PM: Fifth Year
Volume 4, No. 9: October 1938 to Volume 5, No. 2: September 1939
[Paul Rand] Robert L. Leslie and Percy Seitlin [Editors]
Six issues of PM complete with original covers and all inserts bound into a single decorated cloth volume by the craftsmen at the Composing Room in an edition of 400 copies. Printed Publishers Index for volume 4 and 5th year bound in. Blue cloth boards with leather gilt spine label. Cloth lightly fingered and leather spine label rubbed. All 6 bound issues are in near fine condition.
A unique opportunity of own a collection of PM when it was becoming the leading journal for American Graphic Design and a clarion for the Avant-Garde Immigration to the United States. Includes the FIRST article to acknowledge Paul Rand's professional output
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. 9: October-November 1938]. Original edition. Perfect-bound book in decorated, stiff wrappers. Cover is a 4-color offset design by the young up-and-comer Paul Rand. You may have heard of him.
5.5 x 7.75 perfect-bound Digest with 96 pages of articles and advertisements. This issue of PM rates a singular high point in the history of American Graphic design due to its spotlighting of Paul Rand -- this is the FIRST article to acknowledge Rand's professional output. Rand designed the wraparound cover as well as the 16-page letterpressed insert that shows the early development of the modern american master.
The cover of this PM is widely recognized as one of the iconic images of 20th-century American Graphic Design, as has been reproduced countless times in design histories/anthologies. A classic piece of original ephemera from the most influential graphic designer of all time.
The Kenilworth Press was responsible for the printing of the cover and the 16-page Rand insert, and their superlative efforts were rewarded by their full-page ad being designed by Rand himself.
Also included is a 16-page Portfolio of Reproductions from the Christmas Cards Published by the American Artists Group printed in 5-color offset and featuring many WPA-eras artists including Rockwell Kent, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, Doris Lee, Adolph Dehn, John Steuart Curry, Emil Ganso, Dale Nichols and others.
Walker Evans' AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHS, hot off the presses from the Museum of Modern Art, is reviewed rather favorably with three photographs reproduced. It doesn't get any better than this.
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. 10: December-January 1938-1939]. Original edition. Perfect-bound softcover book in decorated, stiff wrappers. 9-color split fountain silkscreen Cover Art by Leo Rackow.
5.5 x 7.75 perfect-bound Digest with 64 pages of articles including a 16-page stunning expose on the WPA-inspired medium of silkscreen printing as well as a profile of Suzanne Suba. Silkscreen and Its Application in Modern Display; Susanne Suba; The Weber Process; Handwriting Reform; Book Reviews; Typeface review; Editorial Notes; PM Shorts.
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. 11: February-March 1939]. Original edition. Perfect-bound softcover book in stiff wrappers. Original cover design by Charles Egri.
5.5 x 7.75 perfect-bound Digest with 72 pages of articles and advertisements including Charles Egri: 8-page insert designed by Charles Egri; Kurt H. Volk: 16-page insert layout by A. G. Hoffman; and more.
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. 12: April-May 1939]. Original edition. Perfect-bound in 2-color photo-offset wrappers. Cover design by Charles Dean (Featured Artist) .
5.5 x 7.75 perfect-bound Digest with 118 pages of articles and advertisements including Charles Dean by Walter P. Suter: 16-page insert designed by Dean. Charles Dean was a leading graphic designer of trademarks, brochures, packaging and booklets, as well as an artist in his own right; Society of Illustrators 1939 Annual Exhibition: portfolio of approximately 58 pages contains such luminaries as Peter Arno, Lucian Burnhard, Abner Dean, Norman Rockwell, with a Charles Dana Gibson cover. Catalogue design by Lucien Bernhard; Ludlow Typefaces; Books and Pictures: Books Reviewed: Changing New York - photos by Berenice Abbott; All the Brave - drawings of the Spanish War by Luis Quintanilla; Woodcuts of NY by Hans Alexander Mueller and more.
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 5, No. 1: June-July 1939]. Original edition. Saddle-stitched in decorated, stiff wrappers. The cover is an original 4-color offset design by Desha Taksa.
5.5 x 7.75 perfect-bound Digest with 52 pages of articles and advertisements including A New Printing Type - Caledonia: Caledonia Insert- typography by W. A. Dwiggins; Desha Taksa: 16-page illustrated article on the Yugoslavian artist who studied at the Academy in Zagreb. She was a member of the American Artists Professional League and the Greenwich Soiety of Art. Her work has been exhibited at the American Artists Professional league, Art Director’s Club, Arden Gallery, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art and the Morgan Library in New Haven Connecticut.
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 5, No. 2: August-September 1939]. Original edition. Hand stenciled Cover with steel die stamped lettering and cold stamped illustration area.
5.5 x 7.75 perfect-bound Digest with 100 pages of articles and advertisements. The issue is ostensibly devoted to Dr. M.F. Agha's American decade, and includes a lengthy section written and designed by the following artists/designers/publishers etc.: Cipe Pineles, Walter Geohegan, Frank Crowninshield, Pierre Brissaud, Conde Nast, William Golden, Horst, Tobias Moss, William Fink, Ludwig Bemelmans, Dora Abrahams, Francis Brennan, William Harris, Sherman H. Raveson, J. Walter Flynn, Tom Maloney, Witold Gordon, Harry Brown, and Arthur Weiser.
The real standout of this issue is the 36-page letterpress insert A DESIGN STUDENT'S GUIDE TO THE 1939 NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR designed by Paul Rand. The cover of this insert is widely recognized as one of the iconic images of 20th-century American Graphic Design, as has been reproduced countless times in design histories/anthologies. A classic piece of original ephemera from the most influential graphic designer of all time.
PM Shorts column mentions Hans J. Barschel, Rex Cleveland, Edward A. Adams, Kurt H. Volk , Peter DeNapoli, Laszlo Matulay, John Kanelous, Fritz Eichenberg, Daniel Berkeley Updike, George Switzer, August Gauthier, Evelyn Harter, Percy Seitlin, Lester Beall, Herbert Matter , Bauhaus Exhibit - MOMA, Frederic Goudy, Paul Rand, Laszlo Matulay and Rex Cleveland, Boycott of printing types made in Nazi Germany with proclamation and list of signers; The Laboratory School of Industrial Design, Paul Rand, Laszlo Matulay , Anthony Velonis , AIGA, Paul Strand , Norman W. Forgue and Frederic Ryder, The Spiral Press, Ted Sandler , William Golden, and Leonard Hyams.
Advertisers include The Wolf Envelope Co., Merganthaler - Linotype Co., The Composing Room, Intertype, Edward Stern and Co., Ludlow Typograph Co., Caxton Press Inc. , Wilbar Photo Engraving, Silvertone Process Corp., Strathmore Paper Co., Reliance Reproduction Co., The Wolf Envelope Co., Condé Nast Engravers, Reba Martin, Inc., Thomas N. Fairbanks Co., The Alling and Cory Co., Crafton Graphic Co., Russell Rutter Co. Inc., Forest Paper Co., Para - Flex Engraving Co., and Graphic Arts Expo. and Milton Paper Co.
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.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, a pioneer typographer, photographer, and designer of the modern movement and a master at the Bauhaus in Weimar, may have come closest to defining the Rand style when he said Paul was "an idealist and a realist using the language of the poet and the businessman. He thinks in terms of need and function. He is able to analyze his problems, but his fantasy is boundless."
If the word legend has any meaning in the graphic arts and if the term legendary can be applied with accuracy to the career of any designer, it can certainly be applied to Paul Rand (1914-1996). In 1951, the legend was already firmly in place. By then Paul had completed his first career as a designer of media promotion at Esquire-Coronet -- and as an outstanding cover designer for Apparel Arts and Directions. He was well along on a second career as an advertising designer at the William Weintraub agency which he had joined as art director at its founding. Paul Rand's book, Thoughts on Design, with reproductions of almost one hundred of his designs and some of the best words yet written on graphic design, had been published four years earlier‹a publishing event that cemented his international reputation and identified him as a designer of influence from Zurich to Tokyo.
The chronology of Paul Rand's design experience has paralleled the development of the modern design movement. Paul Rand's first career in media promotion and cover design ran from 1937 to 1941, his second career in advertising design ran from 1941 to 1954, and his third career in corporate identification began in 1954. Paralleling these three careers there has been a consuming interest in design education and Paul Rand's fourth career as an educator started at Cooper Union in 1942. He taught at Pratt Institute in 1946 and in 1956 he accepted a post at Yale University's graduate school of design where he held the title of Professor of Graphic Design.
In 1937 Paul launched his first career at Esquire. Although he was only occasionally involved in the editorial layout of that magazine, he designed material on its behalf and turned out a spectacular series of covers for Apparel Arts, a quarterly published in conjunction with Esquire. In spite of a schedule that paid no heed to regular working hours or minimum wage scales, he managed in these crucial years to find time to design an impressive array of covers for other magazines, particularly Directions. From 1938 on his work was a regular feature of the exhibitions of the Art Directors Club.
Most contemporary designers are aware of Paul Rand's successful and compelling contributions to advertising design. What is not well known is the significant role he played in setting the pattern for future approaches to the advertising concept. Paul was probably the first of a long and distinguished line of art directors to work with and appreciate the unique talent of William Bernbach. Paul described his first meeting with Bernbach as "akin to Columbus discovering America," and went on to say, "This was my first encounter with a copywriter who understood visual ideas and who didn?t come in with a yellow copy pad and a preconceived notion of what the layout should look like."
Paul spent fourteen years in advertising where he demonstrated the importance of the art director in advertising and helped break the isolation that once surrounded the art department. The final thought of his Thoughts on Design is worth repeating: "Even if it is true that commonplace advertising and exhibitions of bad taste are indicative of the mental capacity of the man in the street, the opposing argument is equally valid. Bromidic advertising catering to that bad taste merely perpetuates that mediocrity and denies him one of the most easily accessible means of aesthetic development."
In 1954 when Paul Rand decided that for him Madison Avenue was no longer a two-way street and he resigned from the Weintraub agency, he was cited as one of the ten best art directors by the Museum of Modern Art. This was the same year in which he received the gold medal from the Art Directors Club for his Morse Code advertisement addressed to David Sarnoff of RCA.