Week 4 Research

 This week I did more research on Alex Steinweiss.  I was able to find out more about his style in this web page compared to others with a brief biography of him.  One way his works are easily recognized is by his "Steinweiss Scrawl", as seen on the pegs of the violin in the picture below.

Source for image: http://paulshawletterdesign.blogspot.com/2010/04/addendum-to-tutorial-no-1steinberg-and.html

His works also are known to range from elaborate designs with many visual elements to ones that are "simple and reflect a somewhat childish optimism."  He also used different typefaces for different elements of the album.

Article Source: http://www.soundfountain.org/rem/remcovart.html#TOP

Source: http://soundfountain.org/rem/remcovart.html

Week 3 Research

This week I looked at an article by Carissa Dougherty called “The Coloring of Jazz: Race and Record Cover Design in American Jazz, 1950 to 1970.”  This article analyzes the trends of using African American elements such as hairstyle and motifs in relation to album artwork, specifically jazz.  She picked this because during this time period, the black movement was going on.  She also talks about commercial elements of the album saying that the cover needs to tell the author what they should expect from the music since jazz generally doesn't have lyrics. 

Week 2 Research

This week I did research on Reid Miles, who is best known for his work with Blue Note Records.  His works were able to "visually represent jazz".  Interestingly enough, Miles often created the artwork without even listening to the album.
Source:

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/design_icon_blue_note

Source: http://www.hardformat.org/designers/reid-miles2/

Check out the hardformat.org website to see more album covers by Reid Miles.

Week 1 Research

This week I started my preliminary research on an album cover artist named Alex Steinweiss.  Steinweiss is best known for the creation of the modern album artwork.  Before Steinweiss, album covers were generally plain with nothing more than the name of the album and the artist.  Steinweiss believed he could make album covers more creative and have greater commercial appeal by adding color and images to the cover.  His works became very successful and forever changed the album cover.

http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/1998/?id=318

Source: http://www.dezeen.com/2009/02/22/revolutions-from-gatefold-to-download-the-art-of-the-album-cover-at-the-gallery/

 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crackdog/5350892057/

February 3, 2011

This is my first blog post.