Pacific Eye & Ear

Ernie Cefalu
Ernie Cefalu, Creative Director
Born	1945 (age 71–72)
Website	Original Album Cover Art

Ernie Cefalu (born 1945) is a contemporary Senior Creative Director, currently working out of Los Angeles, CA. Cefalu attended the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California 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 the International 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 the world-renowned Jesus Christ Superstar album and Angels in an agency shootout with the Decca Records account as the prize.

At the end of 1970, Cefalu joined forces with Craig Braun, Inc. in New York, and worked on the 'Sticky Fingers' album as well as Grand Funk Railroad’s 'E Pluribus Funk.' Eight months later in mid 1971 he opened a satellite office in California for Braun, where he was the head Creative Director. There, he was the creative force behind a string of popular album covers for Alice Cooper’s 'School's Out,' and Cheech & Chong’s 'Big Bambu,' among others.

Cefalu opened his own agency, Pacific Eye & Ear, in January 1972. Over the next 15 years, he created another 194 album covers for rock legends such as The Doors, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, The Bee Gees, The Guess Who, Black Sabbath, Jefferson Airplane, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Burton Cummings, Grand Funk Railroad, Iron Butterfly, and Black Oak Arkansas. Cefalu’s collaborations with then emerging illustrators such as Drew 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.