Steppenwolf album art (1968–1969)
Steppenwolf (Dunhill/ABC, USA, 1968). Cover design by Gary Burden, with photography by Tom Gundelfinger, printed on silver foil. Profil’s letterforms are condensed. The box that names the hit song “Born to Be Wild” shows the typeface’s true proportions. It was added in later printings after the song hit the charts and was prominently featured in the movie Easy Rider (July 1969).
The first three studio albums by Canadian rock band Steppenwolf were released within 15 months: Steppenwolf (January 1968), The Second (November 1968), At Your Birthday Party (March 1969). In this early phase of their career, art director Gary Burden made consistent use of Profil for their album art.
First German release of Steppenwolf. In early 1968 Dunhill was distributed in Germany through Telefunken Decca – RCA. Later that year Dunhill switched to EMI Electrola.
This is the second German issue, now by EMI Electrola.
“Born To Be Wild” single (RCA, Germany, 1968), with a yet unidentified compressed Grotesque.
The second studio album is aptly named The Second (Dunhill/ABC, USA, 1968). Art direction and cover design by Gary Burden, with photography by Henry Diltz. Now Profil is stretched horizontally — maybe to make good for the squeezing on the first album cover?
Third studio album At Your Birthday Party (Dunhill/ABC, USA, 1969). Art direction and cover design by Gary Burden, with photography by Henry Diltz. “The black-and-white portion of the album art was a collage made by Rick Griffin, who was supposed to paint a final version of what became the album art, but Dunhill Records declined to pay for the painting and so used Griffin's black-and-white prototype.” — Wikipedia
Profil here gets a chromatic treatment. The combination of a white outline with a shadow color that is lighter than the body is not ideal, though.
