INTERIORS + INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
September 1948
Francis de N. Schroeder [Editor],
Juliet and György Kepes [Cover Designers]
Francis de N. Schroeder [Editor]: INTERIORS + INDUSTRIAL DESIGN. New York: Whitney Publications [Volume 108, no. 2] September 1948. Original edition. Quarto. Perfect bound and sewn printed illustrated wrappers. 208 pp. Illustrated articles and trade advertisements. Cover by Juliet and György Kepes. Wrappers lightly worn. Interior unmarked and very clean. A very good copy.
9 x 12 magazine with 208 pages of color and black and white examples of the best modern American interior and industrial design, circa 1948 -- offering a magnificent snapshot of the blossoming modern movement after World War II. A very desirable, vintage publication in terms of form and content: high quality printing and clean, functional design and typography and excellent photographic reproduction make this a spectacular addition to a midcentury design collection. Highly recommended.
Contents include:
- For your information: Des Moines Art Center by Eliel Saarinen; interior design by John Vassos; etc.
- The Case Study House Program: An introduction by Serge Chermayeff. A 23-page illustrated feature on John Entenza's legendary residential building program. Primary photography by Julius Shulman.
- Case Study Houses 8 and 9 by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen: models of the Entenza House and the early version of the Bridge House CSH 9.
- Case Study House No. 10 by Kemper Nomland.
- Case Study House No.13 by Richard Neutra.
- Case Study House No. 3 by Wurster and Bernardi.
- Case Study House No. 2 by Sumner Spaulding and John Rex.
- Case Study House No. 11 by J. R. Davidson.
- Case Study House No. 4 by Ralph Rapson.
- Thorp Fabrics Showroom by Lester Tichy
- Textile designer's dreamland: about a native industry in Puerto Rico.
- The New Fabrics [120 examples]: Angelo Testa, Donelda Fazakas, Ray Komai, Erwin & Estelle Laverne, Ruth Adler, Astrid Sampe-Hultberg for Knoll,
- The Institute of Design: first in a series on the famous Chicago School: 10 pages of student work.
- Merchandise Cues: Gertrud and Otto Natzler, etc.
- Full-page advertisements for Laverne Originals "Incantation" by Alvin Lustig, Knoll Associates, the Herman Miller Collection, as well as ads for L. Anton Maix [Ray Komai], Kurt Versen, etc.
- And much more.
The Case Study House program (1945-66) was an exceptional, innovative event in the history of American architecture and remains unique to this day. The Los Angeles area program oversaw the design of 36 prototype homes, sought to make available plans for modern residences that could be easily and cheaply constructed during the postwar building boom.
The program's chief motivating force was 'Arts & Architecture' editor John Entenza, a champion of modernism who had all the right connections to attract some of architecture's greatest talents, such as Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eero Saarinen. Highly experimental, the program generated houses that were designed to re-define the modern home, and thus had a pronounced influence on architecture - American and international - both during the program's existence and even to this day.
George Nelson famously served as Editorial contributor to Interiors, where he used the magazine as his bully pulpit for bringing modernism to middle-class America. Interiors was a hard-core interior design publication, as shown by their publishing credo: "Published for the Interior Designers Group which includes: interior designers, architects who do interior work, industrial designers who specialize in interior furnishings, the interior decorating departments of retail stores, and all concerned with the creation and production of interiors-- both residential and commercial."