PM / A-D. PM Volume 3, Nos. 1 – 12, Sept. 1936 to  August 1937. New York: The Composing Room/P.M. Publishing Co., 1937. Publishers bound volume [400 copies].

PM: Volume 3, Nos. 1 – 12
September 1936 – August 1937

An Intimate Journal For Art Directors, Production Managers,
and their Associates

Robert L. Leslie and Percy Seitlin [Editors]

Twelve 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. Blue cloth boards with leather gilt spine label. Boards quite worn and bumped and spine label worn and etched. Front hinge split with cloth spine separated from the binding cover. Structurally sound. All 12 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.

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 3, No. 1: September 1936. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Thick printed perfect bound and sewn wrappers. 48 pp. Decorated endpapers. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Original cover by featured artist Gustav Jensen.

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 3, No. 2: October 1936. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Photographicaly-printed, thick wrappers with Wire - O Binding and blank acetate cover panel. 38 [10] pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Cover artwork by Samuel Bernard Schaeffer.

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 3, No. 3: November 1936. Original edition. 16mo. Printed stapled wrappers. 32 pp. Illustrated articles and trade advertisements. Cover is a Surrealist 4 color process photo by Paul Outerbridge, with typography by Gustav Jensen.

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 3, No. 4: December 1936. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Photolithography printed perfect bound and sewn wrappers. 48 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Original cover by S. M. Adler.

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 3, No. 5: January 1937. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Photolithography printed perfect bound and sewn wrappers. 32 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Cover by R. L. Leonard.

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 3, No. 6: February 1937. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Printed thick perfect bound and sewn wrappers. 66 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Cover design by Frederick Goudy.

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 3, No. 7: March 1937. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Three-color offset saddle-stitched lithographed covers. 48 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Cover artwork by Kate Steinitz.

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 3, No. 8: April 1937. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Embossed and die stamped perfect bound and sewn French folded wrappers. 56 [8] pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Cover design by featured artist Clarence P. Hornung.

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 3, No. 9: May 1937. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Printed stapled wrappers. 48 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks. Original 3-color cover design by Howard Willard.

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 3, No. 10: June 1937. Original edition. 12 mo. Yapped printed wrappers attached to plain paper boards. 44 [4] pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Cover by Edward F. Molyneux.

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 3, No. 11: July 1937. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Printed thick saddle-stitched wrappers. 32 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Wraparound cover design by Buk Ulreich.

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 3, No. 12: August 1937. Original edition. Slim 12mo. Printed yapped wrappers. 64 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Similetone cover by Robert Carroll.

[12] 5.5 x 7.75 volumes with 578 pages of articles and trade advertisements. Issue highlights include:

• Gustav Jensen by Nathaniel Pousette-Dart Cover and 18-page insert on the Danish Art Deco master Gustav Jensen. Jensen was an artist, designer and letterer whose clients included Colophon Quarterly, Covici-Friede, United Drug Co. and DuPont. This insert features his Art Deco sensibilities displayed in bookbinding, book jackets industrial design (including a telephone that has to be seen to be believed!), cosmetic packaging, labels, and signage, all reproduced in the glorious Knudsen process! A true Art Deco publication classic. Gustav Jensen called himself a Designer to Industry, and indeed he designed some of the most appealing packaging and advertising of the late twenties and early thirties. His most enduring was the package for Golden Blossom Honey, which has had virtually the same label for over fifty years. He was called the "Designer's Designer" by his peers, including Paul Rand, who in his early twenties tried to get a job at Jensen's one-man studio, and also borrowed from Jensen's contemporary beaux arts style on a few occasions before developing his own distinctive point of view.
• The Lindy Hop by Miguel Covarrubias A full-page b/w reproduction of the lithograph.
• Functional Color - by Faber Birren 8 parts (1900– 1988) was an early practitioner in the color industry, establishing his own consulting firm with a specialization in color in 1934. He advised on topics such as product color, environmental safety, and staff morale for clients such as E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company and the United States Coast Guard. Birren also applied his professional knowledge to popular culture products such as stationery or cocktail glasses that emphasized individual color preference. Birren was a prolific author producing 25 books and scores of articles in a variety of venues from peer-reviewed journals to high-circulation popular magazines. Birren’s very successful career allowed him to leave a permanent legacy of his work in color through the Faber Birren Collection of Books on Color. He donated a core collection of 226 books on historic color theory to the Art+Architecture Library at Yale University in 1971, as well as an endowment that allows for continued growth of the collection. In addition to books, the collection holds textile samples, photographs, paint chips, manuscripts, and more. Birren worked with library staff on the development of the collection from the time of its donation until his death in 1988.
• America Today (100 Prints) with an image by Howard Cook.
• Pose Please (Insert designed) by Samuel Bernard Schaeffer. Samuel B. Schaeffer (B. 1905) received his art training as an apprentice with the Art Guild and the New York Evening Industrial School of Art. He designed over 200 book jackets and bindings for 35 publishers and designed printed cottons and silks. He exhibited at the Art Center in 1930. He illustrated Lotus and Chrysanthemum, The Book of American Presidents and These Restless Heads. He authored and illustrated the books Pose Please and Morning Noon Night.
• In Defense of Cheltenham
• A. M. Cassandre and the Poster Art of the Futureby Percy Seitlin, with Cassandre portrait by Herbert Matter. A. M. Cassandre (1901 - 1968) born Adolphe Jean Edouard Mouron and studied at the Ecoles des Beaux Arts in Paris. He produced his first poster Au Bucheron at 22. Cassandre's work was seen as a bridge between the modern fine arts and the commercial arts. Despite his affinity to the fine arts he always believed there should be a separateness between disciplines. The success of his posters probably lies in his philosophy that his posters were meant to be seen by people who do not try to see them. In 1936 he traveled to America to work on several projects. While there he designed several surrealistic covers for Alexey Brodovitch at Harper's Bazaar. In addition, he created for NW Ayers, the classic eye of the Ford billboard and several pieces for the Container Corporation of America. His career as a poster designer ended in 1939 when he changed disciplines and became a stage, set and theatrical designer.
• A Word About E. McKnight Kauffer by Aldous HuxleyEdward McKnight Kauffer was first exposed to modern European Art at the Armory Show (1913) in Chicago. In 1914, he went to England and remained there until 1940. While in England he made his name as a poster artist. His first commissions were for the London Underground whose publicity manager, Frank Pick was instrumental in distributing the creative and artistic designs by Kauffer. Inspired by the artistic movements of the day, Futurism, Cubism, Art Deco and Surrealism, Kauffer created hundreds of posters for the London Underground, Shell, British Petroleum and Eastman and Sons. He also designed several book jackets and illustrations for the Nonesuch Press and Faber and Guyer. In 1930, he became Art Director of the publishing house Lund & Humphries. In 1937, the Museum of Modern Art held a one man show of his work. He returned to the United States in 1940 and did work for Greek War Relief, the US Treasury, American Airlines, the NY Subway, Alfred A. Knopf, the Container Corporation of America and the New York Times. He received the AIGA medal in 1991.
• F. L. Amberger. 16-page, 2-color Photo-lithography insert designed by and showcasing Fritz Amberger who studied art in Zurich and later in Geneva with the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler. He worked at the Bauer Type Foundry and as art director for the German vintner Kupferberg Gold. He taught art at the School for Industrial Art in Mainz, Germany. Once in the US he lectured at NYU and designed typefaces, packaging, book jackets, bindings and posters for such firms as American Brass Co., E. I. duPont, Holeproof Hosiery, Lee Tires, Metro - Goldwyn Mayer and The Reynolds Corporation.
• Gy Zilzer
• Marcel Jacno cover and profile. Marcel Jacno taught advertising at the Ecole Techniques de Publicite in Paris and at the Ecole de L‘Union des Arts Decoratifs. In 1937 he designed the hall of the graphic arts museum at the Paris Expo. He designed several fonts for the type foundry Deberny and Peignot, including Le Film (1934), Scribe (1937), Jacno (1950) and Chaillot (1954). He was a designer for Shell, Gauloises, Teatre National Populaire and for the movies where he designed lettering for screen titles.
• John Peter Zenger, Printer
• Lucien Bernhard A commemorative 4-page color insert designed by Bernhard.
• A full-page Linotype ad designed by Herbert Matter.
• A William Rudge insert designed by Bruce Rogers.
• Clarence P. HornungA 16-page b/w letterpress insert of Hornung's graphic and industrial Design work and an interview conducted by Robert L. Leslie. Clarence P. Hornung studied at City College and at Columbia University. He was a designer for American Type Foundry and a member of the Society of Designers for Industry in New York City. In addition to designing several hundred trademarks, package designs and industrial designs, he designed book bindings for such clients as Harper's, Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. Wolff, Limited Editions Club, Encyclopedia Britannica, Heritage Press and DuPont.
• Burton Emmett: Friend, Advertising, Collector, AIGA, Colophon, including a Collotype frontis portrait.
• Buk Ulreich Wraparound cover and a16-page Buk Ulreich insert. Eduard (BUK) Ulreich [1889 - 1966] attended the Kansas City Kansas City Art Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He came to New York in 1915 and worked for a year before serving in the Army. After the War, he designed murals in Chicago in 1924 and exhibited at the Art Directors Club, Anderson Galleries and the Dudensing Galleries. As a WPA artist he created frescos and mosaics for buildings throughout the mid-West and East Coast during the late 1930s and 1940s. His work includes wall hangings for the Chicago Temple Building, marble mosaics for the Century of Progress Expo, Chicago and murals at Radio City Music Hall. Along with his wife, artist Nura Woodson Ulreich, he was an illustrator for books and magazines. Memberships included the Guild of Free Lance Artists. He exhibited widely including at the Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Gallery, Anderson Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art and Gump's Gallery in San Francisco. He died in San Francisco in 1966.
• Raymond Lufkin: 16-page, 2-color insert designed by Raymond Lufkin, featuring gorgeous 2 c Photoengraving of Lufkin's exquisite scratchboard illustrations.
• International Poster Exhibit: includes examples by Lester Beall, E. McKnight Kauffer and Herbert Matter.
• Jake Zeitlin and His Shop A2-page article with a photocollage portrait of the Los Angeles Bookseller and Publisher.
• Norman A. Munder of Baltimore, Recollections of Munder by Frederick Goudy Scratch board portraits by Raymond Lufkin.
• Learning Design and Its Production: 6 pages on the W.P.A. Design Laboratory by Liame Dunne. The W.P.A. Design Laboratory at the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians (FAECT) at 114 East 16th Street, New York. The Design Laboratory won a reputation as the only school in this country devoted to the ideal of " reuniting art with industry" along the lines laid down by the now defunct Bauhaus at Dessau, Germany, which was founded by Walter Gropius, now in this country teaching architecture at Harvard. “This is one of the most interesting and creative teaching projects under the Federal Art Project, and we are hoping for a great many things from it.”— Holger Cahill
• Ruth Gerth. A beautiful 4-page insert designed by this groundbreaking female Industrial Designer
• Photograph Credits: Edward Steichen, Arthur Gerlach and Ruth Bernhard.
• PM Shorts mention: Dr. M.F. Agha, Georg Salter, H. Nelson Kent , Bernard Corvinus, Georges Schreiber, Adolph Dehn, Lawrence G. Malone, Howard Richmond, Harry Rodman, Sol Cantor, Ernest Krungliveus, Tom Benrimo, Daniel DeKoven and Ruth Bernhard, Herbert Matter; Douglas C. McMurtrie; Raymond M. Martin; Benjamin Lewis; Ruth Gerth; Joseph Sinel ; Fred Breen; Robert Olufers; Denna Simpson; Helen Dryden, A. M. Cassandre, Ruth Fleisher, Bernard S. Sheridan, Howard Willard, Beatrice Warde, Paul W. Sampson. Alfred Bader. George F. McShane, Kate Steinitz, Sol Cantor, Robert L. Leslie, Gy Zilzer, Rosella Kerner, Herbert Matter, AIGA, Bruce Gentry, Elmer Adler, Design Laboratory - WPA Project, Alfred O. Mende, S. M. Adler, Max Jaediker, Lester Cornelius, Lillian Lustig and Hortense Mendel
• Books Reviewed: How to use Your Candid Camera - Ivan Dmitri; Trademark and Monogram Suggestions by Samuel Welo; The Penrose Annual Review of the Graphic Arts - ed. by R. B Fishenden, and Modern Advertising - Kenneth Goode; Photography by Dr. C.E. Kenneth Mees; African Negro Art - ed. James Johnson Sweeney; Modern Painters and Sculptors as Illustrators by Monroe Wheeler; New Horizons in American Art - Museum of Modern Art and Typographische Gestaltung by Jan Tschichold.
• Listing of Advertisements: Reliance Reproduction Co., Merganthaler - Linotype Co. , Flower Electrotypes, Wilbar Photoengraving, Ludlow Typograph Co., Intertype, The Bauer Type Foundry, The Composing Room, Celluloid, Beck Engraving, Whitney Press, The J. F. Fapley Co., Kipe Offset Process Co., Whitehead and Alliger Co., Zeese - Wilkinson Co. Inc.; William E. Rudge’s Sons; Tileston and Hollingsworth Co.; Russell - Rutter Co.; The Georgia Press; Japan Paper Co.; H. Wolff Press; and others

Frederic Goudy (1865 - 1947) was a very prolific type designer whose designs include Copperplate Gothic, Kennerly and Goudy Oldstyle. He was a freelance designer in Chicago at the turn of the century and taught at the Frank Holme School of Illustration. Among his students was W. A. Dwiggins. He relocated to New York in 1906 and in 1920 was appointed consultant to Lanston Monotype Corporation. In 1923 he established the Village Letter Foundry at Marlboro on the Hudson River. His books include The Alphabet, Elements of Lettering and Typologia. In 1921 he served as President of the AIGA. He was awarded the AIGA Medal in 1928 and served on the board in 1935.

Cover artist Kate Steinitz studied at the Academie und Studienateliers fuer Malerei und Plastik (connected with the Berlin Secession), at the Ecole de la Grand Chaumiere and the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1921 her work was exhibited with the Hanover Secession and in 1924 she worked on a book with Kurt Schwitters and founded Aposs Verlag, primarily to publish typographically new and progressive work. In 1925 she designed a children's book with Schwitters and Theo Van Doesberg. In 1935 she was notified by the Reichsschrif-Humskammer that she could no longer write for German publications. In 1936 she emigrated to the US, joining her husband who was already in New York. She worked as a freelance artist and researcher from 1936 to 1942. In 1940 she organized the exhibition “New Americans” at the New York World’s Fair.

Paul Outerbridge, Jr. (1896 - 1958) was an American photographer noted for early use and experiments in color photography. Outerbridge was a fashion and commercial photographer, an early pioneer and teacher of color photography, and an artist who created erotic nudes photographs that could not be exhibited in his lifetime. In 1929, 12 of Outerbridge's photographs were included in the prestigious, German Film und Foto exhibition. Returning to New York in 1929, Outerbridge opened a studio doing commercial and artistic work and began writing a monthly column on color photography for the U.S. Camera Magazine. Outerbridge became known for the high quality of his color illustrations, which were done in those years by means of an extremely complex tri-color carbro process. In 1937, Outerbridge's photographs were included in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art and, in 1940, Outerbridge published his seminal book, Photographing in Color, using high quality illustrations to explain his techniques. A scandal over his erotic photography, led to Outerbridge retiring as a commercial photographer and moving to Hollywood in 1943. Despite the controversy, Outerbridge continued to contribute photo stories to magazines and write his monthly column. In 1945, he married fashion designer Lois Weir and worked in their joint fashion company, Lois-Paul Originals. He died of lung cancer in 1958. One year after his death, the Smithsonian Institution staged a one-man show of Outerbridge's photographs. Although his reputation has faded, revivals of Outerbridge's photography in 1970s and 1990s has periodically brought him into contemporary public knowledge.

Ruth Gerth (1897–1952) was an artist and an industrial designer. In 1936 she was president of the Artist’s Guild, a group whose mission was to establish and uphold fair practices for the use of freelance artists. Some of her industrial clients included: Chase Brass & Copper Company, Bates Mfg. Co., and R.E. Dietz. Ruth designed extensively for Chase Brass & Copper Company in Waterbury, CT. She designed many objects for the company’s gift line as well as planned the offices, gift shop, and showrooms. She was married to William Gerth, also a designer.

Robert Joseph Carroll (1904 – ?) studied at Syracuse University. He came to New York in 1921 and worked at Calkins and Holden while attending the New York School of Design. His paintings have been exhibited at the Boyer Gallery, 1939, The Brooklyn Museum and the Marie Harriman Gallery. He worked as an artist at Bonwit Teller before joining CBS. He was a contributor to Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and McCall’s.

From the thesis “Marxism, Abstraction, Ideology, and Vkhutemas: The Design Laboratory Reassessed 1935-1940” by Mandy Lynn Drumming: “The Design Laboratory (1935-1940) exists today as a critical, but little-known moment in American design history. Supported by American industrialists and the Federal Art Project, a division of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, the school embodied a utopian desire to merge the aspirations of the Machine Age with the social policies of the Depression Era. With a faculty and advisory board including some of the most significant names in the arts, namely Gilbert Rohde, the school’s director, and Meyer Schapiro, an influential Marxist art historian, the Design Laboratory sought to educate a semi-skilled labor force for careers in industrial design.

“Most related historical articles tend to compare American modernist industrial design and its teachings at the Design Laboratory with the Bauhaus, a German school that espoused an idealist, utopian vision to create a new design concept to bring about democratic change in society. The personnel, curriculum and objects of the Design Laboratory essentially do relate to the Bauhaus. Former Bauhaus students Hilde Reiss, Lila Ulrich, and William Priestly served as Design Laboratory faculty members, and Gilbert Rohde traveled to the Dessau Bauhaus in 1927.

“The preliminary course, “Basic Courses: Tools of the Designer,” and other classes offered at the Design Laboratory closely relate to the curriculum of the Bauhaus and its famed preliminary course, Vorkurs. Even the student and faculty-designed work evoke a utilitarian aesthetic commonly termed as “Bauhaus style.” However, comparing the Design Laboratory to the Bauhaus reveals several historical misunderstandings.

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.