ARTS ET METIERS GRAPHIQUES LETTRES
Jean Loisy [Editor] Maximilien Vox [Preface]
Jean Loisy [Editor] Maximilien Vox [Preface]: ARTS ET METIERS GRAPHIQUES LETTRES. Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1948. First edition. Text in French. Quarto. Thick printed wrappers. 112 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Elaborate typographic examples throughout. Wrappers lightly worn and soiled with spine heel chipped. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. A very good or better copy.
9.5 x 12 softcover book with 112 pages and hundreds of reproductions on large folio plates of innovative typography designs from the 1940's. Preface By Maximilien Vox. This is an amazing anthology of French and European typography culled from the files of the French typefoundry Deberny et Peignot (publishers of the legendary Arts et Métiers Graphiques).
Contents (my English translation of the French):
- Romanesque Alphabets
- Foundry Alphabets
- The Letter in Publishing
- The Letter in Book Binding
- Book Marks
- Trade Marks
- Monographs
- Calligraphs
- Labels
- The Letter in Advertising
- The Letter on Windows
- The Letter in Advertising
- The Letter on Storefronts & Billboards
- The Letter in Jewelry
- The Letter On the Screen
Includes work by Jean Puiforcat, Joseph Binder, Jacques Nathan, Picard LeDoux, Paul Bonet, Imre Reiner, Henri Matisse, A. M. Cassandre and many other designers whose names have been lost through time.
Following the Art Deco premiere at the 1925 Exposition, A. M. 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 André Gide, architect Le Courbusier, decorator Sonia Delaunay, Maxmilien Vox, and other artists who specialized in the design of jewelry, textiles, furniture, and lighting.
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.
Charles Peignot stands as one of the true Giants of 20th-century typography. As head of the French typefoundry Deberny et Peignot, Peignot was a major force in the French pre-war art world. His type foundry manufactured thousands of metal type designs and pioneered art deco and modernist typography (Peignot even bought the rights to the Bauhaus typeface Futura in 1929 after Maximilien Vox predicted it would be a huge success). His goal in Arts et Métiers Graphiques was to create "the most interesting and luxurious [magazine of art] in the world."
Arts et Métiers Graphiques has been described by the design historian and typographer Ruari McLean as perhaps the most visually satisfying graphic arts magazine ever. It was founded in 1927 by Charles Peignot and published 68 issues from 1927 to1939, when war forced its closure. Over those years it covered and helped to popularize some of the most important graphic movements in history, from constructivism and the Russian avant-garde through art deco, cubism, Bauhaus, and a dizzying array of technical developments in printing and photographic technology.
This anthology carries on the Arts et Métiers Graphiques tradition. Recommended.