Influenced by Constructivism and Dadaism, Cohen Lustig became one of very few mid-century women designers who are celebrated at the same caliber as their contemporary male designers. She was also one of the few women at the time to run an independent design business. She never ceased to create artwork alongside her designs, and after several years she became more focused on Ex Libris, the antiquarian bookshop she ran.
Elaine Lustig Cohen (1927 – 2016) was an American graphic designer, artist and archivist. She is best known for her work as a graphic designer during the 1950s and 60s, having created over 150 designs for book covers and museum catalogs. Her work has played a significant role in the evolution of American modernist graphic design, integrating European avant-garde with experimentation to create a distinct visual vocabulary.
Although she was a painter by trade, Lustig Cohen worked closely with her husband Alvin Lustig, and executed his designs meticulously, especially in the last years of his life when his sight began to dim. By being his eyes and arms, guided by his imagination that could sharply see two and three dimensions, she gained Lustig’s insight and this awakened in her a unique gift that was hers alone. After his death she emerged from his shadow with a distinctive style, sharp and serious, clever and colorful.
For us at Dan Alexander & Co. imagination is our mind’s eye, composing the shapes and the aesthetics of our reality. It is the key to the geometry of seeing that forms the accuracy of space.
Bonjour thank you so much