PUBLICITE 1937
[ARTS ET METIERS GRAPHIQUES]
Charles Peignot [Directeur]
Charles Peignot [Directeur]: PUBLICITE 1937 [ARTS ET METIERS GRAPHIQUES]. Paris: Arts et Metiers Graphiques, 1937. Text in French. Thick printed wrappers. Wire staples. 124 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Text and advertisements. 30 tipped-in samples. Elaborate graphic design throughout. Wrappers chipped at spine crown and heel, corners and spine junctions weakening and splitting. Textblock tight, square and complete. A very good copy.
9.5 x 12.25 softcover magazine with stiff printed wrappers mechanically bound with wire staples. 124 pages of text and advertisements, including 30 tipped-in samples of a wide variety of original printed materials including wine lists, menus, brochures, dust jackets, magazine covers, product labels, and advertisments.
Astonishing variety of reproduction techniques including offset lithography, heliogravure, photogravure, letterpress, and much more.
Includes work by A. M. Cassandre, Raoul Dufy, Paolo Garretto, Jean Carlu, Paul Colin, Jean Lurcat, Jacques Nathan, Maximilliam Vox, and many others.
Legendary French Arts magazine published by Charles Peignot that represented the state-of-the-art in fine publishing in pre-war France. Each issue was printed by a wide variety of presses and techniques and collated by Deberny et Peignot. Every issue of Arts et Metiers Graphiques includes tip-ins, lithographs and many other special finishing effects to make them a singular aesthetic experience. Highly recommended.
Arts et Metiers Graphiques (AMG) was a prominent French graphic arts journal that published sixty-eight issues in total, on a bi-monthly basis from September 1927 to May 1939. The magazine reported on diverse themes that impacted the graphic arts, including: the history of printing, typography, advertising design, photography, and technical advances of the time.
AMG was conceived by Charles Peignot, head of the French typefoundry, Deberny et Peignot ( the leading company of its kind in France). In AMG, Peignot wanted to cover "all the subjects near or far from printing, of its history, and its diverse contemporary manifestations."
In over ten years of publication, Peignot's wide editorial goal came to encompass subjects ranging from illustration, history of the book, and printing techniques, to the expanding disciplines of advertising design and modern art photography. The magazine also featured regular reviews of fine limited-edition books and reprints of classical literature excerpts in typographically innovative layouts. Each edition was printed on high-quality papers with frequent tip-ins and inserts. Until World War II forced the magazine to cease production, AMG maintained one of the highest standard for graphic arts magazines of its time.
In 1927, Peignot launched the first edition of AMG, a magazine that would become a world forum for trends in the graphic arts. Peignot's goal was to print "the most interesting and luxurious [magazine of art] in the world." He did so by assembling a noteworthy staff that reported on subjects ranging from the history of writing, to photography, to Picasso's latest canvases. The magazine was a fixture of fine printing and journalism for twelve years until the onset World War II disrupted its production.
Approximately 4,000 copies of the magazine were released bimonthly on the fifteenth of the month. This short run enhanced the magazine's status as a collectible item. The magazine was sold mainly through subscriptions, one third of which were foreign from Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and Eastern Europe. Early issues included an insert that summarized articles in English. For binding, the text block was collected as leaves and mechanically bound with wire staples. Printed paper covers were then glued onto the blocks.
The attention to detail on all production fronts—design, typography, writing, photography, and printing—was intended to serve the interests of the French intelligentsia who were the connoisseurs of deluxe publications.
The concept of the deluxe publication was critical to AMG's editorial vision because each publication of its caliber it was necessary to collaborate across the lines of the graphic arts. In these books, typography served subject matter, illustration was inspired by theme, and the printing and binding processes contributed to the preciousness of a singular work whose production required a writer, designer, illustrator, typographer, printer, and binder.
Charles Peignot made connections with the key participants in the Deco and Modernist movements around the time of the 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs 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.
Following the Art Deco premiere at the 1925 Exposition, Cassandre joined with designer Jean Carlu to form a group of artists whose mission would be to advance Modernist aesthetics in all applications of design and thought. The Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) was born of this common goal. Charles Peignot, joined the group's membership with the likes of writer Jean Cocteau, Nobel laureate Andre Gide, architect Le Courbusier, decorator Sonia Delaunay, Maxmilien Vox, and other artists.
Peignot later clarified the group's purpose: "Together we tried to break away from the style that survived the first World War. It is not surprising that I tried to accomplish in my field what my friends were doing in theirs."
With a supportive peer group, a willing audience, a rejuvenated economy, and the fine reputation of his firm, Charles Peignot was set to become a leader in his field.