Alex Steinweiss - Creator of the LP

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.)

"The first illustrated album cover was designed in 1938 for a 78rpm record, by Alex Steinweiss, art director at Columbia Records, in 1938. And it was he, in the early 1950s, after designing hundreds of packages, posters and catalogues for Columbia, who created the paperboard LP cover to protect and market the latest revolution in music delivery, and in the process defined the visual identity of recorded music for decades to come."

from the eye feature article by Stephen Heller

Follow the development process here.

A Steinweiss record cover gallery @ Used Wigs.