Alex Steinweiss

Alex Steinweiss, the originator of record cover art, has died at 94 years old. (New York Times Obituary) In addition to having created the first art work done for a record cover, he also designed, and held the patent on, the standard record cover used for LPs, as the covers used for 78 r.p.m. records did not work for newfangled 33 1/3 r.p.m. LPs when they came along.

You can see a selection of his cover art on his website, linked to below.

Alex Steinweiss: Covers

Pre-Digital Technology

This is a campanion post to go with my Just Music post of songs off Gillian Welch's new album, The Harrow & The Harvest. It is nice to see that pre-digital technology still gets used once in a while. This video is about the printing of the jacket for the new CD. I normally buy all my music on line these days, but I may have to go out and buy this one just so I have the jacket.



How to coffee stain your CD cover.

NYC Subway as Stringed Instrument

Artist Alexander Chen has turned New York City's subway map into a digital work of musical art. As trains cross paths on Massimo Vignelli's 1972 subway map they strum the lines. Go to Chen's interactive site, and you can also play the lines, or just watch the video below. An article, including an interview with Chen, is available here.

Conductor: www.mta.me from Alexander Chen on Vimeo.

Neo Aztec Calendar

From The Architects Newspaper, an article about a calendar designed by Mexican artist Ricardo Cid. Image of the full calendar here.

Graphic> Neo Aztec Calendar

I Am a Poor Wayfinding Stranger

Slate has a series of articles on Environmental Graphic Design. i.e. Signs. It is very interesting to see the similarities between guiding people through 3-dimensional space, and guiding them through web space.

The Secret Language of Signs