DESIGN AND PAPER NO. 39
Albert Kner and R. Hunter Middleton
Herbert Pinzke [Designer]
Herbert Pinzke [Designer]: DESIGN AND PAPER NO. 39. New York: Marquardt & Company Fine Papers, c. 1952. A very good or better booklet in Mead’s Black and White Enamel cover stock with minor shelf wear. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.
4.75 x 7.75 softcover booklet with 16 pages devoted to the work of Albert Kner, a packaging designer hired by Egbert Jacobson at the Container Corporation of America and R. Hunter Middleton, the Director of Typeface Design at Ludlow Typograph Company. Photography of the CCA Design Lab by Torkel Korling.
Albert Kner: “It is not accidental that Albert was able to build up a most unusual Design Laboratory for Container Corporation of America. He was fully equipped for such a responsibility. As the design-minded son of a well-known Hungarian printer and publisher, he was working in the Graphic Arts at an early age. From practical-minded craftsmen he learned the significance of type and typography, the use of paper and printing ink, the mechanics of reproduction and the techniques of bookbinding.”
R. Hunter Middleton: “During his thirty-one years with this company (Ludlow) he has produced drawings for some sixty-six typefaces of his own design, including Ludlow, Bodoni Modern, Eusebius, Delphian, Ludlow Garamond, Stellar, Tempo, Karnak, Radiant and Coronet.”
The first six of Marquardt’s DESIGN AND PAPER series of promotional booklets were portfolios showcasing a variety of artists. From Number Seven on, each issue was devoted to an individual artist. The DESIGN AND PAPER series published original booklets designed by Ladislav Sutnar, Saul Steinberg, Raymond Loewy, E. McKnight Kauffer, Erik Nitsche, George Krikorian, Georges Wilmet, Ugo Mochi, Walter Westerveldt, Clarence John Laughlin, and others. Since the booklets promoted Marquardt papers, the design and printing of each issue met the highest production standards of the day.
From “The House Organ: Design and Paper” by P. K. Thomajan from Print Vol. 5, No. 3, 1947: “The idea for this typographic gem started with Edward Alonzo Miller, then associated with The Marchbanks Press. He suggested to Oswald F. Marquardt exactly 10 years ago, the project of issuing an attractive quarterly presenting fine artwork on fine papers, thereby inspiring the increased usage of the latter. Mr. Marquardt promptly O.K.’d the idea and ever since has been O.K.’ing more and more ambitious issues.”
“The early issues were devoted to impressive assemblages of trademarks, title pages, woodcuts, specimens of hand lettering and distinctive typefaces by prominent designers. These were printed on varying shades of antique papers, wire-stitched and thread-tied for that extra touch.”
“Distribution is directed principally to printers , art directors, trade press, and important executives. In addition, many copies go to non-customers, such as instructors of journalism and the graphic arts, who use copies as noteworthy specimens for classroom discussion.”