Back to the Future: 1960s Letterhead Design

Back to the Future: Letterhead Design of the 1960s

August 22 – September 5 2013 Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery Dawson College

Back to the Future: Letterhead Design of the 1960s

Curator, editor, preface: Frank Mulvey Essay: George Vaitkunas August 22 – September 5, 2013 Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery Dawson College 3040 Sherbrooke St. West Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3Z 1A4

space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/exhibits/summary/ back_to_the_future_letterhead_design_of_the_1960s

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Clockwise from above: Letterhead exhibition at Pennsylvania State University on display in 1963, with a Harry Bertoia chair in position to reward those with weary feet. Photo by F.R.M. Mulvey’s manual Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter, designed in 1949 by Marcello Nizzoli. Photo by F.A.M. Detail from an inquiry by F.R.M. from Towsen College, 1966.

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PREFACE

The letterhead designs featured in this exhibit were printed during the vibrant and tumultuous decade of the 1960s, when the future was a hope-filled beacon towards which many people set their sights. Art schools of the time needed to keep pace with contemporary achievements in order to navigate forward, but acquiring examples of current art and design to show students was a challenging undertaking. The material had to be obtained in reproduction form, and this required research and persistence. My father, Frank R. Mulvey (19232005), was up to the task. In the early to mid 1960s, he was an Assistant Professor in the Art Department of the College of Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State University. He recognized the need to acquire examples of design in the form of letterheads, posters, brochures and other publications.

With passionate determination, Frank mailed out hundreds of letters to designers, associations, companies and corporations with a request for printed matter. The project was described as the Graphic Research Library, and letterhead design was one component of this archive. Many items were gathered so that students and faculty could refer to them as points of departure for new creative directions.

In 1963, The College of Arts and Architecture of Penn State came into being, within which the Art Department continued to operate. By this time, Frank had already acquired a significant resource of design material from the entities he had contacted. Exhibits were mounted, class presentations were delivered and discussions ensued amongst students and faculty. The material served its purpose as a resource for all and as a catalyst for innovation and creativity.

It is difficult to imagine how my father juggled his academic activities, in addition to a career as an artist and photographer, with family life during the 1960s. My twin brother, Carl, and I came into the world at the dawn of that decade, keeping both mother and father quite involved with the enterprise of parenthood. From the young viewpoints of my brother and I, the only evidence that our father was juggling many responsibilities was the occasional “clack-clack” sound from his trusty manual typewriter, after we had gone to bed.

Through a teaching career that spanned over three decades in both the United States and Canada, Frank continued to produce hand-written or typed inquiries and mail away for design material to be used as a teaching resource. This was a time-consuming process compared to the instantaneous nature of electronic communication today, but like a long day of fishing resulting in a catch for dinner, one savoured the results all the more.

In early 2013, I took some time to go through a batch of my late father’s possessions. Among the myriad boxes and 4

portfolios of material, there was a non-descript box. Inside the small volume of this box was a beautiful cosmos of 1960s graphic design. Letters from such luminaries as Lester Beall, Paul Rand and Ladislav Sutnar had been filed away, along with hundreds of other cover letters responding to my father’s requests for design material, all on company stationery with letterheads. The respondents range from widely recognized veterans of the graphic design industry to young designers just beginning to make their mark, such as Archie Boston, who was 25 years old at the time and came to be known for his provocative work and social consciousness in graphic design and advertisement.

The cover letters were the by-product of my father’s Graphic Research Library endeavour. Through time, most of the design material accumulated by my father has been donated to various institutions. However, the letters remain, and these items form the content of this exhibition. Perhaps in my father’s mind, these examples of letterhead stationery had been spoiled because they were not in pristine condition and had been written on, folded and at times stapled. But of course, that was the purpose of letterhead stationery. When I fully realized the importance of this collection, and that 50 years had passed since the inception of the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State, I felt strongly that the dark interior of this box should see the light of day.

Some of the letters were written by designers who had created their own letterheads. Other correspondence came from companies whose letterheads had been created by in-house designers or by those working outside of the sphere of a particular company. In some cases the designers are known, in others they are unidentified and possibly obscure. The signatures attest to the wonderful spectrum of individuals who responded to my father’s research. Personalities, many of them larger than life, had left their mark.

Among the many designers whose work is represented in this collection, very few are still active today. Four have responded to email inquiries sent out in May, 2013: Archie Boston, Seymour Chwast, Tom Geismar and Milton Glaser.

Archie Boston gave insight into the Boston & Boston letterhead (page 8) from the late 1960s (May 7 email correspondence). The Jim Crow typeface alluded to the discriminatory laws that mandated racial segregation in all public places of former Confederate States. The choice of typeface was a protest against racism.

Designer Seymour Chwast remarked on the early 1960s and Push Pin Studios in which he, Milton Glaser and Reynold Ruffins were active at the time. He wrote “Any or all three of us could have designed the (Push Pin Studios)

letterhead (page 8) while Reynold designed the Push icon.”

(May 15 email correspondence).

When asked about the difference between the 1960s and now in his work as a designer, Tom Geismar responded “I was, of course, very young then. There weren’t many graphic designers around, so it was all quite exciting. But in terms of the work, our approach then is not very different from what it is today. I still see design as a problem-solving process, and continue trying to develop graphic identities that are distinctive, impactful, and appropriate for the client and the uses for which they are needed” (May 13 email correspondence).

Chermayeff & Geismar designed The Edgewood Furniture Company letterhead reproduced on page 9. It is shown alongside an Edgewood furniture showroom opening invitation (1960) provided by Mr. Geismar to illustrate how the Edgewood logo was used in other promotional material.

Milton Glaser wrote: “In reference to my letterhead, it’s derived from the floor plan of an Islamic temple. I chose it largely because it didn’t look exactly like all of the ‘designer’ letterheads that were floating around at the time” (May 20 email correspondence). The cover letter by Milton Glaser featured in the collection of letterheads from the 1960s is anomalous because it was written in 1978, but Glaser has confirmed that the design was conceived in the 1960s (page 15).

From a collection of several hundred letterhead items, 120 have been selected for display, along with a number of oddities that include oversized stationery and noteworthy envelopes. The purpose of this exhibition at the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery of Dawson College is in keeping with my father’s original objective: fascinating examples of design should be seen in order to inform and inspire students, academics and practitioners. After half a century since this occurred at the College of Arts and Architecture of Penn State, curious eyes will study the material in a different educational institution, to be experienced with a fresh perspective.

Now, we have the opportunity to see what the forward-looking spirit of the 1960s looks like from a future vantage point that owes much to that exciting decade.

The entire letterhead collection is mounted on the Internet, opening up the experience to a far wider audience than my late father could have visualized back on December 14, 1961, when he wrote his first inquiry. His motivation was to stimulate creativity and to build an appreciation for art and design in the education community within which he worked and, by extension, society at large. Looking back on this time through adult eyes, I feel a profound appreciation for my father. He had a deep sense of wonder about the world.

He shared this capacity with others, and interacting with him professionally or personally was likely to leave one feeling an extra spark of creativity inside.

Frank A. Mulvey, 2013 Fine Arts Department Illustration & Design Department S.P.A.C.E. Coordinator Dawson College

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BACK TO THE FUTURE: LETTERHEAD DESIGN OF THE 1960s Although it is a common item with a utilitarian function – that of stating a name and address – a letterhead can be transformed into something richer. It can, to borrow a phrase from Milton Glaser, be designed to “inform and delight.” In a well-designed letterhead, a surprisingly large number of issues are resolved. First, there is the matter of establishing a concept or strategy that specifies qualities and messages to be communicated by the design. Next, the challenge of expressing those messages visually using only basic graphic means such as type, margins, various contrasts (scale, proportion, weight, texture, direction, colour, style, figure-ground), and the physical properties of paper. (The difficulty of that task is best appreciated by those who have tried to do it.) Then, there are the politics of persuading a client (or worse, a committee of clients) to accept a design proposal and to follow guidelines for its use, and, finally, the constraints of budgets and printing. Given all that, a well-designed letterhead is a real achievement.

In the 1960s, long before email and smartphones, letterheads played a significant role in conveying the essential traits of an individual or organization. To achieve the desired results, designers of that time relied not on computer-generated effects, but on tangible and tactile means.

Textures and colours of ink and paper, nuanced typography, engraved printing and embossing were often expertly deployed.

The vintage letterheads shown in this exhibition can, therefore, be appreciated for their aesthetic qualities. But they can also be seen as cultural artefacts of a fascinating sociopolitical era. As we look at them, some 50 years down the road, we experience the power of graphic design to both reflect and influence the social context in which it was created.

President John F. Kennedy’s bold commitment made in May of 1961, to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, epitomized the spirit of the early 1960s – a spirit of progress, optimism and forward-looking ambition. At that time, a process of social and industrial modernization was in full swing, a result of an economic expansion that began after the Second World War. In the realm of art and culture, challenging forms of abstract expressionist painting, jazz music, and modern dance flourished. The clean lines of Miesean architecture were de rigueur in both commercial and residential construction. It was a good time to be a dealer of modern Scandinavian furniture. “The times they are a-changin” proclaimed Bob Dylan in his famous anthem penned in mid-1963. Certainly, the era had its share of problems, from civil rights and environmental issues to the threat of nuclear war. And the social upheaval resulting from student unrest, 6

political assassinations, the sexual revolution and the war in Vietnam was just around the corner. But, for a time, there was a consensus that tomorrow would be a better day.

Like many sectors of the economy at that time, the graphic design profession in North America was in the midst of a growth spurt. This was due in part to a gestation in the 1940s and 50s marked by the influence of European modernist designers such as László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Herbert Matter and Ladislav Sutnar, who all immigrated to America in the wake of the Second World War, bringing with them aesthetic and conceptual sophistication derived from major art and design movements of the twentieth century – Constructivism, De Stijl, the Bauhaus and the International Style. By 1960, graphic design was regarded by many companies and organizations as a potent strategic tool that could affect public perception as well as internal morale and functionality. “Good design is good business” was the often-repeated dictum of Thomas J. Watson, president of IBM in the 1950s and 60s. Corporate image design began to extend beyond trademarks and stationery to include signage, packaging, vehicles, publications, and advertising applications. Outstanding examples of these graphic design developments occurred in Canada in the early 60s as Canadian National Railways and Hydro-Québec replaced antiquated, visually complicated crest symbols with clear, elegant logos and graphic standards that remain fresh and meaningful to this day. The new visual identity design of the time responded to practical needs and new technologies which required that symbols and logos function effectively in diverse conditions – from the minute scale of a business card or lapel pin, to extremely large applications atop buildings, to animated sequences on television.

The exhibited letterheads provide a snapshot of the state of graphic design at the time. The diversity of their styles is evidence of a discipline – and a society – in transition, shaking off conventions and embracing the future.

Some of the designs are quite traditional. The static centred layout, engraved script and ample margins of the Ford Motor Company letterhead evoke, perhaps intentionally, the early 1900s and Model-T cars (page 10). The Pepsi-Cola letterhead (page 10) is similarly rooted in the past, though its embossed flying bottle cap adds life and a wonderful sense of space.

Some of the letterheads function primarily as period pieces, transporting us back to those heady days of the 60s. Their typographic details, colours and assertive layouts give us a warm bath of nostalgia. The brash playfulness of the American Crayon Company design (page 10), the cheeky overstatement of MAD Magazine (page 7), and the vaguely hip look of New

Vision Display (page 12) have this effect – the visual equivalent of mid-career Frank Sinatra.

Others use wit in their design concepts. The Wald/Baumstein Personnel Agency has a Pop-Art collage sensibility in its clever twist on a classified ad (page 15). Morse code has a striking effect as it spells out Pease-Icardi, a play on the idea of graphic communication – which is this firm’s business (page 12).

However, many of these letterheads are notable for their aesthetic sophistication demonstrating the modernist influences mentioned above. Their elegant, uncluttered layouts have a taut, dynamic asymmetry and a sense of thoughtful restraint. They position type and design elements at the edges of the format, activating the negative space and creating visual tension. Margins and line lengths are harmoniously proportioned. They seem to offer visions of what a utopian future might look like. They inspire.

Herb Lubalin’s design for SH&L, an advertising agency in which he was a partner, achieves tremendous vitality through the logotype’s bold colour, extreme contrast of thick and thin strokes, and compositional balance (page 12).

Underwood, a manufacturer of typewriters and business machines, then affiliated with the design-savvy Italian manufacturer Olivetti, had the audacity to use lowercase sans-serif type for its name, which, along with bold yellow line rules, contrasts well with secondary type set in an italic serif font, all in an asymmetrical layout (page 14) – a nod to the influence of the Bauhaus and Jan Tschichold. (Alas, in this case, as in some others, the positioning of the typewritten letter on the letterhead has not quite adapted to the sophistication of the new design, resulting in some awkward visual relationships between typed and printed elements.)

Some pieces go beyond appropriating the “look” of Modernism, focusing instead on one of its central concepts: economy of means. The letterhead for Lester Beall’s design office (page 14) combines large perforated initials with a single line of yellow type positioned decisively at the bottom of the format to achieve a subtle effect that sets off a typed letter and signature. Paul Rand achieved a remarkable timeless quality with his office’s stationery (page 13). Here, the design transcends stylistic devices of the period, relying purely on careful proportioning and the classic properties of the Bodoni typeface. Again, the effect is understated, but decisive; a calm, urbane authority that is so forward-looking it seems it could have been designed yesterday.

The collection contains much more excellent work. Many of the heavy hitters of graphic design in the 1960s (and beyond) are represented – Beall and Rand, along with Herb Lubalin, Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geismar, George Nelson,

Saul Bass, Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, Walter Herdeg, Ladislav Sutnar and George Tscherny, all received the highest honour in American graphic design, the Medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

We have to be grateful that Frank R. Mulvey took the time to assemble these letterheads. They give us an opportunity to experience and reflect on an important period in the history of graphic design.

George Vaitkunas, 2013 Graphic Design Department Dawson College

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We chose Red and Blue because we were patriotic; believed in freedom of speech; and also served honourably in the military. I have always believed that there is only one race, and that is the human race.

–Archie Boston, on his firm’s letterhead design.1

What I like to do is amuse myself with visual tricks, conundrums, parodies and the unpredictable. We often don’t realize that being able to reproduce our work in newspapers and magazines millions of times – is magic! I think the stuff we put on these pages should be magic too.

–Seymour Chwast. Push Pin Studios was founded in 1954 by Chwast and fellow designers.2

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[A symbol must have] some barb to it that will make it stick in your mind, make it different from the others, perhaps unique. And we want to make it attractive, pleasant and appropriate.

The challenge is to combine all those things into something simple. –Tom Geismar, on his firm's approach to design. Edgewood Furniture Company letterhead and reception invitation designed by Chermayeff & Geismar.3

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Without efficient typography, the jet plane pilot cannot read his instrument panel fast enough to survive. – Ladislav Sutnar, on the need for clear visual communication.4

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Don’t try to be original; just try to be good.

–Paul Rand, paraphrasing Mies Van der Rohe.5

You can do a good ad without good typography, but you can’t do a great ad without good typography.

–Herb Lubalin, designer of the SH&L letterhead.6

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A designer‌ has the true responsibility to give his audiences not what they think they want, for this is almost invariably the usual, the accustomed, the obvious, and hence, the unspontaneous. Rather, he should provide that quality of thought and intuition which rejects the ineffectual commonplace for effectual originality. –Lester Beall 7

Many designers are reluctant to take any chance at all for fear of failure. Their obsession to stay on top leads them to settle for the safe course, to continue doing what is being done. –Morton Goldsholl, designer of the Mossberg and Company Inc. letterhead. The embossed detail and the three process colours signify paper running through an offset printing press.8

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Although a child of modernism, it had already begun to oppress me as an unrelenting discipline.

And although the letterhead was atypical of the work I was doing at the time, I've found that I've completed a cycle, as the work I've been doing over the last five years or so has come around to looking more like it. Or, to use a worn cliché, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’.

–Milton Glaser, referring to his own letterhead design.9

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Acknowledgements

Sources

Gratitude to all individuals and entities listed below:

SPACE and exhibition coordinator, creative director, editor, file management, preface

1. May 7, 2013 email correspondence with F.A.M.

Frank Mulvey

2. “Seymour Chwast.” Art Directors Club.

Adcglobal.org, 2012. Web.23 May. 2013.

Essay, creative input George Vaitkunas Photograph of letterhead stationery on black cart (page 5), macro photography, colour management Anthony McLean Graphic design Catherine Moleski Scans Jérémy Pilote-Byrne Bruno Lauzon-Tanzi Clairine Shum Dean of Instructional Development Barbara Freedman S.S.A.P. Coordinator Tina Romeo Copy editor Gwen Schulman

3. Smith, Ray. “Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar.” American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Aiga.org, 1980.Web. 23 May. 2013.

4. Heller, Steven. “Ladislav Sutnar.” American Institute of Graphic Arts. Aiga.org, 1997.

Web. 23 May. 2013.

5. “A Conversation with Paul Rand.” Logo Design Love. Logodesignlove.com,1981. YouTube video. 23 May. 2013.

6. “Herb Lubalin: Obituary.” Baseline, 1981: 4.

TSI Typographic Systems International Limited.

7. Remington, Roger. “The Creative Process of Lester Beall.” Step-by-Step Graphics, July/ August 1990. n. pag. Print.

8. Patterson, Rhodes. “Morton Goldsholl & Associates.” The Chicago Design Archive.

Chicagodesignarchive.org, 2013. Web. 23 May. 2013.

9. May 20, 2013 email correspondence with F.A.M.

Administrative assistance Ursula Sommerer SPACE committee and advisors Barbara Freedman, Andrew Katz, Aaron Krishtalka, Maimire Mennasemay, Kenneth Milkman, Frank Mulvey, Joel Trudeau and Jiri Tucker Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery Committee Andréa Cole, Don Corman, Simon Davies, Guiseppe Di Leo, Scott Millar, Frank Mulvey, Luc Parent and Michel Seguin The Fine Arts Department Lois Valliant The Graphic Design Department

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Back to the future : letterhead design of the 1960s / curator, editor, preface: Frank Mulvey ; essay: George Vaitkunas.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery, Dawson College, August 22 – September 5, 2013.

ISBN 978-1-55016-990-4 (pbk.)

1. Letterheads—Design—Exhibitions. 2.

Stationery—Design—Exhibitions. I. Mulvey, Frank, 1960 –, curator editor writer of added commentary II. Vaitkunas, George, author III. Warren G. Flowers Gallery, host institution, issuing body NC1002.L47B33 2013 741.6074714'27 C2013-903336-X

Photo of Frank R. Mulvey by his wife Hélène, 1968

Frank R. Mulvey (1923–2005) studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and at MIT under György Kepes in the late 1940s. Kepes (1906–2001) was a Hungarian-born American artist, designer and theoretician who wrote The Language of Vision, a book that examined the power of visual communication and its ability to transcend cultural differences through both fine art and commercial art.

In keeping with his teacher, Frank pursued a career in the arts as both a practitioner and an educator in the fields of painting, drawing, photography and design. He admired the work of artists László Maholy-Nagy and Mondrian, and believed in the Constructivist vision of art and life as inseparable. Nature served as the primary subject for his photographic explorations. Frank taught at the University of Buffalo, Penn State and Towson State College. In 1969 he wrote The Graphic Perception of Space (LCCCN 69-16377), an exploration of depth cues and other spatial relationships illustrated with his photographs, photograms and design work. Frank went on to teach at Sir George Williams University in Montreal, which later joined Loyola College to become Concordia University.

Throughout his teaching career, Frank acquired countless examples of graphic design for pedagogical use in the form of letterheads, brochures, catalogues, packaging and posters.

The cover letters featured in this publication are a small part of this collection. ­Frank retired from teaching in 1990, but remained active as an artist for the rest of his life, expressing himself through painting and photography.