ALVIN L U S T IG
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“The words ‘graphic designer,’ ‘architect,’ or ‘industrial designer’ stick in my throat
giving me a sense of limitation, of specialization within the specialty, or a relationship
to society that is unsatisfactory and incomplete.”
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ALV I N L U S T IG was a mid-twentieth century designer, whose work ranged from textiles and advertisements to interiors and furniture. Lustig wanted to be seen as a diverse designer, but ultimately has been remembered for his book jackets.
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ALTERNATIVE PRINTMAKING Book jackets at the time were more often than not a mere cover to keep the book from getting dusty in transport. They used illustrations and ornamentation in static compositions. In his early book jacket designs, Lustig was inspired by the Dadaists and Russian constructivists that used letterpress lead and furniture as intaglio impressions. Working for Ward Richie Press from 1937 to 1943, Lustig developed his bold, geometric style. He used simple geometric shapes on a small proof printing press to create increasingly complex nonfigurative compositions. The epitome of this graphic style was his design for Alfred Young Fisher’s epic poem, Ghost in the Underblows, edited by Lawrence Clark Powell. In stark black and red, Lustig designed abstract illustrations for the cover, the title page, and each of the ten books of the poem, all printed on a press with lead furniture. While they were innovative in form and aesthetic, these designs used abstract form and movement to represent the essence of the text. They drew from fine art aesthetics and illustrated the emotional quality to the text. D
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EVER EVOL VING “There was no need to ‘design down’ as there had been no ‘writing down’ in the books selected. Still it was necessary to attract and hold the roving eye of the potential buyer.”
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Lustig became a designer for New Directions Books in 1939. He moved away from the simple geometric compositions, and moved to a style that incorporated representational symbols and drawings. He brought in formal elements of fine arts, such as abstract expressionist paintings, to his hand drawn
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book covers in an effort to bring art to a wider audience. His covers significantly boosted book sales and brought the beauty of fine art sensibilities into the public sphere. His compositions became lively and dynamic while still alluding to the content of the books through composition and symbolism.
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“I think that it is in this effort to break down the barrier between art and life that the most challenging problem lies, and in which I feel my contribution might be made. To continue to ‘invent’ in the sense the artist has done for the past fifty years is not as interesting to me as the problem of synthesizing and projecting these formal discoveries into a conscious reality shared on a broad level. In other words culture instead of ‘art.’”
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A B C D E F G H I J K
Alvin
Lustig,
Book
Alvin
Lustig,
Illustration
Alvin
Lustig,
Book
Alvin
Lustig,
Illustration
Book
Cover
for
Book
Lustig,
Book Book
The
a
for
Machine
Politics:
Cover
for
Nightwood
Man
the
by
by
Model Djuna
Barnes,
10
1946
Ward
Ritchie
Press
Alfred
Young
Fischer,
Ward
Ritchie
Press
1940
Alfred
Young
Fischer,
Ward
Ritchie
Press
1940
Morrow
1937
Time Dantzig, the
Alfred
Vladimir by
Directions
Fischer,
His
by
New
Young
Tobias
Underblows
Kafka,
Alfred
with
Commissar Chicago
by
of
by
Whites
in
by
Underblows
Science
Franz by
Underblows
the
the
by
Underblows
the
of
Ghost
Once
for
in
Marlow:
Beat for
the
in
Aspects
Illustration
Cover Cover
Ghost
for
Amerika
for in
Ghost
for
Christopher for
Lissitzky,
Alvin Book
Cover
Cover
El
Cover Ghost
for
Harold 1st
Young Koudrey,
F.
Gosnell, Edition,
by
John
The
Bakeless,
Macmillan
Company
Red Fischer, Yale University Faber
Wedge, Ward
Ritchie
University of
Press
Chicago and
Press Press
Faber,
1940
1937 1919 1940 1937 1937 1936
LEGACY Throughout his career, Alvin Lustig designed book jackets using his personal vision and modern forms. Formal compositional elements alluded to the content emotionally, never “designing down” for his audience. He brought the fine arts, such as printmaking and modernist painting to the practice of design, impacting both his audience and the future of design. His work lived on through his wife, Elaine.
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L Alvin Lustig, Book Cover for Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, New Directions 1941 M Alvin Lustig, Book Cover for The Man Who Died by D.H. Lawrence, New Directions 1947 N Arshile Gorky, Blue Figure in a Chair, 1931 O Alvin Lustig, Book Cover for Widsom of the Heart by Henry Miller, New Directions 1941 P Alvin Lustig, Book Cover for A Room With a View by E M Forster, New Directions 1943 Q Alvin Lustig, Book Cover for Illuminations by Rimbaud, New Directions 1945 R Alvin Lustig, Book Cover for A Season in Hell by Rimbaud, New Directions 1947 S Alvin Lustig, Book Cover for Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire, New Directions 1947 T Alvin Lustig, Exhibition Invitation for “ Alvin Lustig: An exhibition of his work”, 1949–1950 U Alvin Lustig, Incantations, Textile print, 1950
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Heller, Steven. “Alvin Lustig.” American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1994. Accessed March 30, 2016. AIGA Medalists.
Heller, Steven. “Down the Pigeonhole.” Print 58, no. 1 (January 2004): 76-121. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed April 13, 2016).
Heller, Steven, and Elaine Lustig. Cohen. Born Modern: The Life and Work of Alvin Lustig. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2010.
Remington, R. Roger., and Barbara J. Hodik. Nine Pioneers in American Graphic Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
Designed and written by Annika Quiñones Composed in Futura, typeface designed by Paul Renner in 1927 Printed from a Toshiba 289 printer onto Hammermill 80# cover. Copyright © 2016 Annika Quiñones, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art