RESTAURANT FLORENT [1985 – 2008]
M&Co. [Tibor Kalman]
Offered here is a 14-piece archive of original material designed by Tibor Kalman and M&Co. for the legendary restaurant Florent. Kalman offered M&Co.’s graphic design expertise in exchange for free meals at the diner “in the heart of Manhattan's Meat District.”
“Restaurant Florent, since 1985 the proud home of: political drag queens, suicidal libertines, secular surgeons, transvestal virgins, lunatic ravers, steroidal saviors, twelve-stepping two-steppers, infidel lepers, sadistic humanists, lunatic sensualists, wondering Jews [sic], multicultural views, leftist rituals, and delectable victuals.”
Postcards:
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley: Restaurant Florent Postcard. [New York: Plastichrome, 1985]. Offset lithography. 3 7/8 x 6" (9.8 x 15.2 cm). Pen strike-out to mailing panel, otherwise a fine example. Florent Morellet decorated his restarant with dozens of contemporary and vintage maps—he thought of maps as accidental works of art, still portraits of places that are constantly changing.
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley, Chris Callis [photography]: Restaurant Florent Postcard. [New York: Restaurant Florent, 1986]. Offset lithography. 4 1/8 x 6" (10.5 x 15.2 cm). A fine example.
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley: Meet at Florent Postcard. [New York: Restaurant Florent, 1985]. Offset lithography. 4 1/8 x 6" (10.5 x 15.2 cm). A fine example. Text to verso: Restaurant Florent, at 69 Gansevoort Street, is conveniently located in the heart of Manhattan's Meat District. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Telephone: 989-5779.
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley: July 14th Postcard [Bastille Day in the Meat Market]. [New York: Restaurant Florent, 1990]. Offset lithography. 4 1/8 x 6" (10.5 x 15.2 cm). A fine example. Florent was well known for its Bastille Day celebrations, which started in 1989, the year of the French bicentennial.
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Emily Oberman: Restaurant Florent Postcard [Open 24 Hours]. [New York: Restaurant Florent, c. 1988]. Offset lithography. 4 x 6" (10.1 x 15.2 cm). A fine example.
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley: Support Reproductive Rights Postcard. [New York: Restaurant Florent, 1992]. Offset lithography. 4 1/8 x 6" (10.5 x 15.2 cm). A fine example. David Byrne remembers going on one of Morellet’s many chartered bus trips to Washington, D.C., to protest wars or advocate for gay rights. “I was on one of them years ago, to protest the first Gulf War,” he says. “Cyndi Lauper got on the microphone and acted as a tour guide, pointing out all the beautiful sights along the New Jersey Turnpike.”
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman: Restaurant Bellevues Postcard. [New York: Restaurant Bellevues, c. 1993]. Offset lithography. 4 1/8 x 6" (10.5 x 15.2 cm). A fine example.
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman: Society for the Right to Die Invitation. [New York: Restaurant Florent, 1991]. Offset lithography. 4 1/8 x 6" (10.5 x 15.2 cm). Enclosed in original unmarked mailing envelope, with a separate RSVP card and return envelope. A fine, uncirculated example.
Matchbooks:
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley: Restaurant Florent Matchbooks. [New York: Diamond Match Company, 1985]. Offset lithography and matches. Complete set of three matchbooks, each: 1 7/8 x 1 1/2 x 1/4" (4.8 x 3.8 x 0.6 cm). A fine unused set.
Menus:
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley: Restaurant Florent Breakfast Menu. [New York: Restaurant Florent, 1985]. Offset lithography in two colors. 11 x 8 1/2" (27.9 x 21.6 cm). Folded into quarters [as issued] with last panel creased.
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley: Restaurant Florent Lunch Menu. [New York: Restaurant Florent, 1985]. Offset lithography. 11 x 8 1/2" (27.9 x 21.6 cm). Folded into thirds [as issued] with mild edgewear.
- [M&Co.] Tibor Kalman, Alexander Isley: Restaurant Florent Menu. [New York: Restaurant Florent, 1985]. Offset lithography. 18 x 12” (45.7 x 30.5 cm). Single folded sheet [as issued] with additional folds into thirds and mild edgewear.
Florent was an all-night diner in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan that opened in 1985 and closed in 2008. Florent was located at 69 Gansevoort Street, one of the few remaining cobblestone streets in New York City. In 1985 Florent Morellet took over the R&L Restaurant, which had opened in 1943, and renamed it Florent. The following January, Within six months New York Magazine had labeled Florent the “hottest downtown eating spot,” where sanitation workers rubbed elbows with “costumey Brits, fast-talking Frenchmen, downtown artists and uptown yups.” Isaac Mizrahi and Diane Von Furstenberg were regulars; Ray Kelly once offered to break up a fight between two line cooks. Roy Lichtenstein ate at the same table in the back of the restaurant every day, and after his death, Morellet commemorated the spot by hanging a map of Liechtenstein nearby. Tables were close enough together that strangers wound up sharing meals.
Florent was a hub of gay New York. Morellet was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1987 and used to post his T-cell count on the restaurant's wall menu along with the daily specials. It attracted a highly eclectic clientele. It was also known for its Bastille Day celebrations, which started in 1989, the year of the French bicentennial. Other major annual celebrations were Halloween, New Year’s Eve, and Oscar Night. Morellet campaigned for the preservation of the neighborhood and became known as "Unofficial Mayor of the Meatpacking District"; he preferred "Unofficial Queen.”
The graphic design for the restaurant was designed by Tibor Kalman and Douglas Riccardi from M&Co, in exchange for free meals; examples are now in the MoMA and Cooper-Hewitt design collection.
Erica De Mane, the food journalist and cookbook writer, began her cooking career at Florent in 1985.
Florent closed on June 29, 2008, after the landlord raised the rent considerably.In the last weeks, Morellet a series of parties themed after the Kübler-Ross stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
From Matthew Haber’s 1999 Obituary notice: “ [Tibor] Kalman was best known for the groundbreaking work he created with his New York design firm, M&Co, and his brief yet influential editorship of Colors magazine. Throughout his 30-year career, Kalman brought his restless intellectual curiosity and subversive wit to everything he worked on -- from album covers for the Talking Heads to the redevelopment of Times Square. Kalman incorporated visual elements other designers had never associated with successful design, and used his work to promote his radical politics. The influence of his experiments in typography and images can be seen everywhere, from music videos to the design of magazines such as Wired and Ray Gun.”
”... Born in Budapest in 1949, Kalman and his parents were forced to flee the Soviet invasion in 1956. They settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., when he was 8. Kalman was ostracized in elementary school until he learned to speak English. “
”Kalman parlayed his childhood isolation into some of his most successful design innovations. “He was keenly passionate about things of the American vernacular because he wasn’t American,” Chee Pearlman, editor of I.D. magazine, remarked shortly after Kalman’s funeral. “In that sense, he taught the whole profession to look at things that they may not have seen as closely or taken as seriously.”
His AIGA Medal citation: Alexander Isley former president of AIGA New York from 2004 to 2006 and an AIGA Fellow, is one of the ringleaders of a school of visual irony that was pervasive in late 1980s and early 1990s graphic design. Born at the tail end of the baby boom generation, Isley created work that combined conceptual hilarity with vernacular styling. His nuanced, comic design mannerisms and typographic acuity create a delightfully snarky attitude that defined graphic design of the era before digital pyrotechnics stole the stage.
Isley’s discovery of the profession, he claims, was fairly typical “in that no one grows up wanting to be a graphic designer; most of us sort of stumble upon it.” From an early age, Isley wanted to be an architect, like his father. Nothing was more exciting to him than watching his father drawing a building and then, a few months later, being able to walk through that same space.
He enrolled at North Carolina State University College of Design to study architecture, but exposure to graphic design was such a cathartic discovery, he realized it was his destiny. “Graphic design suited my impatient nature,” he explains. “There was no need to collaborate with dozens of associates, no need to meet with steering committees or zoning boards…. And you didn’t have to wait until you were 60 to hit your creative stride.”
After two years, Isley moved to New York to study at Cooper Union. There, he found his métier and honed his conceptual chops, discovering a humorous persona along the way. He spent two and a half years at the wellspring of in-your-face irony, M&Co, where just a short time after graduation he became art director. This positioned him to become art director of the mid-1980s flagship of social and cultural ironic writing and design, Spy magazine. Following in the footsteps of 2014 AIGA Medalist Stephen Doyle, who created a format for Spy that was being forever mimicked was not easy, but Isley successfully put his distinct imprimatur on the magazine, which fit nicely with its slyly stinging visual humor.
Spy gave Isley the confidence to start his own studio, in 1988. “I had some savings and no responsibilities” (and no clients or employees), he recalls, “but I figured the time was right.” In 1995 he moved Alexander Isley Inc. from New York City to the Georgetown section of Redding, Connecticut. The office is located in an 1880s building that once housed the area’s general store: “Where once there were pickle barrels there are now CPUs, but other than that most of the old character remains.”
Isley’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress. It has been honored by the Society for Experiential Graphic Design, the American Institute of Architects, the Society of Publication Designers and the Webby Awards, among others.
His approach to typography and design might be considered postmodern in its rejection of modern rules, but rather than replace design ideology with more ideology, Isley injected an easygoing yet insightful personality into work that both conformed to and transcended dominant style. His light, sometimes idiosyncratic touch was well suited for audiences that enjoyed eclecticism rather than formulaic formalism.
Isley’s work is of its time but not a slave to the moment. His career is one of regular renewal and keen introspection. On the 25th anniversary of starting his own studio, Isley admitted that he thinks he’s good “in demystifying the design process for clients” and knows he’s bad “in taking on too much work we shouldn’t do because I just like to create things.” Not a bad burden, all things considered.