Firebird: Alex Steinweiss’ 78rpm album covers and the letterpress printing process

Firebird: Alex Steinweiss’ 78rpm album covers and the letterpress printing process

NOVAES DE REZENDE, Andre

Full Article:

In 1940, American graphic designer Alex Steinweiss (1917-2011) began to design album covers for 78rpm records. This paper argues that the letterpress printing process available to Steinweiss directly influenced his work. To this end, we conducted an exercise to reproduce virtually the same process to reprint Steinweiss’ album cover for the Firebird Suite (1947). This experiment allowed us to understand a number of technical issues that characterized Steinweiss’ work on his early album covers.

In 1940, American graphic designer Alex Steinweiss (1917-2011) began to design album covers for 78rpm records. This paper argues that the letterpress printing process available to Steinweiss directly influenced his work. To this end, we conducted an exercise to reproduce virtually the same process to reprint Steinweiss’ album cover for the Firebird Suite (1947). This experiment allowed us to understand a number of technical issues that characterized Steinweiss’ work on his early album covers.

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DOI: 10.5151/design-icdhs-076

Referências bibliográficas

• [1] Binder, J. 1976. Joseph Binder. Vienna: Anton Schroll And Co
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• [4] Heller, S. 2007. Leon Friend: One Teacher, Many Apostles. http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/leon-friend-one- teacher-manyapostles/5717/ (last accessed 04/21/12)
• [5] Kohler, E. 1999. In the groove: vintage record graphics 1940-1960. San Francisco: Chonicle Books.
• [6] Marmorstein, G. 2007. The label: the story of Columbia Records. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.
• [7] Mcknight-Trontz, J.; Steinweiss, A. 2000. For the record: the life and work of Alex Steinweiss. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
• [8] Meggs, P. B.; Purvis, A. W. 2009. História do design gráfico. São Paulo: Cosac Naify.
• [9] Reagan, K. 2009. Alex Steinweiss: The inventor of the modern album cover. Los Angeles: Taschen.

Como citar:

NOVAES DE REZENDE, Andre; "Firebird: Alex Steinweiss’ 78rpm album covers and the letterpress printing process", p-345-348. In: Farias, Priscila Lena; Calvera, Anna; Braga, Marcos da Costa & Schincariol, Zuleica (Eds.). Design frontiers: territories, concepts, technologies [=ICDHS 2012 - 8th Conference of the International Committee for Design History & Design Studies]. São Paulo: Blucher, 2012. São Paulo: Blucher, 2014.
ISSN 23186968, DOI 10.5151/design-icdhs-076