INTERIORS + INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
October 1948
Francis de N. Schroeder and George Nelson
Francis de N. Schroeder and George Nelson [Editors]: INTERIORS + INDUSTRIAL DESIGN. New York: Whitney Publications [Volume 108, no. 3] October 1948. Original edition. Slim quarto. Perfect bound and sewn printed illustrated wrappers. 192 pp. Illustrated articles and trade advertisements. Wrappers lightly worn with tiny chip to lower corner. Interior unmarked and clean. Cover by Ernest Costa. A nearly fine copy.
9 x 12 magazine with 192 pages of color and black and white examples of the best modern American interior and industrial design, circa 1948 -- offering a magnificent snapshot of the blossoming modern movement after World War II. A very desirable, vintage publication in terms of form and content: high quality printing and clean, functional design and typography and excellent photographic reproduction make this a spectacular addition to a midcentury design collection. Highly recommended.
Contents include:
- Profiles Of Cover Artists Dorothy Cole, Gyorgy And Juliet Kepes And Ernest Costa.
- George Nelson Joins Interiors: " The publisher takes great pleasure in announcing that George Nelson has become an editor of “Interiors.” No stranger to our readers, architect Nelson has figured ever more often on the pages of this magazine, both as an industrial designer and as a writer on the wide variety of subjects that concern designers today. As head of his own busy office currently engaged in designing houses, industrial products, commercial interiors, advertisements, catalogues, and furniture, Mr. Nelson is obviously not going to spend much time warming a chair in the editorial offices. Equally obviously, he would not have joined “Interiors” if he had not agreed with its editorial policy. We believe that he will find “Interiors” to his liking, since we will neither attempt to soften his words nor restrict his choice of subject."
- For Your Information: Gustav Vigeland Fountain Project; Henry Adams Drive-In; Mrion Davies Beach Mansion Conversion; Revere Quality House; etc.
- Magazines From Abroad: Art Et Industrie, Werk, Art And Industry, Domus, The Ambassador, The Architectural Review, Magazine Of The Future, etc.
- Best Of The New Furniture: Eero Saarinen, T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, George Nelson, Richard Stein, Abel Sorenson, Hardoy, Bonet And Kurchan, Edward Wormley, For Knoll, Herman Miller, Widdicomb, etc. Photos By Herbert Matter and others.
- Best Of The New Furniture: How It Was Shown. Displays By George Nelson, Charles Eames, T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, The Grand Rapids Furniture Makers Guild, The Johnson Furniture Company, Tapp, Inc., Gump's, Robert Dorr, etc.
- Eight Solutions To Merchandise Display: Knoll Associates Achieve Intimacy And Openness In A Colorful Plan, 601 Madison Avenue. Herbert Matter Photographs.
- Fiberglas House: A Depression-Born Industry Demonstrates Its Wares In A Remodeled Brownstone. Skidmore, Owings And Merrill.
- A Sultan Airs His Fresh Linens In Public. Jos. Sultan And Sons Designed By Simon Zelnik.
- The Happy Clients; Or Plenty Of Room Inside. Norman Cherner Associates Designs For Alfred E. Knobler.
- Raymond Loewy Designs A New York Office For California Buyers. Bullock's-Wilshire.
- A Brooklyn Manufacturing Plant Remodels Its Offices. Frederic Arden Pawley For David E. Kennedy, Brooklyn.
- Light On Italian Perfumes. Milan Perfume Shop By Ernesto Carboni [?].
- Light On Finnish Food. Aarne Ervi For The Finnish Consulate.
- Lamps From Finland. Paavo Tynell and others.
- The Institute Of Design -- A Laboratory For A New Education. 6 Pages Of Student Work.
- Merchandise Cues: Harper Richards; Lumite; Danbury Rubber Company; Lobell Furniture; etc.
- Advertisements for Herman Miller, Drexel, Scalamandre, Laverne, Pascoe Associates, Hille and Company, Dunbar, Knoll Associates, Lehigh, Baldwin Kingrey, etc.
- And much more.
George Nelson famously served as Editorial contributor to Interiors, where he used the magazine as his bully pulpit for bringing modernism to middle-class America. Interiors was a hard-core interior design publication, as shown by their publishing credo: "Published for the Interior Designers Group which includes: interior designers, architects who do interior work, industrial designers who specialize in interior furnishings, the interior decorating departments of retail stores, and all concerned with the creation and production of interiors-- both residential and commercial."