All About Albums

Columbia Phonograph Company Founded 1889 Graphophones used prior Had 1 st jukeboxes

Covers Album Cover Front of the packaging of a commercially-released audio recording product or album.

Covers Protective cardboard sleeve for the 12” LP records. “LP” stands for LONG PLAY

Covers Used to only display the title of the album and artist’s name. Reflect artists music and performance. Reflected social climate of the era

Ca. 1950

Covers Think of the album cover as a ‘mini-canvas’.

Covers Marketing tool Part of culture and music Artists gained fame for their designs

TOOLS for Design Albums advertise through; Graphic Design Photography Illustration

Alfred Steinweiss Came up with idea for designing on covers of albums Original covers limited to 5 color lithographic printing

Alfred Steinweiss Art director at Columbia Records 1939, he was 23 years old. Designed from , roughly 2500

Album Cover Design The 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s

1956

1958

March 19, 1962

1964

February 10, 1964

1965

1967

1968

Behind the Magnolia Curtain- 1981

ALBUM LABELS

THE BEATLES Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 8 th album by the Beatles Collage of life-sized cardboard cutouts of famous people Titled “People We Like”

THE BEATLES Lyrics printed on the back cover. Original cover design was a psychedelic painting Collage included 70 famous people- writers, musicians, film stars, Indian gurus.

THE BEATLES Album released in 1967 Listed as one of top 500 albums of all time.