American Jazz Album Covers in the 1950s and 1960s

American Jazz Album Covers in the 1950s and 1960s

Margolin, Victor

Article:

During the 1950s and 1960s modern jazz became a widely recognized part of American culture. Its influence spread through recordings, which were promoted with record album covers. Columbia Records was the first label to introduce such covers, which were invented by Alex Steinweiss who joined the label in 1939. In 1954, the company hired S. Neil Fujita, who introduced a new graphic design approach to the covers. By the mid-1950s, a number of labels formed around New York to record jazz artists and they hired their own cover designers. The designers introduced varied visual techniques such as line drawing, photography, and typography. In the 1950s, photography was used as an expressive medium and in the 1960s Reid Miles created strong typography for Blue Note’s covers. On the West Coast William Claxton designed covers for several labels that promoted a West Coast sound called “cool jazz.” By the late 1960s rock was competing with jazz as a music style and rock album cover art eclipsed the jazz album covers due to bigger art budgets and larger album sales.

During the 1950s and 1960s modern jazz became a widely recognized part of American culture. Its influence spread through recordings, which were promoted with record album covers. Columbia Records was the first label to introduce such covers, which were invented by Alex Steinweiss who joined the label in 1939. In 1954, the company hired S. Neil Fujita, who introduced a new graphic design approach to the covers. By the mid-1950s, a number of labels formed around New York to record jazz artists and they hired their own cover designers. The designers introduced varied visual techniques such as line drawing, photography, and typography. In the 1950s, photography was used as an expressive medium and in the 1960s Reid Miles created strong typography for Blue Note’s covers. On the West Coast William Claxton designed covers for several labels that promoted a West Coast sound called “cool jazz.” By the late 1960s rock was competing with jazz as a music style and rock album cover art eclipsed the jazz album covers due to bigger art budgets and larger album sales.

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DOI: 10.5151/despro-icdhs2014-0024

Como citar:

Margolin, Victor; "American Jazz Album Covers in the 1950s and 1960s", p-207-212. In: Tradition, Transition, Tragectories: major or minor influences? [=ICDHS 2014 - 9th Conference of the International Committee for Design History and Design Studies]. São Paulo: Blucher, 2014.
ISSN 23186968, DOI 10.5151/despro-icdhs2014-0024