Alex Steinweiss // The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover

In 1940, Columbia Records’ new young art director, Alex Steinweiss pitched an idea: why not replace the standard plain brown wrapper with an eye-catching illustration? Combining bold typography with modern, elegant illustrations, his covers took the industry by storm and within months, Columbia Records saw its record sales increase by over 800 percent. With this simple idea, Steinweiss not only revolutionized the way records were sold, but established an entirely new art form that would evolve to be as intrinsic a part of pop culture as the music itself.

Over three decades, Steinweiss made thousands of original artworks for classical, jazz, and popular record covers for industry titans like Columbia, Decca, London, and Everest, as well as logos, labels, advertising material, and even his own typeface— the Steinweiss Scrawl. He launched the golden age of album cover design and influenced generations of designers to follow.

This special Collector’s Edition showcases iconic examples of his unique art style and illustration, as well as rare pieces like his posters for the U.S. Navy, packaging and label design for liquor companies, film title sequences, and more. Included alongside stunning images from the extensive Steinweiss archive— most of it never before published— are essays by three-time Grammy Award–winning art director/designer Kevin Reagan and graphic design historian Steven Heller, as well as Steinweiss’ personal recollections from his career.