Paul Bonet (1889- 1971) was one of the most celebrated French binding and book cover designers. His bookbinding career started as merely a hobby, and he was initially a modeler of wooden fashion mannequins until his friend asked him to design the cover for his book collection. This was a breaking point for Bonet, and […]
Berenice Abbot was an American photographer, and a central bridge between the cultural, photographic and artistic hubs of New York and Paris. She made vital connections with Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, who were both crucial leaders of the American avant-garde movement, and in 1921 she moved to Paris and became Man Ray’s assistant. After […]
Almost everyone in the English-speaking world can say that they have heard the phrase “never judge a book by its cover” at one point or another. But looking through the history of book covers and the art of book design, this phrase falls short and renders itself as false. For hundreds of years, the book […]
The Czech graphic designer, Ladislav Sutnar (1897-1976), put information into action using visual design. He created order in chaos, by making function, form, and flow work together in a simple way that reduced complexity and intensified understanding. He blazed a path forward for graphic design to transmit large amounts of information much, much quicker. Trained […]
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 […]
Alvin Lustig found all sorts of ways to pull out rabbits from hats and show us an alternate reality. His was a visionary mind, drawn to disrupting the normative patterns of seeing and thinking, because, as he put it, “the incomplete relationship between society and form” troubled him. For Lustig, social needs are inseparable from […]