Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops – Arthur Fiedler “Superstar” album art

This album was recorded by the Boston Pops orchestra under conductor Arthur Fiedler (1894–1979) and released by Polydor Records in 1971. Norman Green did the cover art, with direction from David Krieger. The display typeface is Impacta Shaded, drawn by Dave Davison for Photo-Lettering. Track titles are in Alternate Gothic (or maybe the largely identical Trade Gothic Bold Condensed).

[More info on Discogs]

If the name Norman Green sounds familiar, that’s probably because we recently published a series of Uses featuring Green Buzzard, which is his only known typeface design. I was curious to find out more about the man who conceived that intricate alphabet.

Norman Green was born in New York City in 1934. A Century of American Illustration, published by The Brooklyn Museum in 1972, has some biographical info:

Attended Pratt Institute, graduated from the School of Visual Arts, and later studied at Cooper Union. A member of Push Pin Studios, his illustrations have appeared in a number of magazines, including Ladies’ Home Journal, Life, New York magazine, and Esquire. He has also done book illustration and work for various advertising agencies. Several years ago he established the Green Buzzard Studios, Inc., in New York City.

You can see him on a Push Pin Studios group photo standing right behind Seymour Chwast.

By 1976, Green had moved to Redding, Connecticut – this is mentioned in Judith Viorst’s adaptation of A Visit from St. Nicholas (to a liberated household), for which he did the illustrations. In 1985, he still lived in Connecticut with his family, and worked on Knights of the Round Table. Discogs credits Green with the cover art for five albums, the latest one dating from 1989.

There are a couple of common traits running through his works. For example, the multiple frames with concentric circles in the cover art shown above echo details of the Green Buzzard typeface. So do the geometric patterns with diagonal bands drawn for The Best Of Donny Hathaway (1978). Green is also fond of romantic motifs: the colored clouds at sunset can be found back in his art for Marilyn Horne’s Beautiful Dreamer (1986), see the comments.

I wonder if he’s still around – he’d turn 90 this year. There are surprisingly many people – including artists – named Norman Green. One who has an “endless fascination for nature, especially flowers” participated in an exhibition in Connecticut in 2018. If you have any leads, please leave a comment.