Alex Steinweiss

from The Record Cover: Shaping Emotional Response

Contemporary Design: The Experiential Cue

“...I wanted people to look at the artwork and hear the music.”

In 1939 a 23-year-old Alex Steinweiss (1917–2011) was working at Columbia Records when inspiration stuck. He quickly grabbed a photographer and the pair headed down to New York’s West 45th Street and stood outside the city’s famous Imperial Theatre. Looking up at the building’s distinctive marquee they both agreed – it was perfect. The young Steinweiss had only just landed a job at Columbia Records where he worked as the label’s first art director. CBS had recently opened a new headquarters in Bridgeport, Connecticut and their advertising manager was eager to hire someone to design promotional displays and advertisements for the label. It was a dream job but Steinweiss already had greater things in mind.

At the Imperial Theatre Steinweiss convinced the owner to briefly change the signage of the marquee. As evening arrived they swapped out the letters and then lit them up: ‘Smash Song Hits by Rodgers & Hart’ it proudly announced. The photographer snapped a picture and in doing so he captured a little bit of history. This image would go on to become the very first album cover.

These days we tend to take album artwork for granted yet prior to Steinweiss the record industry really didn’t have much of a graphic tradition.

The idea of adding visual art to an album cover was at first received reluctantly but ultimately was an indisputable success for the sales of albums thereafter. Album art, the brain child of renowned designer and illustrator Alex Steinweiss (see fig.1), developed into a crucial element in the production and sales of music. The cover is at the forefront, it is a visual cue for the consumer as to what sound is waiting for them on the record inside. Steinweiss was a pioneer in the art of cover making, his designs were “information rich but visually uncomplicated”, Steinweiss streamlined the essential imagery needed to sell the music it accompanied in visually aesthetic manner.

‘Crosby Classics Vol.2’ - Alex Steinweiss (1944)

The cover is at the forefront, it is a visual cue for the consumer as to what sound is waiting for them on the record inside. Steinweiss was a pioneer in the art of cover making, his designs were “information rich but visually uncomplicated”, Steinweiss streamlined the essential imagery needed to sell the music it accompanied in visually aesthetic manner. The idea of adding visual art to an album cover was at first received reluctantly but ultimately was an indisputable success for the sales of albums thereafter. Album art, the brain child of renowned designer and illustrator Alex Steinweiss (see fig.1), developed into a crucial element in the production and sales of music.