Levity: An Architectural Digest Concept by Rebecca Thompson

THE INTERNATIONAL DESIGN AUTHORITY

NOVEMBER 2021

LEVITY

better your life through Mid-Century Modern philosophy

SEVEN Mid-Century Modern graphic designers you need to know

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CONTENTS november

70 52

TAKE A LOOK AROUND THE MOORE'S NEWLY RENOVATED HOME

SEE HOW GRAPHIC DESIGN COLLABORATES WITH INTERIOR DESIGN

10 Editor’s Letter 12 AD it Yourself 14 Object Lesson Learn about the iconic Eames lounge chair and ottoman.

17 Discoveries AD visits the designers who led the Mid-century Modern movement...Paul Rand...Erik Nitsche...Alvin Lustig...Saul Bass...Alex Steinweiss...Lester Beall...Will Burtin...And more!

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52 Levity Delve in to the philosophy of American Mid-century design.

60 Envelop Experience why today's world is obsessed with Mid-century design.

70 Feast for the Eyes Join us in exploring Mandy Moore's home renovation! We will take you through all the magic.

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CONTENTS november 96 GRAPHIC DESIGNER, JESSICA HISCHE'S KITCHEN

THE USE OF LIGHT, SPACE, AND ORDER IN ARCHITECTURE.

76 Perfect Pair

FOLLOW @ARCHDIGEST

Learn about how Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by nature.

84 Sustainabilty Get ready to learn how to find the best second-hand MCM finds.

96 One to watch

Check out Jessica Hische's current home renovation.

MANDY MOORE ENJOYING HER NEWLY RENOVATED MID-CENTURY MODERN HOME WITH HER TWO DOGS.

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THE INTERNATIONAL DESIGN AUTHORITY VOLUME 77 NUMBER 9

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Eli Stanley

Lindsey Gatlin EDITORIAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Rebecca Thompson Shax Riegler FEATURES DIRECTOR Sam Cochran DIGITAL DIRECTOR David C. Kaufman INTERIORS & GARDEN DIRECTOR Alison Levasseur STYLE DIRECTOR Wes Echols DECORATIVE ARTS EDITOR Makenna Schiltz WEST COAST EDITOR Mayer Rus CREATIVE DIRECTOR

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

FEATURES

SENIOR DESIGN DIRECTOR Hannah DEPUTY DIRECTOR, DIGITAL

AD PRO

Martin

Kristen Flanagan

SPECIAL PROJECTS DIRECTOR, DIGITAL

Sydeny Wasserman

Rachel Wallace

MARKET EDITOR

Aidan Corrigan, Cait Knoll, Josh Young DIRECTORS Ross Buran, Ashley Gabriel, James Pettigrew PRODUCER Keleigh Nealon ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS Adaeze Anaebonam, Aubrey Patti, Sofie Rimlet, Shubhi Shekhar, Katherine Wzorek

PRODUCTION EDITORIAL OPERATIONS MANAGER

Nick Traverse

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Nicole PRODUCTION MANAGERS Brent

Sessums

Roberto Rodríguez PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Gabriela Ultoa MARKET

VICE PRESIDENT, VIDEO Eric Leffler EXECUTIVE PROGRAMMER Traci Oshiro HEAD OF PROGRAMMING Cade Hiser SUPERVISING PRODUCERS Tiffany Bender,

Gabrielle Pilotto Langdon ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mel Studach

ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR Dana Mathews EXECUTIVE FEATURES EDITOR David Foxley CLEVER EDITOR Nora Taylor FEATURES EDITOR, DIGITIAL Nick Mafi ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Luke Leifeste ASSOCIATE ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR ASSOCIATE CLEVER EDITOR Zoë ASSITANT TO THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

VIDEO

EDITOR Katherine Burns Olson DEPUTY EDITOR Allie Weiss NEWS EDITOR Madeline Luckel ASSOCIATE VISUALS EDITOR

Stuart Burket,

Cor Hazelaar

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Erika Owen

CREATIVE

DESIGN DIRECTOR Natalie Do VISUALS DIRECTOR Michael Shome VISUALS DIRECTOR, DIGITAL Melissa Maria ASSISTANT VISUALS EDITOR Lizzie Soufleris

Madeline O’Malley

COPY AND RESEARCH

COPY DIRECTOR Joyce Rubin COPY MANAGER Adriana Bürgi RESEARCH MANAGER Leslie Anne

COMMUNICATIONS + EDITORIAL PROJECTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PUBLIC RELATIONS

Erin Kaplan

MEMBERSHIP SERVICES LEAD

DaVonne Onassis Bacchus CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTING EDITOR AT LARGE

Michael Reynolds

CONTRIBUTING STYLE EDITORS

Lawren Howell, Caroline Irving CONTRIBUTING DIGITAL NEWS EDITORS

Derek Blasberg, Amanda Brooks, Howard Christian, Gay Gassmann, Mallery Roberts Morgan EDITOR EMERITA Paige Renese Noland

SENIOR MANAGER, ANALYTICS Lauren Lines SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Elise Portale ASSOCIATE SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Sarah Ratner

Wiggins CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER

Jennifer Mormile

Bree McKenney VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE & BRAND DEVELOPMENT Rob Novick Tara Mason DIRECTOR, MARKETING Kayla Billings SENIOR BUSINESS DIRECTOR Jennifer Crescitelli

HEAD OF MARKETING VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING

HEADS OF SALES

David Stuckey BEAUTY Lucy Kriz CPG &VICE Jeff Barish AUTO & MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT Bill Mulvihill BIZ/FI/TECH Doug Grinspan HOME & TRAVEL Beth Lusko-Gunderman HEALTH Carrie Moore Pamela Quandt VICE PRESIDENT, REVENUE—SAN FRANCISCO Devon Rothwell VICE PRESIDENT, ENTERPRISE SALES—LOS ANGELES Dan Weiner

FASHION & LUXURY VICE PRESIDENT, REVENUE—MIDWEST

PUBLIC RELATIONS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS

PUBLISHED BY CONDÉ NAST CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Hannah Martin CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER & PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL Wolfgang Blau GLOBAL CHIEF OD REVENUE OFFICER & PRESIDENT U.S. REVENUE Pamela Drucker Mann U.S. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND GLOBAL CONTENT ADVISOR Anna Wintour CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Mike Goss CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Deidre Findlay CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER Stan Duncan CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Danielle Carrig CHIEF OF STAFF Samantha Morgan CHIEF DATA OFFICER Karthic Bala CHIEF CLIENT OFFICER Jamie Jouning CHIEF PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Sanjay Bhakta

CHIEF CONTENT OPERATIONS OFFICER

Christiane Mack

IN THE UNITED STATES CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Joseph Libonati

CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, U.S. ADVERTISING REVENUE AND GLOBAL VIDEO SALES

Craig Kostelic

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT-REVENUE

Monica Ray

HEAD CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Raúl Martinez

CONDÉ NAST ENTERTAINMENT

PRESIDENT Hannah Martin EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT-GENERAL MANAGER OF OPERATIONS Kathryn Friedrich

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Jonathan Newhouse

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editor’s letter

MID-CENTURY MODERN DESIGNERS LOOKED TO NATURE FOR INSPIRATION. ENJOY YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE A LITTLE MORE BY USING NATURAL TONES AND MATERIALS IN YOUR HOME, AS WELL AS ADDING LARGE WINDOWS SO YOU CAN FEEL LIKE YOUR IN THE OUTDOORS WHILE INSIDE YOUR OWN HOME.

“Function over frivolity. Clean living. Clean lines.” Jamie Lee Curtis. The November AD 2021 edition is all about the philosophy and the designers who helped Mid-Century Modern design take off. Better your life by adding Mid-Century Modern designs and theories in to your life today. From interiors to exteriors, this edition will help you bring MCM into your everyday life. Mid-Century Modern is a timeless design philosophy that embraces color, line, texture and levity. Levity is the idea that everything around you feels lighter and warmer. This philosophy is why designers in this period made things that felt light on the floor and were very warm, mimicking nature. The materials make you feel like you were enveloped in nature and designers today are still using this technique to ensure sleek looking interiors. Some architects have moved away the Mid-Century Modern exteriors but the interior design of MCM has, and probably will always be with us. From wallpaper to lamps, this issue of Architectural Digest will walk you through a timeless period that still impacts our culture today. “Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearns for timelessness”, says Frank Gehry. So join us in this thrilling AD Mid-century Modern edition in viewing timeless designs that impact lives from all angles. Go through the motions of the designers and the influences they have on all things Mid-Century Modern design.

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Eli Stanley Editor in Chief @estanley

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AD it yourself DELANA FEATURING BRIGH BLUES, TEALS, AND YELLOWS, DELANA WILL MAKE A MCM STATEMENT ANYWHERE YOU USE IT. HOMEGIRLLONDON.COM

BLUEMERANG ENJOY THIS BEAUTIFUL TURQUOISE BLUE PATERN WITH ABSTRACT BOOMERANGS IN YOUR HOME. HOMEGIRLLONDON.COM

ADD MID-CENTURY PATTERNS TO YOUR HOME

Pop it Lock it, Polka-Dot it Love Mid-Century fabric? So does Helen Snell. The London native and the vintage junkie is a passionate designer whose world revolves around anything and everything Mid-Century. 20th Century Cloth, her one-woman textile design business, is focused on crafting quality Mid-Century Modern inspired designs and partners exclusively with the manufacturers in the UK. Now even you can envelop your home with these Mid-Century Modern patterns that will take you back in time. You too, can experience these brand new textiles through a DIY project or a revamp for your patterns throughout you interior. Whether these projects are new curtains or upholstering your furniture, these designs will add spice to your home instantly. Don't forget to check out Helen Snell and all she has to offer in her upcoming textile designs.

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ATOMIC BOMB THIS YUMMY YELLOW FABRIC WITH AN ABSTRACT PATTER COULD BRING WARMTH INTO YOUR AT HOME PROJECTS. GET IT NOW FOR YOUR MOST RECENT DIY’S. HOMEGIRLLONDON.COM

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object lesson

THE STORY BEHIND AN ICONIC DESIGN

THE SMOOTH CURVES OF MOLDED PLYWOOD ON THE EAMES LOUNGE AND OTTOMAN WERE UNPRECEDENTED IN FURNITURE DESIGN AT THE TIME.

Take a Seat A look at American’s favorite chair, the Eames lounge and ottoman Charles and Ray Eames often visited their friend Billy Wilder on his film sets. While working, the famed director would put together a makeshift lounge chair so that he could nap between takes. Something about his jerry-rigged seat struck a chord with the duo. The couple already had signif icant experience working with plywood. Applying heat and pressure, Charles and Ray had molded it for use by the U.S. Navy during WWII. Following the war, they continued to experiment with the material. The resulting smooth curves of molded plywood on the Eames Lounge and Ottoman were unprecedented in furniture design at the time. The chair is upholstered in leather and has an aluminum base. When the chair debuted on Arlene Francis’ Home show in 1956, she called it “quite a departure” from the designers’ earlier creations. The lounge set came about during a period of very spare and minimal furniture, but Charles was insistent on 14

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building a chair with “the warm receptive look of a well used f irst baseman’s mitt,” one that would provide respite from the “strains of modern living.” In a letter to Charles Eames, Ray wrote that the chair looked “comfortable and un-designy.” Despite its humble origins, the Eames Lounge and Ottoman are in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The first completed set was gifted to Billy Wilder, and is produced by Herman Miller.

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DISCOVERIES

AD VISITS

Mid-Century Modern Designers Seven Graphic Designers who influenced the Interior and Architectural Design World ARCHDIGEST.COM

DISCOVERIES

Logos “The height of corporate identity design”

NEED + FUNCTION

Paul Rand “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, describing Rand: “He is a painter, lecturer, industrial designer, [and] advertising artist who draws his knowledge and creativeness from the resources of this country. He is a great idealist and a realist, using the language of the poet and business man. He thinks in terms of need and function. He is able to analyze his problems but his fantasy is boundless.” Paul Rand is one of the most famous and recognized American designers of the 20th Century. His ideas, philosophies and approach continue to be a large part of the fundamentals of design taught in education programs across the world. His early career was spent working for Apparel Arts and Esquire magazines and then joining the Weintraub agency. He was so successful that after a few years he demanded twice the pay for half the time, and got it. His relentless passion for corporate identity helped shape the American business landscape in the 1960s. The height of corporate identity design owed much to the unwavering pursuit of Paul Rand to make advertising more than just billboards. He worked in the field until the day that he died, at the age of 82.

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FROM 1956 UNTIL THE 1990S HE WAS A PROFESSOR OF GRAPHIC DESIGN AT YALE, AND UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 1996, HE WORKED FROM HIS STUDIO AT 87 GOODHILL ROAD, DESIGNING LOGOS, POSTERS AND BOOKS.

aul and Marion Rand’s quintessential mid-century modern home, which was designed by Paul Rand and Ann Binkley Rand and built in 1953, is on the market. The landmark home, set in the wooded Connecticut town of Weston, is the exact epitome of modern aesthetics with a touch of Japanese simplicity, exactly the kind of structure you’d picture Rand living in until his death in 1996.

“The Rand House avoids the cliches of the “modernistic", and strives for a warm and companionable use of building materials. The wood used in the frame is a black-stained cypress, the white paneling is of Marlite, and the f lags for the court and entrance are blue-stones. The house is congenial to all types of New England weather,” notes the Weston Historical Society in the sales prospectus. Ann and Paul Rand wanted such a house, too, an enduring, essential house, built for beauty and privacy, security and shelter, peace and an intimacy with its surroundings. So they designed their home as if this were the first house ever built. Mrs. Rand is a graduate architect, Paul Rand a designer and painter, so perhaps this approach was destined to be a creative and tasteful success.” Paul Rand at that time was designing many advertisements for such clients as Orbach’s department store, Schenley Liquors, and Playtex, as well as book jackets and covers for Alfred Knopf and other publishers. His graphic design was characterized by its sly humor and simplicity, combining formal elements from modern painting with bold contemporary typography. 20

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“Mrs. Rand” was the former Ann Binkley, and she as far more than “a graduate architect.” In fact, she had studied at the famed Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) with none other than the renowned architect Mies van der Rohe, receiving her B.S. in 1945. She married Paul Rand in 1949 and immediately began work on the house at 87 Goodhill Road in Weston. Ann Rand had designed another house for herself in Rye, NY. She hired the famous architect Marcel Breuer to design it in 1948; unhappy with his design, she took over and completed the house herself. (“Take that, Marcel Breuer!”) During their decade or so of marriage, Ann and Paul Rand worked side by side in the studio at 87 Goodhill Road, “the creative heart of the Paul Rand home.”

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DISCOVERIES Report Covers

Work for General Dynamics

ATTENTION TO DETAILS. EVEN THE "BORING" ONES.

Erik Nitsche That guy “doing the Bauhaus in New York” Erik Nitsche left an unmistakable mark on the world of design in his approximately 60 year career. Leaving almost no f ield untouched, he worked as an art director, book designer, illustrator, typographer, graphic designer, photographer, advertiser, and packaging designer. His graphic design work included magazine covers, signage, film, exhibitions, posters and many other advertising mediums. Before emigrating to the United States in 1934 Nitsche studied at the Collège Classique in Switzerland and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. His work has a distinctly modernist aesthetic and although he never had the opportunity to attend the Bauhaus Laszlo Moholy-Nagy has been quoted as saying, “Who is this guy that is doing the Bauhaus in New York?” He designed promotional and advertising campaigns for a host of different clients including department stores, feature films, record companies and the New York Transit Authority. Nitsche greatly inf luenced the young generation of designers in America in the mid-20th century including the legendary designers Walter Bernard and Seymour Chwast.

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DISCOVERIES

Alvin Lustig Solving the undefined wants of society. A student of Frank Lloyd Wright, among others, Alvin Lustig had a very successful career in graphic design and art direction. Revolutionizing the approach to book cover design in the 1940s, Lustig would attempt to get a sense of the writers direction from reading the book and then translate it into his own graphic style (The previous trend was to summarize the book with one image). The combination of technology and creativity in his designs was reminiscent of the Bauhaus, as did his intellectual approach to problem-solving. He designed books in LA for New Directions before moving to New York to become the Director of Visual Research for Look Magazine. He rose to success early in his career garnering work for all types of clients and working on a vast array of types of projects. He died much too early at the age of 40, in 1955. His simplified shapes and use of flat colors, all while creating very elaborate and intensely interesting compositions, are still imitated today by many graphic designers. 24

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“THE YOUNG MAN WHO WAS DOING ‘QUEER THINGS’ WITH TYPE” JAMES LAUGHLIN

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I MAKE SOLUTIONS THAT NOBODY WANTS TO PROBLEMS THAT DON'T EXIST.

arry Houdini and Alvin Lustig had one thing in common: Each of them escaped straitjackets. “The words ‘graphic designer,’ ‘architect,’ or even ‘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. This inadequate set of terms to describe an active life reveals only partially the still undefined nature of a designer.”

He wrote this in a September 1946 Interiors magazine article about his brief yet varied career as master of many design forms. By age thirty-nine he was totally blinded by early onset diabetes and within a year he had died, but not before packing a lifetime of experience into half a life span. Lustig proclaimed membership in a group “that was born modern.” Design was not a job but a calling, and he held a messianic belief that anything a modern designer laid hands on - from book cover to room interior - could make the world better. So whenever one of his clients or friends innocently requested his advice about, say, what lamp to purchase for an office or home, he replied, “I won’t recommend a lamp, but I will redo the entire room.” He attended the Arts Center School in Los Angeles in 1934; the following year, he leapt into the depths of modernism with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin East in Wisconsin. Yet he grew weary of kowtowing and doing menial jobs, so he returned to Los Angeles, where California architect Richard Neutra gave Lustig unlimited access to a library of remarkable design books and magazines that influenced his practice. Although graphic

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design was his métier, he was inspired by Italian furniture designer Franco Albeni and later by Phillip Johnson, who responded to Lustig’s natural affinity for architecture and innate ability to conceive in three-dimensional space. Lustig showed a high degree of self-taught proficiency in decorating his own studios. Lack of work in California forced Lustig to move to New York, where he became visual research director of Look magazine’s design department in 1944. Two years later, he returned to Los Angeles, where for five years he ran an office specializing in architectural, furniture, and fabric design, while continuing his book and editorial jobs. He became a charter member of the seminal group of intrepid Angelenos, including Saul Bass, Louis Danzinger, Rudolph de Harak, and John Follis, that is called the Los Angeles Society for Contemporary Designers, whose members were frustrated by the surrounding dearth of creative vision.

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Lustig’s practice seamlessly integrated everything from record albums to textiles. He designed a helicopter for Roteron which was a pioneering aerospace company; signage for J. L. Hudson’s Northland Center in Detroit, one of the first American shopping malls; The opening sequence for the popular animated UPA cartoon series Mr. Magoo; And print materials for the Girl Scouts of America, transforming aspects of their graphic identity from homespun quaintness to sophisticated modernism. He was passionate about design education, and at Josef Albers’s request he conceived design courses and workshops for Black Mountain College in North Carolina and the design department at Yale. Lustig was pioneering in his graphic design, especially for book jackets. He began designing them in the early forties, when they were ephemeral wrappers that protected bindings from dust, removed and discarded as routinely as gift paper. Lustig turned book jackets, and paperback book covers, into a minor art genre, influenced by abstract art and projecting impressions and moods. His jackets for New Directions suggested a book’s content with nuanced graphic gestures. “His method was to read a text and get the feel of the author's creative drive, then to restate it in his own graphic terms,” James Laughlin, New Directions’ publisher, wrote in print magazine in 1956. Laughlin hired Lustig and gave him license within bounds to experiment with the houses list of c lassic re prints, which featured such authors as Henry Miller, Gertrude Stein, D.H. Lawrence, and James Joyce. Basing his work on Abstract 28

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Expressionist painting, Surrealist drawing, and pre-Columbian ceramics, among with other disparate art influences, Lustig would sketch his imagery in light and dark lines, sometimes with pen and brush, other times including in eclectic yet recurring selection of cryptic glyphs and signs. From running his own printing shop, Lustig had acquired an interest in compositions made from metal type slugs that actually resembled Russian Constructivists experiments from the early twenties and Frank Lloyd Wright's graphics of the same. And for his first New Directions assignment, Henry Miller's Wisdom of the Heart of 1941, he eclipsed the “conservative” and “booky” designs of the houses previous books. Laughlin allowed Lustig to create styles when appropriate. His cover for Lorca: 3 tragedies in 1949 was unique in its day, comprising a grid of five symbolic photographs linked through poetic disharmony yet bound together by the confines of the book itself. The book's title is incorporated into the photographs. In his own way, Lustig pioneered this otherwise realistic medium as a tool for creating abstractions through reticulated negatives, photograms, and still lifes.

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DISCOVERIES

Logos “Essence of the company”

BEAUTIFUL THINGS

Saul Bass “Graphic extensions of internal realities.” Saul Bass was an American designer whose 40+ year career spanned everything from print and identity development to movie title credits. He worked with major corporations to establish logos and branding guidelines, including AT&T, United Way and Continental Airlines. He designed titles for over 30 films and he won an academy award for his short film Why Man Creates. Also proficient in typography his "cut-paper" style is one of the most recognized styles of design from the 1950s and 60s. He revolutionized the way that people viewed movie titles by using the time to not just display the information but give a short visual metaphor or story that intrigued the viewer. Often times it was a synopsis or reference to the movie itself. His list of title credits include famous films such as West Side Story, Psycho, Goodfellas, Big, North by Northwest and Spartacus. He created four titles for Martin Scorsese, the last of which was for Casino.

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inally, in 1949, he designed his first breakthrough ad, for The Champion. It was totally black with a tiny halftone and a little lettered scrawl below it but it was the auspicious beginning that thrust Bass’s mature neo-expressionist approach to Hollywood publicity into view, launching his career as an innovative advertising and film-title-sequence designer in the fifties and sixties. Bass was given the opportunity to make title-sequence history by making a conceptual shift from mundane title-card lettering superimposed over backgrounds to short prologues in the films. In 1955, he made a bold leap with the print advertising for The Man with the Golden Arm, which eschewed a picture of its star, Frank Sinatra, in favor of a pattern of black bars that framed a primitive woodcut-like rendering of a crooked arm, symbolizing the drug-addicted protagonist. Theater owners objected to the absence of the star, but the following tells the story of Bass’s subsequent success: Preminger “was sitting with his back to me – he didn’t know I was there – talking on the phone, obviously to an exhibitor somewhere in Texas,” Bass recalled. “The exhibitor was complaining about the ads and saying he wanted a picture of Sinatra… and I heard Otto say to him, ‘Those ads are to be used precisely as they are. If you change them one iota, I will pull the picture from your theater.’ And hung up on him.” Rather than hype the film, the graphic reduced the plot, the story of a tormented drug addict, to an essence – a logo, really – that evoked the film’s tension. The real revolution occurred when Bass animated this simple graphic icon for the title sequence of moving white bars on a black screen, which was transformed into an abstract ballet of erratic shapes. After a few moments, the bars metamorphosed into the arm. “There was a tendency, when I did the title for The Man with the Golden Arm, to think it worked because it

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was ‘graphic,’” Bass explained in Print magazine in 1960. “If it worked, it was because the mood and feeling it conveyed made it work, not because it was a graphic device.” Nevertheless, by creating a graphic symbol that was effective for use in both the print campaign and the opening title sequence, Bass invented a genre that other directors realized was an appealing way to introduce a film by compressing narrative into a graphic device. But Bass said he was simply returning to the essence of motion pictures as a purely visual medium. “We’ve come full circle,” Bass once explained. “[We] went to a theatrical stage approach with inordinate reliance on dialogue, and now we’re back again to a greater reliance on the visual, but in a way that’s more real and more current with our lives today.”

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DISCOVERIES

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DISCOVERIES

Alex Steinweiss The inventor of design on album covers Alex Steinweiss has a massive body of design work that spans several different media. Some of Steinweiss’ clients have even included the U.S. Navy, PRINT, Fortune and Columbia Records. However, he is most recognized for inventing the modern album cover and much of his work lies in the poster like images that he created while he was an art director at Columbia records. Before Steinweiss the only album covers that existed were brown paper wrappers that served to protect the album you had just purchased. His idea to create artwork to entice the buyer to purchase the album was an instant success. From 1939 to 1945 he designed record covers for Columbia, during which time he turned out hundreds of distinct designs. After 1945 he began working for other clients including several other record companies and in 1974 he retired to Florida to paint and work on occasional commissioned pieces.

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THE ALBUM SLEEVE AS WE KNOW IT TODAY— AND HAVE KNOWN IT SINCE ITS INTRODUCTION IN THE EARLY 1940S WAS THE INVENTION AND PASSION OF ALEX STEINWEISS, WHOSE DESIRE TO PAIR ART AND MUSIC

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DISCOVERIES

Lester Beall “...to give his audiences not what they think they want...” A man with a very technology-oriented background, Beall grew up playing with Ham radios and creating his own wireless sets. He graduated with a Ph.D in the History of Fine Art and the years following his graduation found him expressing an interest in modern art movements such as Surrealism, Constructivism and Dadaism. His work as an advertiser and graphic designer quickly gained international recognition and the most productive years of his career during the 1930s and 40s, saw many successes in both fields. His clear and concise use of typography was highly praised both in the United States and abroad. Throughout his career he used bold primary colors and illustrative arrows and lines in a graphic style that became easily recognizable as his own. He eventually moved to rural New York and set up an office, and home, at a premises that he and his family called “Dumbarton Farm.” He remained at the farm until his death in 1969.

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Throughout the midthirties and forties, Lester Beall was one of the two most influential graphic designers - the other was Paul Rand - for having introduced European avant-garde concepts of visual expression into an otherwise decorous American graphic design scene. Beall was f luent at translating into American the Constructivists style of the twenties and early thirties which was characterized by an asymmetrical layering of words and images, dynamic use of f lat color and block type, experimental photography, and the iconic/ironic photomontage to achieve both an identifiable style and clarity of message. He developed a personal style, exemplif ied by the three series of Rural Electrif ication Administration posters he created for the U.S. government between 1937 and 1941 that was exceptionally and emblematically his own. He was act ively engaged in pa int ing and photog raphy, which is obvious from much of his work. In the thirties he admired the avant-garde photographic experiments of Herbert Bayer, El Lissitzky, and Laszlo Maholy-Nagy. His own work was a com bi nat ion of complex layer i ng, va r iou sly s ca le d pictures, photomontages, diverse typographic styles, and graphic shapes and symbols. For example, his biographer, R. Roger Remington, noted that Beall “loved” arrows and included them in nearly all his work because they g uided the eye. But he did have one bête noire: symmetry was taboo—he called it an “easy out” and a “static response to a dynamic world”

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and anyone would be hard pressed to find it in his design world. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Beall spent his early childhood in St. Louis and Chicago. He studied at Lane Technical School in Chicago and received a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Chicago. He also took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. His design career began to blossom in 1927, but his moment arrived when he moved to New York in 1935 and opened a studio in Tudor City, on the east side of Manhattan. In 1937, he designed an iconic cover and a 16 page insert of his commercial work for PM magazine; in 1938 - 39 he redesigned promotional publications for McGraw Hill; in 1939, he designed Abbott Laboratories’ house organ What’s New;

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In 194 4, he began designing Scope magazine for Upjohn, which he did until 1951; and in 1946-47, he designed two covers for Fortune. When he decided to take on more corporate work in 1956, Beall established the Lester Beall Design Group with his wife, Dorothy, at Dumbarton Farm in rural Brookf ield Center, Connecticut. Beall became aware of the European avant-garde through books and magazines. While trendier designers shaved the edges off the sharp new visual language, Beall was “inspired to bring American design of the thirties and forties to a higher level of effective visual communication,” noted Remington adding that Beall was one of the first Americans to have his work shown in the prestigious German monthly Gebrauchsgraphik, in April 1939, and was one of the first Americans to effectively incorporate Jan Tschichold’s New Typography into his layouts. This may be one reason that he was the only American to be included in a show of government posters at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1937. Beall worked with author L. Sandusky to design and select the illustrations for “The Bauhaus Tradition and the New Typography” for PM magazine in 1938, and he articulated the inf luence of modern art on design in “Design as Applied to Advertising” for American Printer in 1941: “Contemporary graphic design is dependent upon a visual consideration of three dimensionality, even though it is actually two dimensional.” Lester Beall advanced the development of corporate identity design programs from the early f ifties to the midsixties. For Connecticut General Life Insurance, he designed a comprehensive corporate identity program, including a new trademark (1956) and an early example of a corporate identity standards manual. In addition, he designed the interior building signage, policy forms, promotional booklets, annual reports, 44

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letter heads, advertising, and other promotional materials for the company. Beall envisioned corporate identity as a combination of organized and coordinated usage, which would develop and grow overtime. “Any graphic device, no matter how well designed,” he argued, “cannot alone project an overall positive image and less it is an integral part of a usage symptom.” Beall’s success with Connecticut General enabled him in 1958 to embark on an ambitious company identity program for International Paper, then the largest paper and paper-products manufacturer in the world. Beall continued to develop new approaches to design in his last decade. When, in 1960, the Composing Room, one of New York’s most influential showcases, invited him to experiment, he would not rest on the past but instead found a direction that combined old and new. This was the moment when prototype was nudging hot-metal type into the shadows, and expressive typography was replacing neutrality. Beall authored one of four booklets in the About U.S. series published by the gallery to show new directions in typography. Each addressed a topic that in some way typified the United States; Come Home to Jazz was designed by Herb Lubalin; That New York by the design firm Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar; Love of Apples by Gene Federico ; and Age of the Auto by Beall. Each was a form of typographic concrete poetry.

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DISCOVERIES Scope Science magazines you’ll actually read

THE SCIENCE OF DESIGN

Will Burtin “The designer must think first and work later.” A pioneer of the f ield of information design, Will Burtin is known for traversing several f ields of design including information design, magazine design and exhibition design. Having a formal education in typesetting, Burtin started a design studio in Germany in 1927. By 1938 he had clients all over Europe but was forced to f lee the country because his wife was Jewish and also because he was unwilling to work for the Nazi party. Drafted into the US Army in 1943, he designed manuals and instructional pamphlets as reference material for soldiers. After the war he taught for a short while and then became art director of For t une Maga zi ne f rom 19 45- 4 9. I n 19 4 9 he sta r ted h is ow n design studio where he worked for a variety of clients including The Upjohn Company. At Upjohn, a pharmaceutical company, he designed packaging, advertising and their trade publication, Scope. He was so successf ul t hat t hey allowed h im t he creat ive lat it ude to explore the presentation of several scientif ic subjects such as human blood cells and the brain as 3-dimensional exhibitions. At scales of up to 1,000,00 :1 these exhibitions were impressive and became some of his most well recognized work.

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ABOVE A DIAGRAM OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF BIRD EGGS BY WILL BURTIN. LEFT WILL BURTIN WITH HIS LARGER-THAN-LIFE CELL SCULPTURE.

Will Burtin, who was born in Cologne, Germany, the son of a French chemist, believed that striving to understand molecular biology, endocrinology, and bacteriology was as important to his design practice as studying the typography of Didot and Bodoni. He was a master of making complex data accessible through graphic concepts, which included creating pages of text as elegant as they were informative. The role of the graphic designer, he wrote in Print in 1995, was to increase the average man’s understanding “between what the reading public knows and what they should know.” There was no higher calling. His professional life was therefore devoted to mastering information design in a modern manner. Indeed, the such technical material might have remained forever to colorless textbooks if Burtin has not become the champion of exquisite functionality. This was no better realized then through his designs for the Upjohn Company – one of America’s largest producers of pharmaceuticals – from 1949 to 1971. Will Burtin refused to shy away from the complexity of science; so rather, he used visual means to cast it in an accessible light. Bur tin f led Hitler’s Germany in 1937 af ter Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbles ordered him to design poster for the Nazi’s as the ministry’s director of design. He adopted Thomas Jefferson’s dictum “To learn how to keep learning is the mark of a civilized man.” Burtin believed that designers had to know about more fields than just design – science was integral to all life, and the exploration and prediction of phenomena constituted the holy grail of civilization. For the sake of clarity, scientists reduce time, space and thought to abstract symbols, and that was what the designer did too. “The designer stands between these concepts, at the center,

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ABOVE A COVER DESIGNED BY BURTIN FOR UPJOHN.

but to appeal appropriately to the physician,” explained Burtin because of his unique role as communicator… interpreter, in Print. The house organs already in existence ran the and inspirer,” Burtin wrote for Graphis in 1949. Burtin’s graphic gamut in design from the most conservative to the most design for Upjohn’s identity, packaging, advertisements, modern, and from those that used design sparingly to those catalogues, and, particularly, Scope, the company’s inhouse magazine, was direct and consistently on brand and message. that were highly and almost even f lamboyantly ornamental. Originally designed by Burtin, then Lester Beall until Burtin returned, Scope possessed elegant typography, with graphics With conservatism regarded as inappropriate for a journal sprinkled through as signposts that guided the viewer through devoted to a rapidly progressing science, contemporaneous a hierarchy of information. Burtin took this to an even greater design seemed mandatory, but without looking frivolous which would seem out of place. Burtin’s use of photographs level of virtuosity. Edited for physicians, Scope was intended of microscopic imagery gave the work an abstract quality that to improve the understanding of the modern therapeutics, establish goodwill, and help sell Upjohn’s products, yet Burtin suggested modern art. Even the covers of Scope were designed not only to be attractive but also to suggest the content. In the gave it entry points that allowed access to the average reader as well. His ability to transform technical language into visual modern spirit, design was used not for its decorative effect symbols provided readers with a clear grasp of the material. but as an integral tool for clarifying scientific presentations. For the professional reader, arcane medical articles were “Integration” was a def ining trait for Burtin. “In designing booklets, posters, ads, exhibits, and displays, I noticed that not cluttered with dreary text boxes and drab f low charts. t he integ rat ion of job components towards a dramat ic “The choice of format was… of great importance, not only end-product asked for a measure of discipline difficult to to give the new journal the distinction we wished it to have

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ABOVE A SCIENTIFIC DIAGRAM REPRESENTING A CELL

def ine,” he wrote. But he did def ine it, as the marriage of order and instinct – learning everything there is about a particular subject and then allowing the instinct to drive the design.

Ladislav Sutnar noted in his 1961 book Virtual Design in Action that Burtin developed two basic strategies: the purist approach, in which charts and diagrams were compressed into a two-dimensional projection that unambiguously framed the information; and the dramatized approach, the grouping of visual data with poster – like impact, as in a chart that graphically used radical cropping and contrasts to grab reader attention. For this latter, Burtin often used and airbrush to make scientific diagrams so concise and beautiful that they functioned both as art and as information. “Who said that science cannot achieve beauty,” Burtin argued in Print.

Will Burtin designed “Integration : The New Discipline in Design,” an exhibition for the A-D Galler y in 1948, wh ich demonst rated how he , a nd by ex tension ot her s , clar if y scient if ic in format ion for general consumpt ion. “Under sta nd i ng of space a nd t i me relat ions is a ma i n requirement in visual organization. In printed design images are superimposed on paper surfaces. The spaces inside and between letters, between lines of type, their relationship to “What nonsense, that art cannot contain scientif ic tr uth ! illustration, are vital factors, which determine the eye’s It is human limitation, deficiency of understanding, that make access to basic information,” he explained. Even earlier, one or the other not do what they can do.” For Burtin, art was a means of obtaining knowledge and communicating it to at Fortune, where he worked as an art director from 1945 all generations. Being a designer was being a scientist. to 1949, Burtin had developed ways to conveying information through the design of charts, maps, graphs, and diagrams that made complex data discernable and understandable.

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LEVITY

Delve in to the philosophy of Mid- Century Modern design where elements appear elevated and light. ARCHDIGEST.COM

id-Century Modern design is more than just a style, it is a philosophy at its core. The design focuses on how it makes the viewer feel which can be applied to any style of any period. MCM design in particular displays a playful, friendly, and approachable aesthetic in order to encourage a positive and pleasant experience within the consumer. Mid-Century Modern design became somewhat of a media juggernaut and encompassed everything involving graphic design, industrial design, product design, architecture, furniture design, interior design, painting, clothing, music, and film. The beautiful thing about Mid-Century Modern design is that it was the f irst inherently American design movement. Much of this can be attributed to the free thinking artists and designers that were forced to f lee Europe and Hitler’s radical policies. By trying to extinguish the new age of art and design Hitler actually increased its spread which led to these new design philosophies in America. MCM design has a large focus on the experimentation of light, color, order, and space in ways that had never before been done . This variety of texture and color that had never been seen intrigued the consumers of the time and the MCM designs grew exponentially in popularity. A large aspect of the design being larger than just a style is this concept of levity that was evident within the movement. Designers wanted to focus on cleaner lifestyles and surroundings in America post WWII and their solution was to make everything feel lighter and in motion. The development of streamline designs and elements that seem to float in air became trademark signatures of design at this time. Another factor to the Mid-Century Modern design is connection with nature. Not only does nature pair perfectly with the clean aesthetics of MCM design, nature also plays a large role in 54

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the psychological aspects of Mid-Century Modern design and its philosophy. Nature has a way of calming the human mind and bringing us closer to serenity and peace. The designers of the time knew that the incorporation of nature into the general architectural settings would better serve the purpose of bringing more positive experiences to viewers. MCM design aimed to step back from needless decoration and show viewers the truth of the matter. Massive windows and low flat roofs created a compliment to nature rather than a competition with it. This concept complimenting rather than competing is the very aspect that has made Mid-Century Modern design so timeless.

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“Mid-century design hasn’t been bested by any other movement since, so it remains the style of our own time, not of some antique past.” 56

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Are mid-century modern homes having a moment? Mid-century modern homes have always held a special place in the Chicagoland real estate market. Our area is home to some of the most iconic mid-century spaces you’ll find anywhere in the country, and there have always been buyers who flock to these retro-futuristic homes, eager for a design that speaks to the past, present, and future, seemingly all at once. As writer Cara Greenberg recently put it to House Beautiful: “…It seems to appeal anew to each rising generation of young people. Mid-century design hasn’t been bested by any other movement since, so it remains the style of our own time, not of some antique past. And it still looks cool!” And Greenberg should know: She literally wrote the book on mid-century modernism, coining the term in 1984’s Mid-Century Modern Furniture of the 1950s. In today’s market, interest in mid-century design has reached a fever pitch. Turn on any home TV show or browse through an interior design catalog, and you’re bound to find the term

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pop up again and again. “Mid-century modern” is a broad term, and has been used to describe graphic design, furniture, and, most importantly, architecture, dating from the middle of the 20th century. Mid-century modern homes are hot items now — and their story is a fascinating one. What makes mid-century modern dwellings unique? What sets this style apart, and how did it come to be? Mid-century modernism is generally considered to have reached its peak around the midpoint of the 20th century, in roughly the mid-1930s through the mid-1960s — though its roots go back a bit further, and its influence still continues to be felt today. The origins of mid-century modern architecture and design can be traced back to World War I, and the movement truly flourished after World War II. These turbulent times led to enormous social and economic change all around the world. Mid-century modern aesthetics rose in reaction to this time of change, in many different ways. For one thing, the post-war period saw an expansion of cities and increased suburbanization in the U.S. People were on the move, and looking to own homes, start families, and achieve the “American Dream.” More homes needed to be built to keep up with this growing demand. Meanwhile, the post-War periods saw the introduction of new technologies and materials. Mass production meant that home furnishings — and, in some cases, entire residences — could be constructed more quickly, and more cheaply, than ever before. New materials, including plywood, fiberglass, aluminum, steel, and plastic, also gained popularity during this period for use in furniture and as building materials. At the same time that this was happening, designers and architects were rethinking some of the ways in which we live, work, and use space. A new

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era, they felt, called for a new design philosophy. As a result, in the aftermath of World War II, many designers and builders started to emphasize the aesthetic ideas that we associate with mid-century modern structures today — simple designs; clean, organized lines; close integration with nature; and the overwhelming belief that form should always follow function. Positive design for a positive life. In part, Mid-Century Modern architecture and design grew from some of the philosophies of the Bauhaus school in Germany. During and after the Second World War, many of the prominent members of this school emigrated to the U.S, bringing their ideas and influence to our architectural scene and developing the movement now known as the International Style. One such design pioneer was Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, who led the department of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and whose work can be seen all across Chicago including the legendary Farnsworth House in Plano, which has been called “a mid-century icon” and “one of the most famous houses in the world.” Mid-century modern design also owes a significant debt to another famous Chicagoland resident, Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was one of the leading voices in the “Prairie School” architectural movement, which emphasized strong lines, open spaces, and organic materials all design elements that would come to be strongly associated with mid-century modernism, as well.

THE KAUFMANN DESERT HOUSE, A MCM HOME COMMISSIONED BY THE SAME BUSINESS MAN WHO COMMISSIONED FRANK LLYOD WRIGHT'S FALLING WATER (PAGE 78)

MCM Elements STRAIGHT, FLAT LINES: Many mid-century style homes are single-story or split-level. Inside and outside, these homes are typically defined by their straight horizontal lines, including flat roofs. LOTS OF GLASS AND LARGE WINDOWS: Mid-century designers believed in connecting the interior and exterior worlds. As a result, many mid-century homes feature large picture windows, sliding doors, or glass walls, which let in natural light and provide sweeping views of nature. OPEN, SPLIT-LEVEL SPACES: Many mid-century homes experiment with open concept floor plans. To create separation, many mid-century designs included elements like partial walls or free-standing cabinets. Others played with elevation, and separated rooms with small steps up or down.

PERIOD BUILDING MATERIALS: Mid-century modern homes are often defined by the building materials that were popular at the time, including exposed wood, steel, plexiglass, terrazzo, different types of stone, and plastic. Mid-century homes may feature deliberately contrasting materials, and some may include experimental or non-traditional building materials that are quite unique. MINIMAL ORNAMENT: Generally speaking, the designers tended to believe that form should follow function, and not the other way around. As a result, mid-century modern homes are often distinguished by their clean geometric lines and sparse, uncluttered spaces.

IMMERSED IN NATURE: Many mid-century homes are built on larger plots of land, and may feature lots of natural elements on the property, including trees and gardens. Many mid-century designs were conceived with the idea of integrating houses with the natural world around them, and may feature sweeping views and easy access to the outdoors.

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Why the world is obsessed with Mid-Century Modern Design.

ENVELOP ARCHDIGEST.COM

Some

Mid-Century furniture designs, like the iconic Eames Lounge Chair, never went out of production, but many others had fallen out of production by the mid 90s. And even getting your hands on the pieces that were still being produced would have been challenging without an architect or a designer to order a piece for you. In the early 1990s that began to change: In 1993, Knoll, a major manufacturer of iconic Mid-Century designs, opened its SoHo showroom, once to-the-trade only (meaning pieces were sold only to designers and architects, not to consumers), to retail shoppers. Knoll’s direct-to-consumer strategy was in part a reaction to a major downturn in the office furniture market in the late 1980s and early 1990s—the company needed to increase its customer base to make up for lost office business. The manufacturer also did away with special pricing for architects and designers (typically 40 percent less), and instead offered the lower prices to anyone who walked into the showroom.

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Knoll immediately saw a huge boost in business, and eventually converted its contract showrooms into “more visible consumer oriented sales centers.” As the years passed, more and more pieces that were once to-the-trade only would become available directly to average consumers. Simultaneously, the 90s brought about reissues of many iconic Mid-Century designs. Furniture manufacturer Herman Miller was synonymous with the Mid-Century modern style during its heyday. Under the guidance of George Nelson, Herman Miller was among the first companies to produce modern furniture. However, by 1994, Herman Miller had scaled back its business to focus almost exclusively on office furniture and had been out of the residential furniture market for 30 years. Like Knoll, Herman Miller would have been impacted by the downturn in the office furniture marketplace. Noticing a trend towards people working at home and creating home offices, Herman Miller saw an opportunity to return to the retail market. The company decided to reissue pieces from the Herman Miller archive under the name Herman Miller for the Home, and to offer these pieces directly to consumers. The new pieces remained true to the original designs, but they were updated to use current fabric and material technology (the reissues were also stamped with a medallion to distinguish them from vintage pieces).

“The new pieces remained true to the original designs, but they were updated to use current fabric and material technology...”

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The company was also motivated by consumer frustration, according to Mark Shurman, the director of the corporate communications for Herman Miller. Both the limited number of vintage pieces and the low-quality knock-offs that had flooded the marketplace inspired Herman Miller to reissue the beloved designs. By bringing these classic designs back into production, Herman Miller was protecting its designs and its reputation. The copycat market also gave Herman Miller confidence that the designs had a market. Herman Miller also took an early wager on e-commerce, launching a website in 1998. The company’s bets paid off: From the moment they were reintroduced, the Herman Miller pieces have been in high demand. The sales of the contemporary reproductions of the vintage Mid-Century designs got a huge boost in 1999, when a California entrepreneur, Rob Forbes, launched Design Within Reach, a direct-mail catalog and online business. (While many make fun of the company’s name today, it was meant to describe the ease with which consumers could purchase the products, not their prices.) Not only did DWR give consumers direct access to Mid-Century modern pieces that were once sold only to the trade, but the catalogs also functioned as the design education for the masses. Every piece of furniture was accompanied by a biography of the product’s designer, making Eames, Noguchi, and Saarinen into household names.

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Design Within Reach became Herman Miller’s largest retailer. At the low end of the collectors’ market, vintage mass-produced pieces commanded (and still command) what some might consider astonishing prices for items that were made by the thousand. Today, an Eames fiberglass shell chair in good condition might sell for just $150, but an Eames Lounge Chair from the 1970s can command easily $7,000. (Prices for some pieces did drop-off with the reissues and the advent of eBay, which made the vintage market more accessible. For example, it would be unusual for an original Eames screen to command today the $10,000 that the New York Times mentioned in the late 1990s.) And prices can quickly climb: collectors of the Mid-Century value the patina of age on the original pieces, and are willing to pay, especially if a piece is in original, non-restored, condition or has an interesting provenance. A pair of Barcelona chairs, another common design, was recently offered for $24,000 on 1stdibs.com, an online

marketplace for antiques (a similar pair with no provenance might fetch a mere $4,000), but collectors would have been paying a premium to own chairs that came from the estate of architect Charles Gwathmey. Many of the sites dedicated to second-hand furniture sales are flooded with genuine Mid-Century designs, but they are also overwhelmed with thousands of pieces that are labeled “Mid-Century modern” but are not of any design significance. Savvy sellers may even add a list of major designers and manufacturers to their listing keywords to lure collectors to click on non-designer items. True collectors aren’t just snapping up the vintage Eames lounge chairs. Rather, they are after one-of-a-kind pieces that have documented history and provenance. The market for these Mid-Century gems has exploded in the last ten years. Joshua Holdeman, Sotheby’s worldwide head of the 20th-century design, points to the 2005 auction of a Carlo Mollino table that sold for $3.9 million as a turning point for

Mid-Century modern furniture’s auction market. “It was the first time that something in the Mid-Century had made such a breakout price,” says Holdeman. “That [sale] was a signifier that these objects were extremely important in the history of design—and to collectors.” Media also played a role in Mid-Century modern’s popularity. Wallpaper and Dwell are two magazines that deserve much credit for championing the Mid-Century look. Wallpaper launched in 1996 and Dwell in 2000. The mainstream design media has also taken notice of the trend; the now-mostly-traditional House Beautiful, for example, devoted multiple pages to Herman Miller for the Home’s launch in 1994 (after having covered Mid-Century modern design extensively in the 1960s). In its review of the century, Time magazine called the Eames Molded Plywood Chair the “Best Design of the 20th Century,” describing the design as “something elegant, light and comfortable. Much copied but never bettered.” Mentions of “mid-century

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modern” and “Mid-Century modern” in the New York Times show a sharp upward spike from the mid-80s to the present day. Cultural institutions also did their part to celebrate the Mid-Century designs. The Museum of Modern Art, in particular, championed the modernist furniture movement from its start. MoMA’s 1940 “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition brought attention to modern design (the competition was won by two then-unknown students, Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, who collaborated on a chair design). The Museum was so interested in promoting modern design that visitors could actually sit on the furniture in the 1941 exhibition of the finalists from the Organic Design competition. Just five years later, MoMA devoted an entire show to Eames’s furniture designs.

which premiered in 2007, is one obvious cultural source. The show’s reputation for period accuracy extended to the sets, which were specifically designed to reflect East Coast interiors in the 1960s. The set design team’s research involved direct communication with Herman Miller, who helped to advise on period-appropriate furnishings and even provided period artwork from the company’s archive that appeared on-screen as creative work that the agency was involved with. However, it’s not just period pieces like Mad Men or Jason Bates’ immaculate 1980s apartment, complete with Barcelona lounge chairs and ottomans, that made the public aware of the period. Mid-Century icons are everywhere in film, television, and other advertisements. On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart has interviewed all of his guests sitting on Mesh Management Chairs from the Eames Aluminum Group.

More recent exhibitions have raised the public’s awareness of Mid-Century design. In 1999, the Library of Congress organized an expansive exhibition devoted to the work of Charles and Ray Eames. The show was mounted in six major cities over three years, making Eames a household name around the globe. A decade later, MoMA exhibited a selection of more than 100 Mid-Century objects from its design collection under the title “What Was Good Design? MoMA’s Message 1944-56.” In 2001, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presented the fir st major study of Mid-Century modern California design, “California Design, 1930-1965: “Living in a Modern Way.” Exhibitions of Mid-Century modern design continue to be popular across the country; in fact, the LACMA exhibit was actually still touring last year, wh e n i t wa s s h ow n a t t h e Pe a b o dy E s s ex M u s e u m i n In a late ’90s television ad for L’Oreal, Heather Locklear appears Massachusetts. In 2014, The Contemporary Jewish Museum seated on an Arne Jacobsen Egg chair; the same design appeared presented “Designing Home: Jews and Mid-Century Modernism.” again in a Razr phone print ad in 2008. The Mid-Century modern furniture makes frequent cameos in advertisements The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has an event scheduled because of its clean, well-designed lines, but also perhaps for April 10 called “Mad Style: Mid-Century Modern Design.” because of a familiarity that advertisers believe the pieces lend Inspired by Mad Men, the event offers a curator-led tour their promotions. Mid-Century modern design is by no of MFA’s collection of Mid-Century design and cocktails means the only furniture style to have come back into vogue and encourages guests to “dress in your 1950’s chic.” As MFA’s after its day. In the late 1960s, the Art Deco style became event suggests, popular culture has also helped to bring very popular. (Like the term “Mid-Century modern,” “art deco” Mid-Century modern design into the mainstream. Mad Men, was not coined until a later generation took an interest in the

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period.) Likewise, the early American looks of the Queen Anne, Chippendale, and Federal periods, which originated in the 18th and early 19th century, all enjoyed revivals in the 1920s and 30s, and then again in the 1980s when well-to-do Boomers took an interest in the period. Collectors in the 1980s who could not afford the original early American pieces began buying the early 20th century reproductions, which had a patina of age that contemporary reproductions did not. It’s possible that if the Mid-Century look falls out of popularity and comes back into fashion decades from now, the early 21st century reissues will become collectible in the same way a 1930s Chippendale reproduction did in the 80s. Why does Mid-Century modern continue to be popular, and why have contemporary retailers and manufacturers embraced its clean-lined look so emphatically? Mid-Century pieces are simply well-designed objects, with a timeless look, says Sotheby’s Holdeman. “[Mid-Century modern designs] sit very well in contemporary homes and interiors—they still feel fresh today, they still feel modern. A lot of those pieces haven’t been bettered. They still stand the test of time.” Familiarity is also a factor in Mid-Century’s enduring popularity. Baby boomers who grew up with Mid-Century designs are certainly part of the market for both the originals and the reproductions. For this generation, the designs are a direct connection to their youth. (At the current time, many Boomers want something different. Stacey Greer, a Mid-Century furniture dealer interviewed by

NPR, told a reporter, “They grew up with it and their parents had bought it, so they want anything but that.”) Generation X can also be blamed for Mid-Century’s more recent prevalence. In a 1998 article about Gen X’s interest in Mid-Century design, interior designer Jim Walrod hypothesized that the appeal of the period to “Generation X, even those without knowledge of its origins, is natural because of ‘’an invisible reference point’’ young people acquired after years of exposure to the art direction of old movies and television shows, not to mention the teak and stainless-steel contents of their parents’ living rooms.” With “Mid-Century modern” designs available at retailers like West Elm, the period’s look is also being marketed to millennials. The trend toward urban living may also be part of what keeps the Mid-Century look alive. “The designs were conceived for the smaller post-war home,” says Greenberg, who notes that they were designed to be mobile and lightweight for city residents who moved frequently. “All of that still plays into the way we live today.”

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Today, more than ever, the Mid-Century modern look is everywhere. DVRs are set to capture Mad Men’s final season playing out on AMC. Flip through the April issue of Elle Décor, and you’ll find that more than half of the featured homes prominently include Mid-Century furniture pieces. Turn on The Daily Show and you’ll see the guests sitting in classic Knoll office chairs. If you dine in a contemporary restaurant tonight, there’s a good chance you’ll be seated in a chair that was designed in the 1950s—whether it is an Eames, Bertoia, Cherner, or Saarinen. A few years back, you could stamp your mail with an Eames postage stamp. Meanwhile, type the words “Mid-Century” and “modern” into any furniture retailer’s search pane, and you’ll likely come up with dozens of pieces labeled with these design-world buzzwords—despite the fact that there is nothing “Mid-Century” about the items they describe. Over the past two decades, a term describing a specific period of design has become the marketing descriptor du jour. “Mid-Century modern” itself is a difficult term to define. It broadly describes architecture, furniture, and graphic design from the middle of the 20th century (roughly 1933 to 1965, though some would argue the period is specifically limited to 1947 to 1957). The timeframe is a modifier for the larger modernist movement, which has roots in the Industrial

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Revolution at the end of the 19th century and also in the post-World War I period. Author Cara Greenberg coined the phrase “Mid-Century modern” as the title for her 1984 book, Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s. In 1983, Greenberg had written a piece for Metropolitan Home about 1950s furniture, and an editor at Crown urged her to write a book on the topic. As for the phrase “Mid-Century modern,” Greenberg “just made that up as the book’s title.” A New York Times review of the book acknowledged that Greenberg’s tome hit on a trend. “Some love it and others simply can’t stand it, but there is no denying that the 50’s are back in vogue again. Cara Greenberg, the author of ‘Mid- Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950’s’ manages to convey the verve, imagination and the occasional pure zaniness of the period.” The book was an immediate hit, selling more than 100,000 copies, and once “Mid-Century moder n” entered the lexicon, the phrase was quickly adopted by both the design world and the mainstream. The popularity of Mid-Century modern design today has roots at the time of Greenberg’s book. Most of the designs of the Mid-Century had gone out of fashion by the late 60s, but in the early-to mid-eighties, interest in the period began to return. Within a decade, vintage Mid-Century designs were increasingly popular, and several events helped to boost Mid-Century modern’s

appeal from a niche group of design enthusiasts into the mainstream. By the mid-90s, a niche market of collectors had already driven up prices of the original Mid-Century designs. A New York Times article notes that an original Eames molded plywood folding screen, which had been out of production, was worth as much as $10,000 in 1994. In December 1999, a George Nelson Marshmallow sofa sold for an unprecedented $66,000. A year later, two George Nelson “pretzel” armchairs sold for just over $2,500 apiece, while a 1965 George Nakashima cabinet sold for $20,700.

ABOVE: CURRENT COLLECTION OF EAMES SHELL CHAIRS THAT ARE AVAILABLE FROM HERMAN MILLER AND THEIR DEALERS.

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FEAST FOR Mandy Moore’s house is a testament to the actresses' confidence, warmth, and passion for design

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THE EYES

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Even

chapter of my life—as an adult, a woman, and a performer. I was able to pour all of who I am into making this place,” she says proudly. After searching for nearly a year, Moore and Goldsmith found the perfect spot to begin their life together, high atop a Pasadena hill, in a classic 1950s home that has sweeping vistas of the San Gabriel mountains and valley. The house was designed by Harold B. Zook, a notable but lesser-known architect who worked with modernist maestro Albert Frey in Palm Springs before hanging his shingle in Pasadena, California.

in a town as youth-obsessed as Hollywood, a little maturity has its own compensations. Just ask Mandy Moore. The star of the NBC family drama This Is Us rose to fame as a singer in 1999, at the tender age of 15, with her debut single, “Candy.” She played her first starring role on the big screen in A Walk Although the actual bones of the structure were fairly intact, to Remember in 2002. That same year Moore bought a “starter” additions and interior emendations implemented in the home, a f ive-bedroom Mediterranean-style spread in the early 1990s obscured the structure’s spruce modern lines Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz. “I lived there for and quintessential Mid-Century vibe. “We wanted to recapture 15 years, and even though the house went through several the home’s original spirit without delving into a slavish period iterations, it never felt wholly mine,” she says. “I bought it restoration. We tried to imagine what Zook would have done when I was 18. I really didn’t know myself, and I never felt if he were designing it today,” Moore explains. To that end, secure enough to bring a lot of people there.” the actress assembled a formidable team including architect Emily Farnham, interior designer Sarah Sherman Samuel, Today Mandy Moore is singing an entirely different song. and Terremoto landscape designers, all of whom worked in She recently wrapped shooting on the third season of her close collaboration from the outset of the project. smash television show. She’s engaged to Taylor Goldsmith of the indie rock band Dawes. And the dazzling home she “We looked at the house and realized that we could bring it actually created for herself, her future husband, and their dogs, back with some basic subtraction, as opposed to a complete Joni (as in Mitchell) and Jackson, is absolutley, nothing short of gut renovation,” Farnham says, referring to dated surface a declaration of independence. “This house signifies the next treatments, dark oak built-ins, and, most significant,

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THE BOTTOM RIGHT PHOTO, THE MCM STYLE CREDENZA ANCHORS THE ROOM AND ALLOWS FOR THE REST OF THE SPACE TO ABSORB IT’S MCM AESTHETIC.

“Maintain the qualities about the piece that make it authentic and special.” a pair of semicircular volumes attached to the kitchen and master bath. “The rounded forms made no sense with all the taut, rectilinear lines. We had to , in fact, shave those warts off,” the architect explains. With Zook’s original drawings in hand, Farnham rebuilt the tiered, streamlined cornice that zigs and zags along the roofline—a signature detail that had been replaced with a less elegant alternative. She also restored and updated the brick walls, the floors, and fireplace surround, as well as the brawny copper fireplace hood that separates the living and dining rooms. Newly installed white terrazzo floors provide a subtly luminous foundation for the revitalized of interiors. “Terrazzo is a dying art, costly and laborious, but it was so worth it,” Moore insists. Like mostaaspects of the renovation, the terrazzo treatments were a group effort: Samuel designed the jaunty pattern of triangulated brass inlays in the floor of a guest bathroom, while Farnham obsessed over the specific stone aggregate for the hefty fireplace ledge in the family room. Samuel’s decor is a toothsome olio of vintage and contemporary, high and low, feminine and masculine. “The interiors don’t feel like they’re lost in time. There are plenty of nods to the ’50s, but there are also lots of pieces that just read as fresh, organic, and modern,” the decorator says. For Moore, the look is simply light, bright, and easy. “I don’t have a great attachment to material things,” she says. As for Goldsmith’s contributions to the

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project, Mandy Moore claims her fiancé largely deferred to her and the design team: “Taylor was as involved as he wanted to be. He had opinions about certain things, but his only real demands were for bookshelves because he’s a voracious reader, and room for a baby grand piano and, a turntable.” Of course, Farnham obliged by converting the ungainly hallway to the master bedroom into a proper library with a full lounge, with chunky bookshelves that appear to be voids carved out of monolithic volumes rather than wall mounted surfaces assembled from a kit of parts. The piano and record player have pride of place in the living room. Surveying her domain, Moore confesses to having become slightly addicted to the design process. “It still amazes me. We saw the potential of this house and brought it back to life. It’s hard to convey the excitement of working out every detail, from picking slabs at the stone yard to figuring out how many burners we wanted for the stove,” she explains. “Once you realize that you can actually build your true dream house, it’s hard to go back to anything else.”

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PERFECT PAIR Bring the outside in, with Frank Llyod Wright's homes and their connection to nature 2

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Frank Lloyd Wright originally coined the phrase “organic architecture” before the word ‘organic’ came to be associated with everything from juice and dry cleaning to farming and makeup. The iconic architect is famous for designing structures that blend into their surroundings in groundbreaking, innovative ways. Today, looking at the skylines of our most urban cities, it’s easy to view the buildings as the antithesis of their natural surroundings. Yet, in the early twentieth century, Wright actually envisioned an architecture that was not a shield, but rather a bridge to nature, and strived “to make the landscape more beautiful than before the building was built.”

Over the course of his career, he designed about 800 buildings and 380 of them were built, and 280 are still standing today. Yet, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater perhaps most iconically embodies the architect’s principles of organic architecture. Fallingwater is so unique in it’s form that it might not even look like a building at first — where’s the entrance? The layers upon layers of innovative structuring make it one of the most groundbreaking works of architecture in the twentieth century. Located in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, the national historic landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most popular homes for tourists, with 4.5 million visitors since 1964 (167,270 people visited in 2015 alone).

Born in 1867, Frank Wright grew up near the Wisconsin River. Surrounded by nature as a child, he had an intuitive relationship to the processes and cycles of the earth, which became the basis for his lifelong inspiration as an architect. Wright wrote, at an early stage of his career, that “Although our practice for centuries has been for the most part to turn from [nature], seeking good inspiration in books and adhering slavishly to dead formulae, her wealth of suggestion is inexhaustible ; her riches greater than any man’s desire.” Throughout his career, Wright was also inspired and informed by Whitman, Emerson, Ruskin, and (perhaps most importantly) Thoreau.

Fallingwater began when Wright’s 25-year-old apprentice Edgar Kaufmann introduced the architect idea to his father, who commissioned this work. Wright was 68 years old at the time, already at the end of his career. Fallingwater was built between 1936 and 1939 for the Kaufmann’s, who lived in Pittsburg, PA and owned the Kaufmann’s Department Store.

Rather than just plopping a building on the ground as if it could have been anywhere, for Wright, every structure has its own “grammar” and a unique relationship to its surroundings. 78

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The home’s design was so revolutionary that Wright’s clients were initially disappointed when they saw the blueprint, because they assumed it would incorporate a view of the waterfall. But instead of placing the building in opposition to the waterfall, Wright positioned it on top, so that they could hear the falling water from inside their abode. This shift in approach was groundbreaking to the architectural convention of the time and soon became a classic example of Wright’s vision. New York

based architect Alban Denic has remarked of Fallingwater, “It is definitely a complete masterpiece where every design respects the overall concept of living within nature.” Alban Denic also notes that Fallingwater blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior space so, “one just feels comfortable within the nature.” And yet, his concept of “organic architecture” is distinct from the actual structures Wright designed. Organic architecture referred to a set of principles, which were simple yet elaborate, often subtle. For example, Wirght avoided creating rooms in rectangles, wanting to get away from the idea of a box as a room, because, he wrote, “the architecture of freedom and democracy needed something basically better than the box.” In its place, he designed the corner window, bringing in more light to the interior. Each of the bedrooms in Fallingwater has a terrace, and there are two terraces off the living room, serving up ample limbo space between the inside and outside. The furniture was all predesigned for the house in the way that it’s perfectly planted into the structure– it’s almost growing from it, just like the house grows from the surrounding woody environment. On a more subtle level, the lines of Wright’s buildings are often slightly curved; he avoided straight edges so as to mimic the curves seen in nature, which has no straight lines. When describing some of the features that contribute to organic architecture, he wrote in 1908 : “gently sloping roofs, low proportions, quiet sky lines, suppressed heavyset chimneys and sheltering overhangs, low terraces and outreaching walls sequestering private gardens.” Wright kept his materials simple; he’d use stone or brick masonry and plaster, sometimes wood as an accent. In Fallingwater he used reinforced concrete and stone

masonry. For him, art was in finding the natural characteristics in these materials– he’d strip the wood of varnish and stain it, for example. Even in the materials, Wright would pay close attention to his surroundings and the he would mimic the region. Waggoner writes that “The stone is laid up in a rough horizontal fashion that is reminiscent of the native sandstone formations found in the region. The steel is painted Cherokee red, a color indicative of the fire-fueled steel-making process. Even the pale ocher color of the concrete suggests the earthen nature of the material.” Wright favored natural color schemes that included “the soft, warm, optimistic tones of earths and autumn leaves over the pessimistic blues, purples, or cold greens and grays of the ribbon counter” and encouraged going into the woods to find them. Wright’s concept of organic architecture, and the works inspired by them, created a new-found continuity in architectural structures that persists to this day– an enduring method of immersing humanity into nature rather than pulling them away from it. ARCHDIGEST.COM

“The site cannot be improved upon: a pristine stream in a secluded glen, towering hemlocks and oaks, masses of rhododendron, rugged outcroppings of sandstone, and water rushing over a rock ledge onto the stream floor twenty feet below.”

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HOMES LIKE THE ONE PICTURED BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AIMED TO BRING NATURE IN. NOW YOU CAN LEARN HOW TO IMPLEMENT A CARE FOR NATURE IN YOUR FURNITURE SOURCING.

AD talks with Michael Berman about sourcing mid-century modern pieces from second-hand sources. While there are a lot of reasons to source second-hand pieces, the positive environmental impact is at the top of our list. 84

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DESIGNER MICHAEL BERMAN SHARES HIS TIPS FOR NAILING THE LOOK

It’s been a few years since Mid-Century-modern became everyone’s new old favorite aesthetic, but the trend is still going strong. Whether in vintage pieces or the contemporary designs they inspire, the sleek silhouettes and light woods of the era have become nearly ubiquitous in homes the world over today. Designer Michael Berman is an apt collector of styles from this time period. The Los Angeles–based talent is known to deftly work Mid-Century silhouettes into many of his interiors projects, incorporating them alongside antiques from other eras in a manner that always feels both polished and fresh, presenting Mid-Century designs in a thoroughly original way. Berman also looks to Mid-Century designs as inspiration for his own Michael Berman Limited furniture line and sells some of his original finds at his Los Angeles shop, Bronze Studio. Since we always value originality in design, AD caught up with Berman to hear his tips on sourcing vintage furniture, making it personal, and discovering lesser-known designers. MICHAEL BERMAN: About 15 years ago I purchased a weekend home in Palm Springs. When I started furnishing my own home, I began shopping estate sales and auctions all over Palm Springs and Los Angeles and realized the passion that I had for that genre. The f irst piece I bought for my home was a curved Milo Baughman chaise in chocolate brown velvet with a polished stainless-steel base. It became the platform upon which I built the decor for that house. There is a nostalgia that many feel toward the ‘50s and ‘60s, not just the furniture but the culture overall. From auto design to Motown to politics to architecture, the era conjures up a feeling that’s exciting, tumultuous, and innovative.

the amorphic, free-form, curvilinear shapes. Vladimir Kagan is my all-time favorite designer and a huge inspiration to me. AD: It seems there’s been something of a Mid-Century craze

over the past few years. What are some designs that have gotten less attention but you think are worthy of it? MICHAEL BERMAN: I really love Belgian Brutalist furniture as well as Czech cubism from the ‘40s and ‘50s. I recently traveled through parts of Eastern Europe, and I found a strong inf luence of modernism in architecture and design that hasn’t been exploited yet in America. When I was there I saw some incredibly graphic and chunky strong statement furniture pieces that were designed in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s that felt modern and really different, and I think they have the potential to create a new category and a different dialogue for what we in America consider Mid-Century modern. AD: Any Mid-Century designs you’re sick of seeing? MICHAEL BERMAN: There’s always a tipping point when a trend, no matter how long it’s been around, becomes so commercialized that it becomes a cliché (i.e., George Nelson lanterns, a Noguchi cocktail table, Saarinen tulip chairs) . They are beautiful, of course, but the market has been inundated with reproductions, and we’ve passed the saturation point. The homogenized version of Mid-Century has overexposed many excellent aspects of the style, but the fact is, it’s enjoyed longevity because it’s good.

AD: What draws you to the era?

AD: How do you go about mixing Mid-Century silhouettes with antiques from other eras?

MICHAEL BERMAN: One of the things that has resonated with me from the very beginning about the styling of this era is

MICHAEL BERMAN: The beauty of Mid-Century furniture is that it blends with so many other time periods and styles. ARCHDIGEST.COM

“IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP ITS PATINA AND MAINTAIN THE QUALITIES ABOUT THE PIECE THAT MAKE IT AUTHENTIC AND SPECIAL.”

I love the look of Chippendale chairs around a Saarinen tulip table. A lot of traditional Mid-Century silhouettes are small-scaled, and often a lot of leggy, petite wood pieces in a room can feel frenetic if they aren’t balanced out with chunkier pieces from other eras. Ultimately, it’s all about scale and finding harmony and balance when it all comes together. I design in an eclectic style anyway, so I love the idea of mixing Hollywood swank with ‘60s kitsch. To create a space that’s entirely authentic to one era would be contrived. AD: When you buy vintage furniture, do you refinish it, or do you like to keep it in its original state? MICHAEL BERMAN: I prefer to keep things looking original, assuming they are in good condition. If I find a pair of amazing Harvey Probber lounge chairs covered in Jack Lenor Larsen printed velvet, I would be loath to change it no matter what the condition; however, as a general rule, I do like to recover upholstery pieces. I also collect vintage cars, and the prevailing theory for car collectors applies to quality vintage furniture. When you are investing in a vintage piece, it’s often because you’re looking for something special that isn’t mass-produced or overexposed in the market today, so it’s important to keep its patina and maintain the qualities about the piece that make it authentic and special.

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AD: What are the most important things people should look for when purchasing vintage furniture? MICHAEL BERMAN: The best thing you can do when shopping for vintage furniture is to really examine it. Turn it over, touch it, open the drawers, look at it from 360 degrees. Look for the manufacturer stamps or any identifiers that you could quickly search on your smartphone to get a sense of the piece’s provenance. Consider scale. A lot of pieces designed in the ‘50s and ‘60s are lower to the ground and have smaller or more narrow profiles, and they could look out of place once they integrate with our other belongings. With that said, a unique shape can often be just the thing to give your room a more collected feel. Always have a tape measure, and if you’re shopping for a big piece, bring the room specs with you so there’s no guesswork.

A big deal-breaker for me is price. Furniture from this era can really run the gamut from low-quality, mass-produced pieces to benchmark- quality items that will stand the test of time. It’s important to look for quality, but you don’t have to overpay. If you are looking for something specific and you’re willing to make an investment for a name-brand piece, sites like 1stdibs or Chairish are great. AD: Do you think we’ll ever get tired of the Mid-Century look? What exactly makes it so timeless?

MICHAEL BERMAN: Just like any time period, Mid-Century isn’t for everyone. It has staying power because many of the silhouettes are so versatile, and I’ve found a great way to take inspiration from Mid-Century and apply it to my own designs in a way that reflects the current market for furniture. For example, I’ve created many pieces that are inspired by classic Mid-Century silhouettes that I rescale, remodel, and adapt for contemporary living. This may mean expanding the seat so a side chair has generous enough proportions to pull your legs up or snuggle comfortably with your pup.

For me, Mid-Century is about more than the individual furniture pieces. I think of that era of manufacturing as particularly fertile and creative in terms of the materials used, like plastics, fiberglass, wood, metal, etc. It was a very rich period of time in our industry, and the pieces from that era will live on. The freedom with which they approached shapes and styles actually transformed furniture design, and it’s that spirit that resonates with me the most.

Market Finds SWIVEL EGG CHAIR; $2,950. WILTON MANORS, FL

EARLY EAMES PLYWOOD CHAIR; $2,025. SNOWMASS, CO

DANISH HIGHBACK LOUNGE CHAIR $1,370. TARM, DENMARK ARCHDIGEST.COM

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JESSICA HISCHE’S MID-CENTURY MODERN LIVING ROOM RENOVATION

All pages and sources listed have been created and curated by Lindsey Gatlin. COVER IMAGE COVER

Image architecturaldigest.com/story/mandymoore-takes-ad-inside-her-dreamy1950s-home OBJECT LESSON PAGE 14

Dwell. “Eames Lounge Chair andOttoman” dwell.com/article/eameslounge-chair-and-ottoman-95b91a0a House Beautiful. “This Is What Makes The Eames Lounge Chair So Special” housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/ a24792944/eames-lounge-chair-style/ Images einrichten-design.com/en_en/eameslounge-chair-and-ottoman-armchairpalisander-vitra.html unsplash.com/photos/wPYvAFGrL4A PAUL RAND PAGES 18-21

Design is History. “Paul Rand” designishistory.com/1960/paul-rand/ Paul Rand. “Rand House” paulrand. design/life/rand-house.html Images paulrand.design/life/portraits.html paulrand.design/work/Logos.html thespaces.com/graphic-designer-paulrands-connecticut-home-is-for-sale/6/ grapheine.com/en/history-of-graphic-

design/paul-rand-everything-isdesign ERIK NITSCHE PAGES 22-23

Design is History. “Erik Nitsche” designishistory.com/1940/erik-nitsche/ Images printmag.com/daily-heller/eriknitsche-design-auteur/ iconofgraphics.com/Erik-Nitsche/ LEVITY PAGE 52-59

Image Jane Dorn ENVELOP PAGES 60-69

Curbed. “Why the World is Obsessed with Mid-Century Modern Design” archive.curbed. com/2017/11/22/16690454/MidCentury-modern-design-mad-meneames Images curatedinterior.com/mid-centurymodern-living-rooms/ unsplash.com mydomaine.com/Mid-Centurymodern-decor architecturaldigest.com/story/MidCentury-modern-decor-basics-thatevery-beginner-should-know architecturaldigest.com/gallery/midcentury-modern-dining-rooms architecturaldigest.com/story/midcentury-modern-kitchen-remodel

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Curbed. “An Expert Guide to Buying Vintage Mid-Century-Modern Furniture” architecturaldigest.com/story/michaelberman-buying-vintage-Mid-Centurymodern-furniture Images Mid-Century.org/architecture/ archive.curbed. com/2018/5/4/17302478/MidCentury-modern-furniture-where-tobuy-best-store houzz.com/photos/california-coastalmid-century-modern-home-build-inlaguna-beach-style-living-room-orangecounty-phvw-vp~142800619 atomic-ranch.com/architecture-design/ vintage-mid-century-utopia/ architecturaldigest.com/story/atlas-ofmid-century-modern-houses

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resources All pages and sources listed have been created and curated by Rebecca Grace Thompson. EDITORS LETTER PAGE 10

Images giggster.com/listing/mid-centurymodern-immersed-in-nature decoist.com/mid-century-moderninterior-design/?chrome=1 architecturaldigest.com/story/MidCentury-modern-decor-basics-thatevery-beginner-should-know /elledecor.com/design-decorate/roomideas/g10253998/mid-century-moderndesign/ AD IT YOURSELF PAGE 12

Atomic Ranch. “Textile Twist: A Modern Artist Crafts Mid-Century Fabric Designs” atomic-ranch.com/ interior-design/textiles-with-a-twisthow-a-modern-artist-is-crafting-MidCentury-fabric-designs/ HomeGirl London “20th Century Cloth Shop Stocks Retro Fabric Designs” homegirllondon.com/20th-centurycloth-shop-stocks-retro-fabric-designs/ Images atomic-ranch.com/interior-design/ textiles-with-a-twist-how-a-modernartist-is-crafting-Mid-Century-fabricdesigns/ homegirllondon.com/20th-centurycloth-shop-stocks-retro-fabric-designs/

record-cover dazeddigital.com/music/ article/21648/1/alex-steinweiss-theart-of-music epi.aiga.org/medalist-alexsteinweiss LEADING LIGHTS PAGE 36

Images lampsplus.com/products/arburburnished-brass-and-walnut-woodellen-degeneres-led-table-lamp__97d93. html warisanlighting.com/mid-century-tablelamps.html warisanlighting.com/mid-century-tablelamps.html hayneedle.com/product/ hnhomearmasmidcenturymoderntablelamp.cfm lampsplus.com/products/currey-andcompany-variation-teak-wood-tablelamp__88n55.html lampsplus.com/products/directorwalnut-rosewood-veneer-metal-tripodtable-lamp__83k40.html bybespoek.com/product/grasshoppertable-lamp/ wayfair.com/lighting wayfair.com/lighting FEAST FOR THE EYES PAGES 70-75

architecturaldigest.com/story/mandymoore-takes-ad-inside-her-dreamy1950s-home PERFECT PAIR PAGES 76-83

ALEX STEINWEISS PAGES 38-39

Design is History. “Alex Stienweiss” designishistory.com/1940/alexsteinweiss/ Images nytimes.com/2011/07/20/business/ media/alex-steinweiss-originatorof-artistic-album-covers-dies-at-94. html?auth=login-google designobserver.com/feature/king-ofpop/39336 illustrationchronicles.com/alexsteinweiss-and-the-world-s-first-

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A VIEW OF HELEN SNELL TAKING ON MID-CENTURY MODERN TEXTILE DESIGNS

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status/1010541759632433154 pinterest.com/ decoraid.com interiordesignmagazines.eu lonelyplanet.com themanual.com unsplash.com LAYOUT AND ADVERTISEMENTS

DON DRAPER'S APARTMENT FROM THE TV SHOW MAD MEN

All pages and sources listed have been created and curated by Wes Echols.

bee-things.com/blog/2014/2/15/alvinlustig-book-covers SAUL BASS

ALVIN LUSTIG PAGES 24-29

Design is History. “Alvin Lustig” designishistory.com/1940/alvin-lustig/ The Moderns, Steven Heller Images design-is-fine.org/post/44933182855/ knoll-advertising-ad-alvin-lustig-1940s adcglobal.org/hall-of-fame/alvin-lustig/ waldina.com/2017/03/06/happy-90thbirthday-elaine-lustig-cohen/elainelustig-cohen-02/ famousgraphicdesigners.org/alvin-lustig rit.edu/carycollection/alvin-lustig

PAGES 30-35

Design is History. “Saul Bass” designishistory.com/1960/saul-bass/ The Moderns, Steven Heller Images esquire.com/uk/culture/film/ a34169582/remembering-saul-bass-thedesigner-who-changed-cinema/ artofthetitle.com/designer/saul-bass/ indiewire.com/gallery/saul-bass-movie-poster-movies-vertigo/love_bass/ medium.com/@evacrawfordmckee/ influencers-saul-bass-93aa60daa83c today.com/money/google-honors-

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genius-behind-20th-centurys-greatestmovie-posters-1c9840867 dc.aiga.org/look-saul-bass-madetaylor-swift/ itsnicethat.com/articles/saul-bass-theshining LEVITY PAGES 52-59

bairdwarner.com/2019/05/14/ mid-century-modern-design-styledefinition/ Images petrolicious.com/articles/alvin-lustigwas-the-original-design-strategist pinterest.com/ pin/146085581649648956/ twitter.com/doctorow/

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A VIEW OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S FALLING WATER

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PERFECT PAIR PAGES 76-83

All pages and sources listed have been created and curated by Makenna Schiltz LEADING LIGHTS PAGE 36

Images lampsplus.com/products/arburburnished-brass-and-walnut-woodellen-degeneres-led-table-lamp__97d93. html warisanlighting.com/mid-century-tablelamps.html warisanlighting.com/mid-century-tablelamps.html hayneedle.com/product/ hnhomearmasmidcenturymoderntablelamp.cfm lampsplus.com/products/currey-andcompany-variation-teak-wood-tablelamp__88n55.html lampsplus.com/products/directorwalnut-rosewood-veneer-metal-tripodtable-lamp__83k40.html bybespoek.com/product/grasshoppertable-lamp/AvD_BwE wayfair.com/lighting/pdp/allmodernjayne-255-table-lamp-w005485472. html?piid=1483156534 wayfair.com/lighting/pdp/allmodern-l

LESTER BEALL PAGES 40-45

Design is History. designishistory. com/1940/lester-beall/ book i.pinimg.com/originals/f9/50/cb/ f950cb93089190bee61e0f91b121f368. jpg rit.edu/press/sites/rit.edu.press/files/ Radio_crop_2.jpg i.pinimg.com/originals/c1/67/10/ c1671033ef50e2096fefce9822e9a5d2. jpg adcglobal.org/hall-of-fame/lesterbeall/ blogvecindad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Lester-Beall.jpg WILL BURTIN PAGES 46-51

Design is History. designishistory. com/1940/will-burtin/ book Images recollection.com.au/content/1articles/6-agda-hall-of-fame/willburtin.jpg i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/62/87/ac6 2870157e03696385a97a80404406c.jpg

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When Buildings Blend With Nature. gardencollage.com/change/ sustainability/frank-lloyd-wright/ Images essentialhome.eu/blog/wp-content/ uploads/2017/11/Mid-CenturyModern-Icons-Falling-Water-Houseby-Frank-Lloyd-Wright_1.jpg i.insider. com/5cf98ac811e20510340cdec2 assets.archpaper.com/wp-content/ uploads/2020/09/Fallingwater-viewof-Edgar-Kaufmann-jr-study_courtesyof-the-Western-PennsylvaniaConservancy-scaled.jpg essentialhome.eu/blog/wp-content/ uploads/2017/11/Mid-CenturyModern-Icons-Falling-Water-Houseby-Frank-Lloyd-Wright_2.jpg image.cnbcfm.com/ api/v1/image/1061535171569616776911outsideofhome. jpg?v=1569948064 FEAST FOR THE EYES PAGES 70-75

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one to watch

Jessica Hische Along with architect Javier Wainstein, Jessica Hische and her family are renovating “a gem of California Modernism in the Berkeley Hills”. “Our family of 5 was outgrowing our wonderful Oakland bungalow when we stumbled upon our dream house in the Berkeley Hills” says Jessica Hische. “This home was built for and occupied by the same family since 1956. It’s an original gem of California Modernism (think clean lines with natural materials). We feel honored to carry the legacy of this home forward and we’re so excited to share this journey with you. We fell in love with the house as soon as we saw the kids’ bedrooms. Three petite spaces side by side and separated by two barn doors. Slide them open to create one big room or slide them closed for privacy. Pure MAGIC. We decided to make the necessary changes to modernize the functional spaces and tailor the home to our family while maintaining the original architect’s preference for honest materials used artfully. A few of the changes we plan to make will actually restore the house to it’s original blueprint.” explains her partner Russ on the home’s dedicated Instagram account. @baumhausmodern

HISCHE AND HER CHILDREN IN THE PRE-RENOVATION LIVING ROOM.

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DIGITAL RENDERINGS BY JAVIER WAINSTEIN

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