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Columbia's first LP logo
The
Steinweiss cover for the 10 inch Columbia release in 1950 of music by
Sibelius and Rachmaninoff performed by Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia
Orchestra
ML 2158.
In the beginning
for many LP records a basic design was used which only needed filling
in names of artist(s), composer(s), compositions and reference number
on the tombstone.
Remington's first
label in the style of the Continental label.
The second label
Remington's
catalog, published in the fall of 1952, showing the new design.
The
third label has Don Gabor's signature and the crown retained from the
early label. But the style bears Alex Steinweiss' signature.
The fourth label
designed for the MUSIRAMA recordings.
Alex
Steinweiss logo on the Columbia covers.
Alex
Steinweiss 'signature' written in the so called Steinweiss scrawl
as it appeared on Remington releases.
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In 1940 23 year
old Alexander Steinweiss proposed to Columbia to make a change in the
presentation and packaging of the 78 RPM record albums. His idea was
to use original artwork (drawings and paintings) on the front of
the abums. This new approach was quite a change if compared to the gold
or silver imprint of just the nomenclature in a serif or gothic font
on the black, brown or beige heavy books. The new look skyrocketed the
sales of an already very popular Rodgers & Hart album.
From that day on of every new release sales were boosted above average
and the artistic packaging became an important part of the record. Soon
this idea was adopted by every record company.
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The
design of the albums was derived from the photo album design with
a plain and simple layout and lettering as this European release of
HMV (Victor in the USA) shows.
Isolde Menges performs Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, accompanied by
pianist Arthur de Greef.
His Master's Voice D 1066/69 electrical recording, date November 10,
1925.
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This
album is testimony of the revolution in album design. It shows Alex
Steinweiss's style to the full.
Pianist Oscar Levant plays George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with
the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy on Columbia MX251
(on Lp ML4026).
NOTE: This is not the world's first album cover ever, because that
was for a 1939 collection of songs by Rodgers and Hart. It is also
not the factual best selling cover of the Rhapsody played by Alec
Templeton with André Kostelanetz which I only have in its plain
edition and was released only much later on Lp in January 1952, ML4455.
The Templeton album which was illustrated by Steinweiss shows a small,
white piano under a street lamp which is in fact a trumpet, the suggestion
of the New York skyline in black, plus the lettering which is as always
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Imagine, being 23 years
of age and your idea is accepted. It is provocative, it is revolutionary
and links a commercial concept to a high artistic quality. That is thrilling,
absolutely thrilling. At first sight there is a slight reminiscence
of cubism and art deco, but follows its own development. It breaks with
old fashioned thinking. Now the album has liner notes styled in a modern
way, as shows the later release of a box with two 12 inch shellac records
with the recording of Suite No. 1 from Peer Gynt (Grieg), Eugene Ormandy
conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra (Columbia Masterworks Set MX-291).
In 1948 Columbia presented
the LP format to the public. The advantage over the 78 rpm album was
first of all the increased capacity. A symphony on 4 x 78 rpm records
could now be engraved on a single long playing disc. The new medium
did not need the fat, heavy albums any longer but needed an appropriate
sleeve. The standard sleeves for 78 RPM records in albums were made
of relatively light Kraft paper, folded together and glued either at
the spine and top, or at the top or bottom, reportedly with a strip
folded inside the sleeve. If this method was applied to sleeves of the
new LP record, it could damage the vinylite. In my collection of 78s
all albums and sleeves, post- and prewar, have so called flip back seems,
this means that the seams or strips were glued on the outside instead
of the inside! A new sleeve had to be designed. Now Columbia asked Steinweiss
to design a cover specifically for a single Long Playing Record. That
is what he did. He also designed the box set, both for 33 rpm records
and for shellac as is shown in the picture of Set MX 291.
Alex
Steinweiss with some of his designs for Columbia records, photographed
by William P. Gottlieb in 1947.
Courtesy of William P. Gottlieb.
(Copyright W.P.Gottlieb.)
Steinweiss,
who was born on March 24, 1917, in Brooklyn, had studied at Parsons
School of Design (New York) and graduated in 1937, was for two years
assistant to Joseph Binder. In 1939 he was retained as Art Director
at Columbia Records, and was appointed Advertising Manager for Columbia
Records in 1943. From 1943 until the end of the war he was Exhibits
Engineer in the US Navy TADC (Tactical Air Direction Center). In 1945
he had settled as a free lance designer and consultant, painter and
ceramist, working for a variety of companies and industries, including
Columbia Records. Alexander
Steinweiss was now asked to design a standard record sleeve for the
new long playing record. His first design was a sleeve made of rather
thin Kraft paper with the opening at the top (1948).
Later Steinweiss's design
of the folded album cover (the fold at the spine) made of cardboard
became the standard of the industry in the USA. His basic design was
soon varied upon but is in essence the same, up to this day.
Generally
a larger sheet with the printed art was folded and glued over the edges.
The square sheet with the liner notes was glued on the back, as the
drawing shows. The reverse way was also done: the sheet with the liner
notes, larger than the actual cardboard, was folded over the edges and
the square sheet with the artwork was glued on the front. In some designs
the top and bottom seams were reinforced with a small strip of some
strong fabric which was glued into the seam.
In
Europe various solutions were devised. EMI, Decca and Philips in England
and early Dutch Philips were put in so called flipback covers. Deutsche
Grammophon had the gatefold with the stitched compartment, a design
with appeal but many times it was the cause of a damaged, scuffed or
scratched record as the Lp had to be grabbed at the periphery and pulled
out of the stiff compartment. The best way to go about is to place the
cover on a flat surface, open the gatefold, then separate the plastic
and gently take out the record. Form follows function. In hindsight
this adagio did not entirely apply to the Deutsche Grammophon covers.
The designers may have thought differently at the time, the same as
so many designs of today forget about the functionality. Go to the super
market and get irritated by products with a weird packaging, or browse
the world wide web and stumble upon several didactically ill designed
pages which take up too much time for the visitor to understand the
way of thought of the designer and make navigation more difficult than
necessary. Not with Alex Steinweiss. His design solutions are practical.
His artwork is communicative, almost interactive in the modern sense,
because of balanced composition and fine detail.
Electrola
had a gatefold similar to that of Deutsche Grammophon, also lined with
a plastic sheet (polyurethane), however not stitched but glued at the
edges and the seems glued with a light linen tape. The 7", 10"
and 12" of the popular Polydor records had simple covers, also
stitched at the sides, the opening at the top. This was in fact a follow
up of the heavy felt like covers of the 78 rpm quality labels from before
World War Two which were stiched also at the sides.
In Germany Telefunken and RCA had also a folded cover. The fold was
at the bottom and the sides were glued together. The opening was at
the top. As said, in the USA however many Columbia LP records (and in
the beginning those of most manufacturers) were put into flimsy, all
purpose sleeves with a basic graphic design. It sufficed to print the
names of the artists, the title and the reference number on the front
and some liner notes or a list of other available records on the back.
Many early Remington
releases in 1950 and 1951 were also slipped into thin, floppy all purpose
sleeves. Some of the early recordings had their own art created specifically
in relation to the music.
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The
earliest release of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 conducted by H.
Arthur Brown (RLP-199-13) in a paper sleeve, yet already with specific
artwork.
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The
pre-Steinweiss cover of the recording of Hans Wolf conducting Symphony
No. 2 of Johannes Brahms on RLP-199-19.Cover by Sherman Alpert.
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Another
pre-Steinweiss cover:
RLP-199-50 with Debussy played by
Edward
Kilenyi.
The initials of the designer
are EDL, the year is 1951.
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Many of the designs
for the early Remington red-label productions were made by a man named
Freeman. Other names that came up were of Sherman Alpert
and Raboni, and for Plymouth it was Roy E. La Gione. When
profits had been made, the product's appeal could be improved upon to
further boost the turnover. Now new sleeves were designed by someone
whose initials were E.D.L., by Einhorn and already by
Curt John Witt who also made many covers for the Plymouth releases
which often contained the recorded material originally issued on Remington.
Instead of pictures of the artists and listings of other recordings
available, now the covers had liner notes. As no initials or a name
of the author was mentioned, it is unclear who wrote the liner notes.
It is possible that also some were written by George Curtiss,
Don Gabor's cousin
and managing director of the Webster pressing plant in Massachusetts.
As the competition
was growing, producer Don Gabor was convinced that he needed the full
attention of the buyer and that he should have covers that
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The
first Remington label designed by Alex Steinweiss.
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were well designed
and that the style should have distinctive features in order to be recognized
so the discs would be able to compete with the products of the big companies.
So why not ask the man who designed the covers for Columbia Masterworks,
Alex Steinweiss, to develop a corporate image and a basic design for the
covers and the label of Remington records.
Alex Steinweiss
designed a new basic lay-out for the label, the covers of Remington
LPs, and for the company's businees presentation. In fact Steinweiss
designed a complete corporate image for Don Gabor's company. He designed
the third Remington label, the black-gold label with the letters REMINGTON
placed in boxes arranged in a circle at the periphery of the label,
including a box with a crown. Above the nomenclature (in the upper half
of the label) the text "A Don Gabor Production" was
placed in Steinweiss's hand-drawn lettering, later copyrighted as "Steinweiss
Scrawl".
The
same elements adorned the covers. On the left the letters REMINGTON
were placed in boxes in a vertical row, topped by a box with the same
"A Don Gabor Production" and at the bottom a box with the
crown. Furthermore the logo with laurels was replaced by a new oval
emblem with the text Complete Audible Range Reproduction, a logo
that was to suggest the same quality as Full Frequency Range Recording
(English Decca and London), New Orthophonic High Fidelity(RCA),
Living Presence(Mercury), Full Dimensional Sound (Capitol),
etc.
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Designed
by Alex Steinweiss: 'A Don Gabor Production', the crown, the vertical
row of boxes which spelled REMINGTON, plus the heading on the stationary
(and other documents) with the slogan 'music for millions', the
capital R on the catalog with the Remington logo, and the black/gold
sticker with the important text 'factory sealed', they were, from
July 1952 on, the elements defining the corporate image of Remington
Records Inc. The Musirama recordings were announced in the 1953
catalog and the new label was introduced in the following year.
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When better recordings
were made under the supervision of both Laszlo Halasz and Don
Gabor, and improved microphone placement was used by Gabor's technician
Robert Blake (Blake later recorded for the Everest label as a few covers
indicate) and this technique was named MUSIRAMA, a triangular logo was
put on the cover and MUSIRAMA was also added to the label. The "A
Don Gabor Production" logo with laurels was replaced by the atomic
symbol and the wording "3 dimensional sound".
The graphics of the labels are extremely beautiful because of the combination
of a serif typeface for the label name - REMINGTON - and a sans serif,
gothic type for reference numbers and the description of the contents
of the recording. Steinweiss designed also a basic layout for the back
of the cover to complement the new style of the MUSIRAMA editions: frames,
typefaces for titles, liner notes and reference numbers, positioning
of logo, etc.
Alex Steinweiss
is noted for his Columbia covers and one easily gets the impression
that this was the only label he worked for. But it is significant that
he designed the covers for other labels as well. And he worked with
other designers and artists like Curt John Witt (later covers
indicate "Curt John Witt Design House"; he also designed for
Allegro Royale and Opera Society), Albitz, Kaebitz, Leonard
Slonevski, Wattly and Otto Rado.
As far as I could find out Rudolph de Harak (1924–2002)
designed two covers for Don Gabor, one for a Remington release and another
for a Pontiac release, around 1952. He later became famous for designs
for the Metropolitan Museum, the United States Pavilion at the Osaka
World Fair, for Man Planet Space in Montreal 1967. He also designed
the 'Quadra' typeface and more than 400 book jackets for McGraw-Hill's
book division,
Also an artist named Riser provided jacket art.
Steinweiss
himself designed covers, and he coordinated the work of the other artists
as well. In the beginning existing covers were adapted to the new lay
out. But as soon as new recordings were to be released, new artwork
was made and even particular covers that were already restyled, were
replaced by covers with new art work. The most significant example is
Edward Kilenyi's recording of the Chopin Waltzes which could be obtained
in (at least) two different editions.
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Cover
by Alex Steinweiss for Remington R-199-126 with the Steinweiss Scrawl
in abundance: Violinist Michèle Auclair plays Kreisler Encores
accompanied by pianist Otto Schulhof.
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The designs made
by Steinweiss for Remington are not always as elaborate as most of the
covers he did for Columbia Records. But there are exceptions of course.
An example is the beautiful cover for R-199-128 with violinist
Michèle Auclair and cellist Gaspar Cassado playing gems.
However, the similarities in style are obvious. The Remington covers
have an originality of their own which is also brought about by the
vertical logo (designed by Steinweiss) on the left of the cover which
had to be "integrated" in the artwork. Integration also applied to the
triangle of with the MUSIRAMA logo which was added lateron.
The designs
of the Remington covers are at times a bit simple and reflect a somewhat
childish optimism, one could say. To a large extend this style was imposed
by the technique of plate production and the printing process available
in those days, a technique which had its restrictions. Yet the covers
witness the personalities of the various designing artists who (often
guided by Steinweiss), in many instances, achieved to reflect the nature
of the artists, the composers and the music.
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A
"golden" laminated cover by Steinweiss at the occasion
of the 5th Anniversary of Columbia's Long Playing record, September
1953, with popular music of Tchaikovsky conducted by Eugene Ormandy.
The style for the LPs of Columbia is often more sophisticated and
more serious by the use of darker tones. By exception this cover
has the designer's name written in his famous scrawl which is unusual
for Columbia covers.
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As art director of Columbia Alex Steinweiss also supervised the
work of other artists like he supervised many designer for the Remington
label. This cover of Gershwin's Concerto in F with pianist Oscar
Levant and Andre Kostelanetz conducting the Philharmonic Symphonty
Orchestra of New York on Columbia ML 4025 is by artist Velde and
created in 1950 more or less in the Steinweiss vein.
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Steinweiss's covers
distinguish themselves by the hand writing (the Steinweiss scrawl):
names of artists, location of recording, the works recorded. So even
if his name is not mentioned the original artist is generally recognized.
Steinweiss is the one who at times uses more pastel colors and fine
lines as for the covers of Scheherazade with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra
and the cover of Piano Encores (not displayed).
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Curt
John Witt's cover design for The Opera Society recording of Orpheus
and Eurydice (Gluck) - M142 OP25.
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Publisher Taschen from Los Angeles prepared a new publication
about Alex Steinweiss and his work: The Inventor of the Modern Album
Cover by Kevin Reagan, Steven Heller and Alex Steinweiss, published
October, 2009. It is a celebration of ninety year old Alexander Steinweiss
who personally signed every book (which has the shape of an old illustrated
78 rpm record album but is somewhat larger in size). The book itself
is extremely well designed and printed, and is overflowing with innumerable
reproductions of covers and other Steinweiss graphics.
Curt
John Witt who did many covers for Remington, has his own signature of
style. His designs initially have calmness and simplicity like the cover
for Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (displayed at the end of this page).
He also designed one of the covers of the Waltzes of Chopin on R-199-82
(not displayed). Lateron his designs have bright and intense colors
and straight lines: Chopin's 4 Scherzi played by Jorge Bolet and the
recording with music of American composers Ward and Stein (see at the
end of this page). And look how he just uses a few colors evoking the
modernism of Gershwin's Concerto in F. He could have been the artist
who designed the Prokofiev cover on which no name is mentioned. Some
covers just state Curt John Witt, while other covers mention: Design
House - Curt John Witt. See:
Curt
John Witt
Curt John Witt
worked for other labels as well. He designed the cover for The Opera
Society's edition of the 2 10" LP set in a gatefold of Gluck's "Orpheus
and Eurydice" performed by The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and
Chorus under Nicolas Goldschmidt and Dutch singers Léon Combé,
Corry Bijster and Anette de la Bije.(The Opera Society was a label of
the Concert Hall Society/Musical Masterpieces Society.) And he can be
found on many covers of Eli Oberstein's Allegro/Royale releases.
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The cover Otto Rado did for Westminster's release of Rimsky-Korsakov's
Scheherazade conducted by Argeo Quadri. And
the cover for Urania 7112 released in 1954: Violin Concertos by
Rakov and Malipiero.
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Another artist
was H. Kaebitz. From his hand is the cover of Symphony Fantastique.
It displays a sinister purple, and a cross adorned with faces.
Slonevski
and Wattly use styles which have a more common and plain quality
if compared to the other, brighter designs. And Rudolph de Harak
designed in a sober style.
Albitz is the artist of Kilenyi's Liszt album where on a purple
background the shapes of a grand piano and candles with flickering flames
indicate the romanticism which was seen a couple of years earlier in
the 1945 biopic of Liszt's contemporary Chopin, "A song to Remember",
where Merle Oberon (as George Sand) walked into the non-lit room and
places the candelabras on the grand piano, thus revealing that Frederick
Chopin (Cornel Wilde) was playing instead of Franz Liszt, what everybody
expected. (The piano part was played by José Irturbi).
On the cover of
the recording of Dvorak's 4th (8th) Symphony designer Otto Rado
beautifully expressed a pastoral mood. In that way he accentuates the
sense of beauty. His love for the use of gold can also be seen in the
cover for Westminster's 1953 Scheherazade release (WL 5234, Argeo Quadri
conducting). He also worked for the Urania label. Extraordinary is his
design for the 3 LP Remington box of
Verdi's
Aida. That is a collectible item for reasons of both performance
and cover art.
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Undeniably
Alex Steinweiss: The cover of the recording of Benjamin Britten's
Les Illuminations and Norman Dello Joio's Meditations Ecclesiastes.
Signed in the famous 'Steinweiss scrawl' as used for early Columbia
and Remington records.
Janice Harsenyi, Soprano, and
the Princeton Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Harsanyi -
Decca DL 710138.
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The arrangement of the label name and graphic motifs in a circle was more
or less initiated by Steinweiss in the style created for the Remington
labels. From then on this arrangement is a trait of Steinweiss's style.
He applied the same idea in the labels for American Decca. The inner sleeves
have a luxurious design explaining to the eye that it is about a recording
in Decca's Gold Label Series.
The very personal
style of Alex Steinweiss is also seen in the early album covers of Bob
Whyte's Everest records and the design of the early labels of the Everest
releases. Again he arranged the label's name in a circle and choose
specific colors. To add to the significance of the Everest releases
the label mentioned "A CERTIFIED STEREO-MASTER RECORDING"
(somewhat like the MUSIRAMA logo on the Remington labels). The early
Everest issues had this very distinctive basic design, the choice of
fonts included.
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The
silver/green/black label was the original label designed by Steinweiss
and matched the basic layout for the covers with two blue stripes.
The same typeface was used on label and cover. Both the box of Mahler's
5th with Rudolf Schwarz, and the cover of "Around the World
in 80 Days" state: Cover design by Alex Steinweiss. When only
stereo issues were released the dominant indication STEREO was omitted
as the the cover of the Petrouchka recording by Sir Eugene Goossens
shows.
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The application
of artwork and the use of very distinctive graphics for the Everest
covers is the more remarkable while by that time the trend was gradually
changing towards the use of photographs only.
In early years
of advertising, objects and people were depicted in drawings in black
and white and later in color.
When new, more cost effective printing techniques became available,
art directors and copywriters started to work together with photographers
who were commissioned to shoot photos along the lines of the art director's
concept. Gradually the graphic artist was replaced by the photographer
completely. The art director designed the basic lay-out and choose the
various typefaces.
In the beginning
of the application of photography the visualization was a combination
of graphics and photography. Finally the hybrid designs of the covers
were replaced by pure photography. This trend was followed by many a
record company.
Very early examples of the use of photographs exclusively can be found
on several RCA covers. From 1954 is the release of "With Love
From A Chorus" (LM-1815), sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale.
Also famous is the cover of Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloe" by
the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Robert Shaw Chorale under conductor
Charles Munch on LM-1893 from 1955. It has a distinct new style, as
has the RCA cover of the 1956 release of "My True Love Sings"
on LM-1998, again by the Robert Shaw Chorale.
These designs may
have inspired many a photographer and designer, like famous Dutch photographer
Paul Huf when he made the covers for the Philips S-L Series
with model Ann Pickford from England.
At right Huf's cover for the Piano Concertos of Franz Liszt performed
by pianist Cor de Groot and the Recidency Orchestra conducted by Willem
van Otterloo, and his cover for Ballet Music by Delibes and Gounod with
conductor Jean Fournet.
Columbia naturally had covers designed in the same trend as shows the
late release on Lp of Oscar Levant's Gershwin recordings made in the
78 rpm era. The photographer was Hal Reif.
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The
two different covers of Buck Clayton's most famous Jam Session on
Philips B 07022 L: Buck Clayton and Joe Newman (trumpets), Urbie
Green and Henderson Chambers (trombones), Lem Davis (alto sax),
Julian Dash (tenor sax), Charlie Fowlkes (barotone sax), Sir Charles
Thompson (piano), Freddie Green (piano), Walter Page (bass), and
Jo Jones (Drums). The titles: The Huckle-Buck, and Robin's Nest.
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An
example of the new trend to use photography in combination with graphics,
and the use of plain photography is the release by Philips of the Columbia
recording CL 548 which was first issued in the spring of 1954. The early
hybrid design (graphics and pictures) of Philips B 07022 L, was eventually
replaced by a powerful picture of Buck Clayton playing the trumpet.
The second edition was pressed from new plates and released around 1957.
Although Alex Steinweiss al;ready combined graphics and parts of photographic
images in the nineteen forties on the 78 rpm albums.
By
that time many an old Remington recording had a new disguise with a
photograph on the cover and were now available on one or several of
Gabor's other labels like Masterseal, Paris, Webster, and Palace. The
Remington label was gradually discontinued.
Below is the cover of Palace M-601 with Tchaikovsky (Romeo and Juliet
Overture) and Grieg (Peer Gynt Suite No. 1), played with the Viennese
Symphonic Orchestra under fake conductor Kurt Baumann, a substitute
for Kurt Wöss (Tchaikovsky) as well as H. Arthur Brown (Grieg).
When Don Gabor
had revived his Continental label in the nineteen sixties he once in
a while issued a beautiful gatefold edition like this disk with Gypsy
Music played by Markoff and his Romany Strings on CST-2005.
After the craze
of using photography had more or less passed, new generations of artists
were designing labels and covers and corporate house-styles Now al styles
and techniques were used side by side, many times inspired by the pioneers
of the early days.
Many record collectors and artists regret that the small size of the
jewel case of the CD gives less opportunity to make an artistic cover.
But within the restrictions there are quite a few remarkable CD covers
and booklets. Yet, the CD with art work and the small lettering is sometimes
qualified as neat or cute, while an LP cover can be utterly impressive.
Remarkable was
that the great Alex Steinweiss was the creator of the basic design for
a budget label like Don Gabor's Remington records. He did this from
1952 on till about 1958 when the Remington label ceased to exist. By
doing this he added to the importance of the label and made Remington
records easily recognizable. His basic concept had also to be filled
in by the other artists and designers. He gave them enough freedom to
express their own artistry.
Rudolf A. Bruil
- Page first published, September 2001 - and updated since.
Covers from my private record collection.
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