Bman's Exclusive Interview with Howard Bernstein - Album Cover and Poster Designer
Bman: How did you get hooked up with ESP Disk? Howie: In 1966 I was living in a tenement building on Broome Street on the Lower East Side. Living in the apartment above me was Michael Solden, a friend of Jordan Matthews, who was the art director for ESP Disk. Jordan was looking for an artist to do the first album covers for ESP Disk. I worked at a drawing board in his apartment almost non-stop for two years. I had total freedom to create the artwork and was never given any input. The poster shown here was designed by Bernstein and is available through Wolfgang's Vault (Bill Graham) Bman: Looks like you did quite a few covers while you were there. How long was your affiliation with ESP Disk and who else were you working with? Howie: Approximately three years. During that time I built a portfolio. Bman: I have a number of the early ESP Disk covers that you designed available for viewing here. I understand that you actually did these by hand? Howie: Yes, the...