According to the manifesto on jl.incrowd’s Flickr set Vintage classical album cover graphics, “It was the pioneering graphic designer Alex Steinweiss, who first had the idea of ‘album cover art’. Prior to his efforts for Columbia Records beginning in 1939, the covers to multi-disc 78-rpm ‘album’ sets of records were fairly generic - often referred to as ‘tombstone’ covers, with just a plain square label with text. Steinweiss’ ideas and the bold visual language he created soon caught on, the idea became the norm, and eventually the sky was the limit for the manner in which the cover image on a record could be used to represent the music within.” The majority of the images contained within the set are from the ’40s and ’50s. In my opinion the colors, layouts and textures used are as inspiring today as they were innovative in the past. Some of my favorites after the jump.