Alex Steinweiss

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Alex Steinweiss (March 24, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York) is a graphic designer.

In 1939, he was the first art director for Columbia Records, where he invented the concept of album covers and cover art; previously, recorded music was sold in plain, undecorated packaging.

Steinweiss was active in record cover design from its inception in 1939 until 1973, when he semi-retired to devote himself to painting. By his own admission, he has 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 20+ year association with both Decca records 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' 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. He worked for Decca and London. His new developments of the period were in die-cut designs and collage. It is remarkable to realize that the pioneer of record cover design was also a contemporary of Hipgnosis and Roger Dean, and that his covers hold their own against the new developments of the time.

To recognize a Steinweiss cover, first of all look for a signature - "Steinweiss" on most of the Columbias, a few RCAs, and a few of the very last collage works on Decca; "Piedra Blanca" (Spanish for "Stein Weiss") on some of the mid-1950s Deccas, and "design by Alex Steinweiss" at the bottom back of many of the Everests. Most of his covers are unsigned - look for his font, for clever use of shading, for strange garish photography, but above all for a great eye for a well laid-out page. A Steinweiss design emphasizes the most important thing, and deemphasizes less important items. A Steinweiss design incorporates huge amounts of information without impeding the artistry. And a Steinweiss design is playful.

Besides record covers, Steinweiss designed liquor bottles, posters, magazine, pamphlet, and book covers, and titles for TV shows. He remains semi-active, having designed at least one book cover in the 1980s and a new CD in the 2000s.

[edit] Trivia

Steinweiss' 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, then a young, unknown illustrator from Cincinnati, to work for Columbia Records in the art department. That launched Flora's 40+ year career as a commercial artist.

[edit] 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.

Substantial material on Steinweiss.

Heller, Steven; Pomeroy, Karen, Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design (ISBN 1-880559-76-5) Watson-Guptill Pubns, NY, 1997. One chapter on Steinweiss.