For the Record: The Life and Work of Alex Steinweiss

by Alex Steinweiss, Jennifer McKnight-Trontz, A Steinweiss

Record albums came in plain brown wrappers until 1938, when 23-year-old Alex Steinweiss conceived of luring the record-buying public with a visually appealing cover. His idea revolutionized the record... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568982240
• ISBN13: 9781568982243
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.1" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

What a Wonderful and Fun Art Book !!

This is an unbelievably interesting art book -- record album cover art by the man who (it turns out) created the first record album covers. He is obviously an incredibly imaginative and talented artist and designer and the book is not only a tribute to his creativity, but also very evocative of a time that is precious to those of us who remember records!

Excelent to Art Directors

This book is very good for people who want to know more about cover albuns design. Alex Steinweiss are genious! =)

graphic designer and accomplished painter

alex steinweiss is a fantastic human being. generous, funny and full of great stories from his time at columbia records in the early 40's. He is tremendously talented and not just created the concept of album covers, designing more than 800 of them (start looking at your old collection in the attic :-)) but has been for the last 20 years a major accomplished painter. He has gotten awards after awards and stays humble and wise. He lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Documents the life and work of Alex Steinweiss

It was a 23-year-old graphic designer who invented the illustrated album cover for phonograph records in 1939: before that they came in plain wrappers. For The Record documents the life and work of Alex Steinweiss, gathering over a hundred of his original graphics and providing a lavish color display of his works along with a history of his involvements in the music industry.

Great man, great book.

This book does credit to a great man. Steinweiss was a true artist and a pioneer. The man created the concept of album cover as art. McKnight-Trontz does a masterful job of celebrating the artist through dazzling illustrations and informative, entertaining narrative. The casual reader will enjoy this book, as will the academic: it's all there between the brilliant covers (Steinweiss design - of course); it is the individual reader's choice as to how deep he or she wants to delve into this fascinating subject of a true twentieth-century art form.