Alex Steinweiss 1917-2011 (Creator of the Album Cover) - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Zoneboy · 07-20-2011, 07:54 PM

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Alex Steinweiss, an art director and graphic designer who brought custom artwork to record album covers and invented the first packaging for long-playing records, died on Sunday in Sarasota, Fla. He was 94.

His death was confirmed by his son, Leslie.

The record cover was a blank slate in 1939, when Mr. Steinweiss was hired to design advertisements for Columbia Records. Most albums were unadorned, and on those occasions when art was used, it was not original. (Albums then were booklike packages containing multiple 78 r.p.m. discs.)

“The way records were sold was ridiculous,” Mr. Steinweiss said in a 1990 interview. “The covers were brown, tan or green paper. They were not attractive, and lacked sales appeal.” Despite concern about the added costs, he was given the approval to come up with original cover designs.

His first cover, for a collection of Rodgers and Hart songs performed by an orchestra, showed a high-contrast photo of a theater marquee with the title in lights. The new packaging concept was a success: Newsweek reported that sales of Bruno Walter’s recording of Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony increased ninefold when the album cover was illustrated.

“It was such a simple idea, really, that an image would become attached to a piece of music,” said Paula Scher, who designed record covers for Columbia in the 1970s and is now a partner in the design company Pentagram. “When you look at your music collection today on your iPod, you are looking at Alex Steinweiss’s big idea.”

Mr. Steinweiss preferred metaphor to literalism, and his covers often used collages of musical and cultural symbols. For a Bartok piano concerto, he rejected a portrait of Bartok, using instead the hammers, keys and strings of a piano placed against a stylized backdrop. For a recording of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” he used an illustration of a piano on a dark blue field illuminated only by an abstract street lamp, with a stylized silhouetted skyline in the background.

Alex Steinweiss was born March 24, 1917, in Brooklyn. His father, a women’s shoe designer from Warsaw, and his mother, a seamstress from Riga, Latvia, emigrated to the Lower East Side of Manhattan and eventually settled in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn.

On the strength of his high school portfolio, Mr. Steinweiss earned a scholarship to the Parsons School of Design. After graduation he 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 II Mr. Steinweiss became Columbia’s 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, Mr. 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 r.p.m. records left marks on the vinyl microgroove when 33 1/3 r.p.m. LPs were stacked.

Mr. 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. Mr. 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.

Mr. Steinweiss left the music business at 55, when he realized his design ideas were out of step with the rock era. He turned to his own art, making ceramic bowls and pots and later paintings, often with a musical theme. In 1974 he and his wife moved to Sarasota.

Mr. Steinweiss’s wife of 71 years, Blanche, died in 2010. In addition to his son, of Brooklyn, he is survived by a daughter, Hazel Steinweiss of Sarasota; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Mr. 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!”

Reverend Jim · 07-20-2011, 08:52 PM

MrCleveland · 07-20-2011, 09:23 PM

Steinweiss basically paved the way for many album cover makers.

Without him...there'd be no "Sgt. Pepper" or "Dark Side of the Moon".

catlover79 · 07-21-2011, 01:00 PM

MickeyMac · 07-21-2011, 02:57 PM

Nothing like the album cover. Something you cant get on a IPod.

Reverend Jim · 07-21-2011, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickeyMac

Nothing like the album cover. Something you cant get on a IPod.

TV_on_the_Porch · 07-21-2011, 05:13 PM

It wouldn't be the first time: the first generation of long-playing records issued by Columbia mostly used the same very generic stock cover known as "the tombstone":

Only the typesetting changed from one album to another.

MickeyMac · 07-22-2011, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reverend Jim

Whatever that means.

Reverend Jim · 07-22-2011, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickeyMac

Whatever that means.

07-20-2011, 07:54 PM	#1
Zoneboy RIP, I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU :( Moderator Forum Superstar Join Date: Jul 13, 2003 Location: AT HOME WISHING ALL THIS WAS JUST A DREAM AND THAT I'LL WAKE UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE. Posts: 34,349	Alex Steinweiss 1917-2011 (Creator of the Album Cover) Link Alex Steinweiss, an art director and graphic designer who brought custom artwork to record album covers and invented the first packaging for long-playing records, died on Sunday in Sarasota, Fla. He was 94. His death was confirmed by his son, Leslie. The record cover was a blank slate in 1939, when Mr. Steinweiss was hired to design advertisements for Columbia Records. Most albums were unadorned, and on those occasions when art was used, it was not original. (Albums then were booklike packages containing multiple 78 r.p.m. discs.) “The way records were sold was ridiculous,” Mr. Steinweiss said in a 1990 interview. “The covers were brown, tan or green paper. They were not attractive, and lacked sales appeal.” Despite concern about the added costs, he was given the approval to come up with original cover designs. His first cover, for a collection of Rodgers and Hart songs performed by an orchestra, showed a high-contrast photo of a theater marquee with the title in lights. The new packaging concept was a success: Newsweek reported that sales of Bruno Walter’s recording of Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony increased ninefold when the album cover was illustrated. “It was such a simple idea, really, that an image would become attached to a piece of music,” said Paula Scher, who designed record covers for Columbia in the 1970s and is now a partner in the design company Pentagram. “When you look at your music collection today on your iPod, you are looking at Alex Steinweiss’s big idea.” Mr. Steinweiss preferred metaphor to literalism, and his covers often used collages of musical and cultural symbols. For a Bartok piano concerto, he rejected a portrait of Bartok, using instead the hammers, keys and strings of a piano placed against a stylized backdrop. For a recording of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” he used an illustration of a piano on a dark blue field illuminated only by an abstract street lamp, with a stylized silhouetted skyline in the background. Alex Steinweiss was born March 24, 1917, in Brooklyn. His father, a women’s shoe designer from Warsaw, and his mother, a seamstress from Riga, Latvia, emigrated to the Lower East Side of Manhattan and eventually settled in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn. On the strength of his high school portfolio, Mr. Steinweiss earned a scholarship to the Parsons School of Design. After graduation he 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 II Mr. Steinweiss became Columbia’s 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, Mr. 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 r.p.m. records left marks on the vinyl microgroove when 33 1/3 r.p.m. LPs were stacked. Mr. 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. Mr. 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. Mr. Steinweiss left the music business at 55, when he realized his design ideas were out of step with the rock era. He turned to his own art, making ceramic bowls and pots and later paintings, often with a musical theme. In 1974 he and his wife moved to Sarasota. Mr. Steinweiss’s wife of 71 years, Blanche, died in 2010. In addition to his son, of Brooklyn, he is survived by a daughter, Hazel Steinweiss of Sarasota; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Mr. 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!”
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07-20-2011, 09:23 PM	#3
MrCleveland Drew Carey from Hell Forum Star Join Date: Nov 10, 2007 Location: The City of Cleveland, in The State of Cleveland, in The United States of Cleveland Posts: 14,222	Steinweiss basically paved the way for many album cover makers. Without him...there'd be no "Sgt. Pepper" or "Dark Side of the Moon".
	__________________ Thank God for kids that love Obscure Things. Lee Hazlewood (1929-2007) You ARE Special to God! Rev. Ernest Angely (August 1921-May 2021)

07-21-2011, 01:00 PM	#4
catlover79 God Bless Val Forum Addict Join Date: May 29, 2006 Location: Bewitched in Ohio Posts: 70,376
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07-20-2011, 08:52 PM	#2
Reverend Jim Member Forum Regular Join Date: Feb 08, 2009 Location: New York City Posts: 783

07-21-2011, 02:57 PM	#5
MickeyMac Member Forum Star Join Date: Jun 18, 2008 Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan Posts: 19,004	Nothing like the album cover. Something you cant get on a IPod.

07-21-2011, 05:13 PM	#7
TV_on_the_Porch anything good on? Forum Regular Join Date: Oct 18, 2005 Posts: 879	It wouldn't be the first time: the first generation of long-playing records issued by Columbia mostly used the same very generic stock cover known as "the tombstone": Only the typesetting changed from one album to another.