Ernie Cefalu | |
|---|---|
 Ernie Cefalu, Creative Director | |
| Born | 15 April 1945 |
| Website | Original Album Cover Art |
Ernie Cefalu (born 1945) is a contemporary artist and Senior Creative Director, currently working out of Los Angeles, CA. He is known for designing art for music albums.[1]
Cefalu attended the California College of Arts and Crafts (nowCalifornia College of the Arts) and graduated in 1969 with honors. Soon after, Cefalu started his career on Madison Avenue at Carolini Advertising, where his first assignment was to create the campaign and graphics for theInternational Paper Company's 1970 national sales meeting. His solution took the form of an elaborate, award-winning off-Broadway musical production,Dolls Alive. In the early part of 1970 Cefalu became an Art Director at Norman Levit Advertising where he created theJesus Christ Superstar album and Angels[2] in an agency shootout with theDecca Records account as the prize.
At the end of 1970, Cefalu joined forces withCraig Braun, Inc. in New York, and worked onThe Rolling StonesSticky Fingers album as well asGrand Funk Railroad'sE Pluribus Funk. Eight months later, in mid-1971, he opened a satellite office in California for Braun, the head Creative Director. There, he was the creative force behind a string of famous album covers forAlice Cooper'sSchool's Out, andCheech & Chong'sBig Bambu. He is also credited with being one of the people to designThe Rolling Stones[3] "Lips and Tongue" logo.
Cefalu opened his own agency,Pacific Eye & Ear, in January 1972. Over the next 15 years, he created another 194 album covers for rock artists such asThe Doors, Alice Cooper,Aerosmith,The Bee Gees,The Guess Who,Black Sabbath,Jefferson Airplane, theModern Jazz Quartet,Burton Cummings, Grand Funk Railroad,Iron Butterfly, andBlack Oak Arkansas. Cefalu's collaborations with then emerging illustrators such asDrew Struzan, Bill Garland,Joe Petagno, Carl Ramsey, Ingrid Haenke and Joe Garnet led Pacific Eye & Ear's quest to become one of the top album design companies in the country.
In 1985, Cefalu formed David Hale Associates and broadened his client roster beyond the music industry to include the food companiesNestle andKraft. Over the next decade and a half, his work helped more than 20 brands in five divisions post double-digit sales growth. In 1990 he was retained byPanavision Motion Picture Cameras,NGK Spark Plugs andRockwell International. In 1996, Cefalu also added retail chainKmart, motion picture studiosParamount,Universal, andDisney,National Hot Rod Association andValvoline, andWolfgang Puck'sLa Brea Bakery. Before the end of 2010 Cefalu had expanded his client roster to welcomeFortune 100 companiesInBev,Honeywell/Novar andAvery Dennison.
Thus far in his career, Cefalu has received threeGrammy nominations and ten Music Hall of Fame Awards for his album cover work, as well as four Awards of Excellence from Art Directors Clubs. He has also been presented with 15 gold albums and a triple platinum album by the bands whose album covers he designed. With the 2008 release of Burton Cummings' latest album,Above the Ground, and the 2011 release for Alice Cooper'sOld School box set, Cefalu has 212 total album covers to his credit.
Today, as Owner/Creative Director of HornbookInc, the Internet's first virtual agency, Cefalu is retained by four Fortune 100 companies as their internal Creative Director. He continues to take on select, music-related projects.
Cefalu has assembled a large, privately owned collection of original album cover art and music-related illustration. This body of over 260 signed, original pieces of art, highlighted at www.originalalbumcoverart.com, features the previously unavailable work of illustrators Drew Struzan, Bill Garland, Joe Petagno, Carl Ramsey, Ingrid Haenke, Joe Garnet and many others.
