GEBRAUCHSGRAPHIK
November 1935
H. K. Frenzel [Editor]
H. K. Frenzel [editor]: GEBRAUCHSGRAPHIK. Berlin: Gebrauchsgraphik, 1935. Original edition [Volume 12, Number 11: November 1935]. Text in German and English. A good vintage magazine with slight discoloration and a somewhat rough spine: the covers are threatening to detach. Interior unmarked and clean. Out-of-print.
9.25 x 12.25 vintage magazine with 78 pages of editorial content plus trade advertisements. Gebrauchsgraphik utilized the latest printing and press technologies and often included custom colors, bound-in samples and advertising fold-outs, foil stamps, die-cuts and other special finishing effects.
- The Problem of Staging Wagner's Operas by Emil Preetorius: 12 pages with 19 illustrations, 5 in color
- Franz Christophe by Werner Suhr
- 14th Annual of Advertising Art by H. K. Frenzel: 12 pages with 31 black-and-white illustrations including work by Alexey Brodovitch, Frank McIntosh, Lester Beall [8 spot illustrations for The Chicago Tribune], Imre Reiner, Robert Riggs and Robert Fawcett among others
- Exhibition of "Beautiful Bindings as Advertisers for Books", Leipzig: 4 pages with 8 photos of the exhibit
- Advertising Means of the Koffee Hag Company by H. K. Frenzel: 6 pages with 9 b/w illustrations
- H. J. Barschel: 3 pages with 7 b/w illustrations and a full-color fold-out [10" x 15"] poster issued by the Reichsbahn publicity office for passenger and goods traffic"
- O. F. Kutscher
- Reflections on Applied Art in Australia by Gert Sellehim: includes 6 b/w reproductions of his poster designs
- Better Congratulatory Postcards by Paul Pfund
- Rudolf Blanckertz and Georg Wagner
- Wirtschaft und Werbung: Konsum, Absatz und Reklame
Founded in 1923 by Professor H. K. Frenzel, Gebrauchsgraphik was the leading voice of the Avant-Garde influence on the European Commercial Art and Advertising industries before World War II. In the thirties, all roads led through Berlin, and Gebrauchsgraphik spotlighted all of the aesthetic trends fermenting in Europe -- Art Deco and Surrealism from Paris, Constructivism from Moscow, Futurist Fascism from Rome, De Stijl and Dutch typography from Amsterdam, and of course the spreading influence of the Dessau Bauhaus. A journal that was truly international, presented in both German and English.
Gebrauchsgraphik was in the perfect place to showcase all the latest and greatest European trends and rising artists for the rest of the world. Gebrauchsgraphik was an incredibly influential journal and agenda setter, most notably to a young man in Brooklyn named Paul Rand. According to his biographical notes, Rand's exposure to Gebrauchsgraphik in the early thirties created his desire to become a Commercial Artist. The rest is history.