PM
October 1937
Robert L. Leslie and Percy Seitlin [Editors]
Robert L. Leslie and Percy Seitlin [Editors]: PM [An Intimate Journal For Art Directors, Production Managers, and their Associates]. New York: The Composing Room/P. M. Publishing Co., Volume 4, No. 2: October 1937. Original edition. Slim 12mo. 2-color letterpress wrappers. Align-O wire binding. 48 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Original cover design by photographer Stanley Bernard Schaeffer [who is also the Featured Artist]. Wrappers lightly edgeworn with a tiny ‘4-2’ penciled on front panel. A very good or better copy.
5.5 x 7.75 wire-ring bound digest with 48 pages of articles including A. M. Cassandre’s Peignot by Joseph Brumenthal, Type Designs of the past and present by Stanley Morrison, Morning Noon Night: a Photogravure Insert by Stanley Bernard Schaeffer, Claude Garamond, Robert Granjon, Christoper Plantin, and industry news, trade ads, etc.
Charles Peignot was the head of the French typefoundry, Deberny et Peignot ( the leading company of its kind in France), where he oversaw production of the legendary ARTS ET METIERS GRAPHIQUES.Peignot made connections with the key participants in the Deco and Modernist movements around the time of the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. A. M. Cassandre, (nee Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron), won first prize at the Expo for a furniture store's poster design entitled "Au Bucheron." From this introduction, Peignot commissioned Cassandre to design letters for the foundry. Hence Peignot was born as a typeface that came to symbolize the Art Deco/Moderne Aesthetic of the 1930s.
PM magazine was the leading voice of the U. S. Graphic Arts Industry from its inception in 1934 to its end in 1942 (then called AD). As a publication produced by and for professionals, it spotlighted cutting-edge production technology and the highest possible quality reproduction techniques (from engraving to plates). PM and A-D also championed the Modern movement by showcasing work from the vanguard of the European Avant-Garde well before this type of work was known to a wide audience.