"I rarely heard the music in advance as I was trying to find images that were eye-catching."
Jazz Covers. Interview with Bob Ciano
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As art director during the busiest years of Creed Taylor's CTI, Kudu and Salvation labels, Bob Ciano helped to construct CTI's signature style, designing covers for an incredible roster of jazz legends. The label's lush and intricate recordings called for covers that could visually match the perfected sounds pressed on the vinyl. Today you can still recognise a CTI record cover from twenty yards away. From the simple, clean layouts and wonderful Pete Turner photos, to the high-gloss laminated finish, CTI's packaging looked more like a luxury gift presentation than a record jacket. The cover designs do as much to capture CTI's time and place as do the recordings themselves. Bob Ciano's illustrious career as an art director has seen him shape the design and layout of many renowned publications such as Life, The New York Times, Esquire, Travel + Leisure, Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Industry Standard, Forbes ASAP, and Opera News. Bob is also Adjunct Professor of Graphic Design and Illustration at California College of the Arts (CCA).
Can we talk a little about how you started working for CTI?
I officially became the art director in the early 70's. Before that I'd already done some covers for Columbia. I then did some freelance work for Creed [Taylor], and then he hired me. I stayed there for three years. It was a terrific job.
Are there any particularities to being a designer in the record business? Is it difficult?
It was difficult at Columbia because the artists had a lot of say on the covers. But with Creed they couldn't get involved at all. They were happy just to have covers at all. I could pretty much do what I wanted.
This is a dream for any designer... to have total independence.
I used to show them what I was doing, but they were all so polite that they just said it was terrific. I wasn't used to that.
Were the musicians involved in the design process? Did they ever make any suggestions to you?
Hardly ever. I would show them things for them to react to, but very rarely did they come up with any visual suggestions.
When did you meet Creed Taylor?
He called me because I had been working with Pete Turner, the photographer. I was on a ladies' magazine called The Red Book. They were looking for someone else to do the covers, and I had already done a few. Creed was expanding the office and needed a full-time art director. So he offered me the job.
Was he easy to work with?
He was soft spoken and very easy to work with.
Creed also had a reputation for not worrying too much about costs. Is this true?
He had very expensive tastes. You spent what you needed to spend to get the job done right. That's why the album covers were all fold out - and very well printed, much better printed than in most companies.
Did CTI have a marketing budget?
If they had a budget nobody knew what it was. I would tell him if something would be very expensive and I don't think he ever said no. The whole office was like that. The physical set up in the Rockefeller Center was beautifully designed offices with beautiful furniture. Everything had to be the best.
Page [1] [2] [3]
Page [1] [2] [3]
As art director during the busiest years of Creed Taylor's CTI, Kudu and Salvation labels, Bob Ciano helped to construct CTI's signature style, designing covers for an incredible roster of jazz legends. The label's lush and intricate recordings called for covers that could visually match the perfected sounds pressed on the vinyl. Today you can still recognise a CTI record cover from twenty yards away. From the simple, clean layouts and wonderful Pete Turner photos, to the high-gloss laminated finish, CTI's packaging looked more like a luxury gift presentation than a record jacket. The cover designs do as much to capture CTI's time and place as do the recordings themselves. Bob Ciano's illustrious career as an art director has seen him shape the design and layout of many renowned publications such as Life, The New York Times, Esquire, Travel + Leisure, Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Industry Standard, Forbes ASAP, and Opera News. Bob is also Adjunct Professor of Graphic Design and Illustration at California College of the Arts (CCA).
Can we talk a little about how you started working for CTI?
I officially became the art director in the early 70's. Before that I'd already done some covers for Columbia. I then did some freelance work for Creed [Taylor], and then he hired me. I stayed there for three years. It was a terrific job.
Are there any particularities to being a designer in the record business? Is it difficult?
It was difficult at Columbia because the artists had a lot of say on the covers. But with Creed they couldn't get involved at all. They were happy just to have covers at all. I could pretty much do what I wanted.
This is a dream for any designer... to have total independence.
I used to show them what I was doing, but they were all so polite that they just said it was terrific. I wasn't used to that.
Were the musicians involved in the design process? Did they ever make any suggestions to you?
Hardly ever. I would show them things for them to react to, but very rarely did they come up with any visual suggestions.
When did you meet Creed Taylor?
He called me because I had been working with Pete Turner, the photographer. I was on a ladies' magazine called The Red Book. They were looking for someone else to do the covers, and I had already done a few. Creed was expanding the office and needed a full-time art director. So he offered me the job.
Was he easy to work with?
He was soft spoken and very easy to work with.
Creed also had a reputation for not worrying too much about costs. Is this true?
He had very expensive tastes. You spent what you needed to spend to get the job done right. That's why the album covers were all fold out - and very well printed, much better printed than in most companies.
Did CTI have a marketing budget?
If they had a budget nobody knew what it was. I would tell him if something would be very expensive and I don't think he ever said no. The whole office was like that. The physical set up in the Rockefeller Center was beautifully designed offices with beautiful furniture. Everything had to be the best.
Page [1] [2] [3]
Jazz Covers
Softcover with flaps, 24 x 24 cm (9.4 x 9.4 in.), 496 pages
$ 39.99
$ 39.99
Vinyl mania: Jazz LP covers from the 1940s to 1990s
Sarah Vaughan, The Explosive Side Of Sarah Vaughan. Columbia, 1963
Clifford Brown, Warm! Fontana. Design: Studio Jan Van Hengel