Flora came up with monthly masterpieces, including the album covers for Bix + Tram and Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band. His celebrated portrayals included Louis Armstrong and Shorty Rogers. Flora paid tribute to Steinweiss’ genius and his role as the man “who invented the record jacket… we called the old sleeves ‘the tombstone’ and we got rid of them as soon as possible.”įlora’s distinctive drawing style was a light-hearted blend of caricature and surrealism, with humorous juxtapositions of physically exaggerated characters, some with Picasso-skewed eyes. “I was hired because I was the jazzman,” he said.
Jim Flora, who had trained at the Chicago Art Academy, worked in advertising before transforming RCA Victor’s art department in the 50s. Many of the greatest covers of all time are associated with the post-war jazz and bebop era. Donfeld was the man behind the cover of Aaron Copland’s Billy The Kid album, and he went on to design the iconic Wonder Woman costume. A host of renowned artists, including Andy Warhol, Roger Dean and Burt Goldblatt, kick-started amazing careers by designing album covers.Ĭapitol Records have a proud history of album art, utilizing talented individuals such as painter Thomas B Allen and costume designer Donfeld (Donald Lee Feld), whose first job, after graduating from college, was as a designer and art director at the company. Moreover, the music sales industry had a global impact, because it provided designers with a way to express their creativity and originality to the whole world. Nat King Cole showed that cover design was going to be a massive cultural influence it was one of the few mediums which reached millions of people in the golden age of radio and before television had become king. The King Cole Trio spent most of the rest of the year on the bestseller list, with many of its singles reaching No.1. The four 78rpm records housed inside made history, topping the first Billboard Best Selling Popular Record Albums chart, on 24 March 1945. The format was ripe for artistic experimentation and ultimately led to covers such as The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers – something unimaginable in more conservative times.Ī landmark artwork that first attracted mass attention in America was the Capitol Records design for Nat King Cole’s The King Cole Trio album – a lively abstract image featuring a double bass, a guitar, and a piano keyboard under a gold crown. The heavy paper used for 78s damaged the delicate grooves on LPs, and record companies started using a folded-over board format sleeve. However, it was the advent of the long-playing 33⅓rpm record that changed everything. The first signs of change came in the 30s, from pioneering designers such as Alex Steinweiss, whose illustrated covers – for singers such as Paul Robeson, or the classical records of Beethoven – led to huge increases in sales.
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