New Blog

Involving the migration of some of the posts from Music Art in the Download Era, there is now my new blog that picks up on the themes here.

Plastic Circles continues that interest in music artwork/packaging and can be found at http://plasticcircles.blogspot.com/
You can also follow it at http://twitter.com/PlasticCircles

Alex Steinweiss: Creator of the Modern Album Cover book

Spotted this book a while ago although it was in deluxe packaging on the US version of Amazon with a price tag featuring hundreds of dollars. 477.75 of them, to be exact. (Although it was discounted from $700.)

Next month a new version arrives in the UK with an pre-order figure of £38.24 - which is far more viable were I to treat myself.

There's a link to that version here:
Alex Steinweiss, the Inventor of the Modern Album Cover


"This title presents music for the eyes. The man who launched the Golden Age of album cover design. Alex Steinweiss invented the album cover as we know it, and created a new graphic art form. In 1940, as Columbia Records' young new art director, he pitched an idea: Why not replace the standard plain brown wrapper with an eye-catching illustration? The company took a chance, and within months its record sales increased by over 800 per cent. His covers for Columbia - combining bold typography with modern, elegant illustrations - took the industry by storm and revolutionized the way records were sold.

Over three decades, Steinweiss made thousands of original artworks for classical, jazz, and popular record covers for Columbia, Decca, London, and Everest; as well as logos, labels, advertising material, even his own typeface, the Steinweiss Scrawl. He launched the golden age of album cover design and influenced generations of designers to follow. Less well known - but included here - are his posters for the U.S. Navy; packaging and label design for liquor companies; film title sequences; as well as his fine art.

This title includes essays by three-time Grammy Award-winning art director/designer Kevin Reagan and graphic design historian Steven Heller; Steinweiss' personal recollections from an epic career; and extensive ephemera from the Steinweiss archive. Record collectors and graphic designers rejoice! Previously available in a limited edition, the book is finally available in an affordable trade version."


Some more info from Burning Settlers Cabin:

There was a time in the 1970s and 80s when record album designers were gods. If you saw one on the street you bowed down immediately and kissed his or her hand. They had the power to decide what was cool, and what was not. They could ignore budgets and demand the sleeve be wrapped in rubber. I had one teacher who would come to class and start with, “Sorry I was late. I was having lunch with Mick.” He didn’t mean Mick Hodgson at Ph.D. It wasn’t that way from the beginning. It started with Alex Steinweiss. Steven Heller, Kevin Reagan, and Steinweiss have written a new book, Alex Steinweiss: Creator of the Modern Album Cover

Working at Columbia Records in the 1940s he changed the industry. He replaced the previously generic stamped covers with remarkable 12×12 posters. These album covers reference European modernism, A.M. Cassandre, and Salavdor Dali in form. They succeed in combining this high art aesthetic with wit and levity. Without knowing who made it, one of my biggest influences in high school was his cover for Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. I’m pretty sure I somehow transposed the Russian landscape here into a poster for the school musical, Oklahoma.

Records as YouTube visuals

While I've been thinking about design for record release info and the connection to audiences of the time, it's also worth bearing in mind how these have (what with often little in the way of other visual representations) become used for uploads on YouTube. Most usually being vinyl rips and therefore being a particularly relevant visual form.

There are loads of examples of this, but here are just a few:

Metroplex

I'm reading Dan Sicko's book on Detroit techno at the moment. It's making me consider the design used by the city's record labels. It's also making me listen to a lot of vintage Cybotron, Mayday, Model 500 and Reese.

The 2010 edition of Dan Sicko's excellent book can be purchased here:
Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk (Painted Turtle Book)


















































Meantime, anyone unfamiliar with Juan Atkins' Metroplex, might want to start with the following album: 20 Years of Metroplex

MA Thesis

Got it bound. Finally.

Massive Attack - 'Atlas Air EP'

From Vinyl Factory (a company that got a decent mention in my Masters thesis)

Limited Edition

Availability: In Stock

£25

Product Details:

• Limited to just 1,000 copies worldwide, this beautifully presented and individually numbered vinyl and art edition has been crafted by The Vinyl Factory, working in close collaboration with Massive's Robert del Naja and designer Tom Hingston.
• This is the only physical release of Massive's stunning new three-track EP, 'Atlas Air', in aid of War Child, featuring a remix of 'Red Light' by Warp artist Clark, and remixes of 'Atlas Air' by Jneio Jarel from Shape of Broad Minds and DFA and Heligoland producer Tim Goldsworthy.
• Each edition includes a 180-gram heavyweight vinyl record, pressed on the legendary EMI 1400, with laser-etched labels on either side.
• The vinyl is housed in a screen printed yellow fluoro and glitter covered sleeve, featuring the 'Minstrels' painting by Robert del Naja, produced on pristine Colourplan white board with solid black inner lining.
• Each copy is hand-stamped.
• All proceeds will be donated to War Child.

• Available to pre-order now; released 29 November

Product info:
• 180-gram heavyweight vinyl
• Screen printed yellow fluoro and glitter covered sleeve
• Hand stamped

Watch Edouard Salier's video for 'Atlas Air' here

Drexciya

Link: Drexciya - Harnessed the Storm

Burial

T++

Link: T++ - Wireless [12" VINYL]

More great work from Will Bankhead.

Basic Channel vinyl

Additional links to CD albums:
Basic Channel
Basic Channel [Import]
Arrange and Process Basic Channel Tracks