brooklyn.
Steinweiss said he was destined to be a commercial artist. In high school he marveled at his classmates who "could take a brush, dip it in some paint and make letters," he recalled. "So I said to myself, 'If some day I could become a good sign painter, that would be terrific!"'
Steinweiss earned a scholarship to the Parsons School of Design.
, Steinweiss became Columbia Records
' advertising manager. He left for a job at the Navy's Training and Development Center in New York City, where he produced teaching materials and cautionary posters.
After the war, Steinweiss freelanced for Columbia. During one lunch meeting there, the company's president, Ted Wallerstein, introduced him to an innovation that the company was about to unveil: the long-playing record. But there was a problem. The heavy, folded kraft paper used to protect 78 rpm records left marks on the vinyl microgroove when 33 1/3 rpm LPs were stacked.
Steinweiss was asked to develop a jacket for the new format and, with help from his brother-in-law, found a manufacturer willing to invest about $250,000 in equipment. Steinweiss had the original patent for what became the industry packaging standard (he did not develop the inner sleeve, only the outer package), but under his contract with Columbia he had to waive all rights to any inventions made while working there.
In the 1930s recorded music was sold in plain packaging, or record shop advertising 'bags'; sets of discs were also usually issued in plain albums. However, colored artwork had been used on special albums, from World War I. This was separately printed and pasted onto album covers and occasionally inside the albums: for example, HMV's issue of Liza Lehmann's "In a Persian Garden" and operettas by Edward German and Gilbert & Sullivan were all available by 1918 in such decorated albums.
In 1939, Alex Steinweiss was the first art director
for Columbia Records
, where he introduced a wider application of album cover
s and cover art
. Steinweiss was active in record cover design from 1939 until 1973, when he semi-retired to devote himself to painting. By his own admission, he designed roughly 2500 covers.
Steinweiss' career can be divided into roughly five periods. From 1939 to perhaps 1945, he designed all the covers for Columbia. During this period, he developed the entire graphic "language" of album design.
The second period is from 1945 to roughly 1950, during which he was no longer the sole designer for Columbia. He also began designing for other companies. This period is sometimes described as the "First Golden Age" of the album cover.
Steinweiss' signature font
, the "Steinweiss scrawl," first appeared in roughly 1947. Steinweiss claims to have invented the LP cover, which first appeared in 1948.
Starting in around 1950, Steinweiss did the covers and record label for Remington, and began a more than 20 year association with both Decca
and London Records
. Like his earlier periods, most of his early 1950s designs are drawn, for Columbia, RCA
, Remington
, Decca and London. This is his third period, when he did drawing, lettering, and layout that was often brilliant but perhaps not as memorable as his late 1940s period. It was during this period that he collaborated with Margaret Bourke-White
on a memorable series of covers for Columbia.
Starting in the mid-1950s, Steinweiss added photography to his palette. Steinweiss's photographic covers are remarkably distinctive. He utilized strange garish colors, odd lighting, and numerous visual puns and reference points.
He continued to work for Decca and London, and did the entire series of covers (and the logo and label) for the startup Everest
label from 1958 until roughly 1960. This was his fourth period, characterized by photography but continuing to use the entire range of tools he had developed. Steinweiss' final period of record cover design was from 1960 to roughly 1973, again working for Decca and London. His new developments of the period were in die-cut designs and collage.
Steinweiss also designed liquor bottles, posters, magazine, pamphlet, book covers and titles for TV shows. He remains semi-active, having designed at least one book cover in the 1980s and four cd covers for Harmonie Ensemble/New York, Steven Richman,conductor: Stravinsky: Histoire du Soldat, Premieres and Rarities [2001] GRAMMY AWARD NOMINATION Koch International Classics; Copland: Rarities and Premieres [2004] Bridge Records; Symphonic Jazz: Ferde Grofe and George Gershwin in Original Paul Whiteman Orchestra Versions [2006] Bridge Records; Dvorak Day Concert [2001] Dvorak Festival Orchestra of New York, Steven Richman, conductor [2001] Music and Arts
Steinweiss's cover for the original Broadway
cast recording of South Pacific
(1949) has been in almost continuous use ever since for the 78 rpm set, for the LP, for the 45 rpm set, for various tape formats and for the CD. The only other graphic design in America to be used for so many years is the Coca-Cola
bottle.
In 1942, Steinweiss hired Jim Flora
, which launched Flora's 40+ year career as a commercial artist.
In 2001, Steinweiss was featured in Carlo McCormick's
gallery show "The LP Show," originating in New York's
Exit Art
and then in 2002 traveling to the Experience Music Project
in Seattle and The Andy Warhol Museum
in Pittsburgh.
He was interviewed for a chapter in Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky
.
created the Alex Awards for Excellence in Entertainment Packaging, which were named in honor of Alex Steinweiss.
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
known for inventing the album cover
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
.
Early life
Alex Steinweiss was born on March 24, 1917, in Brooklyn. His father was a women's shoe designer from WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and his mother was a seamstress from Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
. They moved to the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and eventually settled in the Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2000, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.-Location:...
section of Brooklyn.
Steinweiss said he was destined to be a commercial artist. In high school he marveled at his classmates who "could take a brush, dip it in some paint and make letters," he recalled. "So I said to myself, 'If some day I could become a good sign painter, that would be terrific!"'
Steinweiss earned a scholarship to the Parsons School of Design.
Career
After graduation Steinweiss worked for three years for the Austrian poster designer Joseph Binder, whose flat color and simplified human figures were popular at the time and influenced his own work. During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Steinweiss became Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
' advertising manager. He left for a job at the Navy's Training and Development Center in New York City, where he produced teaching materials and cautionary posters.
After the war, Steinweiss freelanced for Columbia. During one lunch meeting there, the company's president, Ted Wallerstein, introduced him to an innovation that the company was about to unveil: the long-playing record. But there was a problem. The heavy, folded kraft paper used to protect 78 rpm records left marks on the vinyl microgroove when 33 1/3 rpm LPs were stacked.
Steinweiss was asked to develop a jacket for the new format and, with help from his brother-in-law, found a manufacturer willing to invest about $250,000 in equipment. Steinweiss had the original patent for what became the industry packaging standard (he did not develop the inner sleeve, only the outer package), but under his contract with Columbia he had to waive all rights to any inventions made while working there.
In the 1930s recorded music was sold in plain packaging, or record shop advertising 'bags'; sets of discs were also usually issued in plain albums. However, colored artwork had been used on special albums, from World War I. This was separately printed and pasted onto album covers and occasionally inside the albums: for example, HMV's issue of Liza Lehmann's "In a Persian Garden" and operettas by Edward German and Gilbert & Sullivan were all available by 1918 in such decorated albums.
In 1939, Alex Steinweiss was the first art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, where he introduced a wider application of album cover
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
s and cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
. Steinweiss was active in record cover design from 1939 until 1973, when he semi-retired to devote himself to painting. By his own admission, he designed roughly 2500 covers.
Steinweiss' career can be divided into roughly five periods. From 1939 to perhaps 1945, he designed all the covers for Columbia. During this period, he developed the entire graphic "language" of album design.
The second period is from 1945 to roughly 1950, during which he was no longer the sole designer for Columbia. He also began designing for other companies. This period is sometimes described as the "First Golden Age" of the album cover.
Steinweiss' signature font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
, the "Steinweiss scrawl," first appeared in roughly 1947. Steinweiss claims to have invented the LP cover, which first appeared in 1948.
Starting in around 1950, Steinweiss did the covers and record label for Remington, and began a more than 20 year association with both Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
and London Records
London Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....
. Like his earlier periods, most of his early 1950s designs are drawn, for Columbia, RCA
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
, Remington
Remington Records
Remington Records was a low budget record label. It existed from 1950 until 1957 and specialized in classical music. Unfortunately, the discs suffered from considerable surface noise.-History:...
, Decca and London. This is his third period, when he did drawing, lettering, and layout that was often brilliant but perhaps not as memorable as his late 1940s period. It was during this period that he collaborated with Margaret Bourke-White
Margaret Bourke-White
Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and documentary photographer. She is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent and the first female photographer for Henry Luce's Life magazine, where her...
on a memorable series of covers for Columbia.
Starting in the mid-1950s, Steinweiss added photography to his palette. Steinweiss's photographic covers are remarkably distinctive. He utilized strange garish colors, odd lighting, and numerous visual puns and reference points.
He continued to work for Decca and London, and did the entire series of covers (and the logo and label) for the startup Everest
Everest Records
Everest Records was a stereophonic record label based in Bayside, Long Island started by Harry D. Belock and Bert Whyte in May 1958. It was devoted mainly to classical music.-History:...
label from 1958 until roughly 1960. This was his fourth period, characterized by photography but continuing to use the entire range of tools he had developed. Steinweiss' final period of record cover design was from 1960 to roughly 1973, again working for Decca and London. His new developments of the period were in die-cut designs and collage.
Steinweiss also designed liquor bottles, posters, magazine, pamphlet, book covers and titles for TV shows. He remains semi-active, having designed at least one book cover in the 1980s and four cd covers for Harmonie Ensemble/New York, Steven Richman,conductor: Stravinsky: Histoire du Soldat, Premieres and Rarities [2001] GRAMMY AWARD NOMINATION Koch International Classics; Copland: Rarities and Premieres [2004] Bridge Records; Symphonic Jazz: Ferde Grofe and George Gershwin in Original Paul Whiteman Orchestra Versions [2006] Bridge Records; Dvorak Day Concert [2001] Dvorak Festival Orchestra of New York, Steven Richman, conductor [2001] Music and Arts
Steinweiss's cover for the original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
cast recording of South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
(1949) has been in almost continuous use ever since for the 78 rpm set, for the LP, for the 45 rpm set, for various tape formats and for the CD. The only other graphic design in America to be used for so many years is the Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
bottle.
In 1942, Steinweiss hired Jim Flora
Jim Flora
James "Jim" Flora , best known for his distinctive and idiosyncratic album cover art for RCA Victor and Columbia Records during the 1940s and 1950s, was also a prolific commercial illustrator from the 1940s to the 1970s and the author/illustrator of 17 popular children's books...
, which launched Flora's 40+ year career as a commercial artist.
In 2001, Steinweiss was featured in Carlo McCormick's
Carlo McCormick
Carlo McCormick is a culture critic and curator living in New York City. He is the author of numerous books, monographs and catalogues on contemporary art and artists.-Pedagogic Activity:...
gallery show "The LP Show," originating in New York's
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Exit Art
Exit Art
Exit Art is a non-profit cultural center established in 1982. Located in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City, United States, the two-story gallery exhibits contemporary visual art, installation, video, theater, and performance....
and then in 2002 traveling to the Experience Music Project
Experience Music Project
The EMP Museum is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington...
in Seattle and The Andy Warhol Museum
The Andy Warhol Museum
The Andy Warhol Museum, located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist...
in Pittsburgh.
He was interviewed for a chapter in Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky
DJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
.
Death
Alex Steinweiss died on July 18, 2011 in Sarasota, Florida. His death was confirmed by his son, Leslie. In addition to his son, he is survived by a daughter, Hazel Steinweiss, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.Alex awards
In 2003, CMP Information and the International Recording Media AssociationInternational Recording Media Association
The International Recording Media Association , previously known as the International Tape Association , is an international trade association dealing with every facet of recording, media and related industries...
created the Alex Awards for Excellence in Entertainment Packaging, which were named in honor of Alex Steinweiss.
Sources and further reading
- Alex Steinweiss, Jennifer McKnight-Trontz. For the Record: The Life and Work of Alex Steinweiss ISBN 1-56898-224-0, Princeton Architectural Press; 2000.
- Eric Kohler, In the Groove: Vintage Record Graphics, 1940-1960 (ISBN 0-8118-2121-8) Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1999.
- Heller, Steven; Pomeroy, Karen, Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design (ISBN 1-880559-76-5) Watson-Guptill Pubns, NY, 1997. One chapter on Steinweiss.
- Chusid, Irwin. The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (Fantagraphics BooksFantagraphics BooksFantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
, 2004); features an interview with Steinweiss - Heller, StevenSteven Heller (graphic design)Steven Heller is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes on topics related to graphic design....
, and Reagan, Kevin: Alex Steinweiss, The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover, ISBN 978-3836501927, TaschenTaschenTaschen is an art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. It began as Taschen Comics publishing Benedikt's extensive comic collection...
, 2009.
External links
- One cover collector's blog on cover design, currently shows over 100 Steinweiss covers
- Alex Steinweiss - Profile at The Remington Site
- Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
- California Art Gallery Website with biography and images of work
- A tribute to Columbia Records C-11 (1938), Steinweiss' first record cover