Originator of designs for album cover dies, age 94

Like many designers of a certain vintage, I ended up in this profession because of long hours studying album cover designs in my youth. This exposure to the graphic arts was a key part of the vinyl experience - I remember well many awful albums that were purchased solely for their cover art.

This NYT obituary highlights the career of Alex Steinweiss, the art director and graphic designer who is credited with the idea of adding custom artwork to album covers in 1939.

Before that point, vinyl albums were sold in blank sleeves, or with a graphic identifying the record company. In 1939, Steinweiss persuaded Columbia Records to let him create an “ad” for a collection of Rogers and Hart songs on the cover of the record sleeve - and the album cover design was born. Sales of albums with cover designs were soon outpacing their generic equivalents by up to 900%.

In the current times, when absolutely everything seems to comes with a visual message, it’s intriguing to imagine a time when this didn’t happen. It’s also worth asking: Is there any experience, service or product that could still be revolutionized in this way using design?