DESIGN AND PAPER No. 9
Robert L. Leonard
[Robert L. Leonard]: DESIGN AND PAPER No. 9. New York: Marquardt & Company Fine Papers, n.d. [c. 1942]. Original edition. 120 x 200 mm. Buckeye Wine cover stapled wrappers. 16 pp. Elaborate graphic design throughout. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. Wrappers lightly dusted, otherwise a fine, fresh copy.
4.75 x 7.75 softcover booklet with 16 pages of design and text by Robert L. Leonard: “Coming to the United States in 1923, he was one of the founders of AUDAC (American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen). He was the editor of the first “Annual of American Design” and is an instructor in style figure for advertising at Pratt Institute.”
Robert L. Leonard was a founder of the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen [AUDAC]. He edited the first Annual of American Design in 1931. He taught advertising art at Pratt Institute. He also studied graphic arts in Munich and then at the Academy Julien at Paris. He worked as an illustrator in Berlin for years before returning to Paris. He came to the United States in 1923 and worked in advertising. His clients included DuPont, General Motors, Celanese, Wallace Silver, Colgate, Matchabelli, International Printing Ink and Burdines Miami.
The American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen (AUDAC) was founded by professionals in 1928 to protect their industrial, decorative and applied arts concepts from piracy, and to exhibit their new work. AUDAC attracted a broad range of artists, designers, architects, commercial organizations, industrial firms and manufacturers. In 1927 Macy's Department Store held a well-attended Exposition of Art in Trade. This featured “modern products,” many of them from the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, which was belatedly recognized by the US government as an important “modern movement”
Immediate public and manufacturer demand for these new “Art Deco” styles was so obvious, and the need so great, that a number of design professionals—architects, package designers and stage designers— focused their creative efforts for the first time on mass-produced products. They claimed the new title of “industrial designer” which had originated in the US Patent Office in 1913 as a synonym for the then-current term "art in industry."
AUDAC was founded at a time when concerted attempts were being made to promote modern American design and decorative arts and was modelled on European precedents such as the Société des Artistes Décorateurs in France. “It is extremely ‘new art’ and some of it too bizarre, but it achieves a certain exciting harmony, and in detail is entertaining to a degree. [Everything is] arranged with an eye to display, a vast piece of consummate window dressing,” reported advertsing pioneer Earnest Elmo Calkins from the pavilions of the Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes.
In 1933, The National Furniture Designers' Council (NFDC) was founded, bringing together a number of furniture representatives and designers to draw up a code for the National Recovery Administration (NRA) to prevent design piracy. But in 1934, NRA was declared unconstitutional and NFDC disbanded.
In 1936, the American Furniture Mart in Chicago invited leading designers to form a new organization called the Designers' Institute of the American Furniture Mart. Some members felt restricted by the sole patronage and sponsorship of the furniture industry, and in 1938 they founded a broader-based organization called the American Designers Institute (ADI), which allowed specialization in one of many design areas, including crafts, decorative arts, graphics, products, packaging, exhibit or automotive styling, to name a few. ADI's first president was John Vassos (1898-1985).
In February 1944, fifteen prominent East Coast design practitioners established the Society of Industrial Designers (SID). Each of the founding members invited one additional designer to join the following year. Membership requirements were stringent, requiring the design of at least three mass-produced products in different industries. SID was formed in part to reinforce the legality of industrial design as a profession, and to restrict membership to experienced professionals. SID's first president was Walter Dorwin Teague.
The first six of Marquardt’s DESIGN AND PAPER series of promotional booklets were portfolios showcasing a variety of artists. From Number Seven on, each issue was devoted to an individual artist. The DESIGN AND PAPER series published original booklets designed by Ladislav Sutnar, Saul Steinberg, Raymond Loewy, E. McKnight Kauffer, Erik Nitsche, George Krikorian, Georges Wilmet, Ugo Mochi, Walter Westerveldt, Clarence John Laughlin, and others. Since the booklets promoted Marquardt papers, the design and printing of each issue met the highest production standards of the day.
From “The House Organ: Design and Paper” by P. K. Thomajan from Print Vol. 5, No. 3, 1947: “The idea for this typographic gem started with Edward Alonzo Miller, then associated with The Marchbanks Press. He suggested to Oswald F. Marquardt exactly 10 years ago, the project of issuing an attractive quarterly presenting fine artwork on fine papers, thereby inspiring the increased usage of the latter. Mr. Marquardt promptly O.K.’d the idea and ever since has been O.K.’ing more and more ambitious issues.”
“The early issues were devoted to impressive assemblages of trademarks, title pages, woodcuts, specimens of hand lettering and distinctive typefaces by prominent designers. These were printed on varying shades of antique papers, wire-stitched and thread-tied for that extra touch.”
“Distribution is directed principally to printers , art directors, trade press, and important executives. In addition, many copies go to non-customers, such as instructors of journalism and the graphic arts, who use copies as noteworthy specimens for classroom discussion.”