-
January 07, 2013
Lucky number 13
A series of talks at SVA in 1971 and 1972 featured a pretty spectacular line-up: Carl Andre, Larry Bell, Michael Heizer, Donald Judd, Allan Kaprow, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenberg, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, and Andy Warhol. The poster art, by John Sposato, reads as minimalism sent through the Push Pin filter (even though Sposato, who still teaches at SVA today, was, to my knowledge, never employed by the studio), right down to the slowly unfolding plays on depth and perspective.
Continue Reading
-
January 07, 2013
Foot fetish
The transfigured shoes of Push Pin Studios.
Continue Reading
-
January 07, 2013
Bob Gill
Designer and illustrator Bob Gill was one of the earliest faculty members at SVA, joining right around the time George Tscherny taught the school’s first design course.
Continue Reading
-
January 05, 2013
The White Album
James McMullan’s expressive illustrations add layers to Joan Didion’s novelistic essays.
Continue Reading
-
January 03, 2013
Push Pin and the P-Head
From the Push Pin Slide Collection: what appears to be a study for an alphabet based on the 1971 PBS identity designed by Lubalin Studio.
Continue Reading
-
December 12, 2012
The first Nöel
Getting into the holiday spirit, we bring you Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar’s charming wink at process.
Continue Reading
-
December 05, 2012
Once over lightly
Some thoughts on designers and children’s books on the occasion of a scan of original art from Tony Palladino’s unpublished The Crocodile With A Glass Stomach.
Continue Reading
-
November 27, 2012
Something Soft
Another foray by Milton Glaser into the realm of expressive typography.
Continue Reading
-
November 21, 2012
Odd bird
Looks like a regular ocellated fellow, with one significant difference. Cross-reference for flowers sprouting from heads: Utopia Records, and this poster for Push Pin Graphic. (Typeface is Glaser Stencil, which appeared on other Poppy productions as well.)
Continue Reading
-
November 06, 2012
Red letter days
Slightly more legible version of the snapshot available on our Flickr.
Continue Reading
-
October 18, 2012
Fifty-seven varieties of Heinz
Heinz Edelmann, like his contemporary Milton Glaser, had an incredible range of graphic styles, both in his mode of illustration and layout. This 1982 poster for the Westdeutscher Rundfunk broadcaster’s series Reden muß man miteinander (roughly—correct me if I’m wrong—“We need to talk”) enlists an exceptional array of devices recalling the work of Seymour Chwast: there are similarities in the pattern, abstracted period stylization, and a floating quality to the shapes and forms, though imbued here with Edelmann’s more spastic bursts of emphasis. For comparison, see this Chwastian cat or this notable cover of Pushpin Graphic. Click through for the full poster.
Continue Reading
-
July 03, 2012
Happy 4th from Tony Palladino
This hinged flag sculpture was originally designed for a cover of Second Coming magazine, but Palladino revisited the idea at intervals. One main conceit is that, on the reverse side, the Italian flag is painted, emphasizing his Italian-American roots. Click through for full magazine cover.
Continue Reading
-
May 18, 2012
Chwast does cigs
Another obscure, undated bit of imagery from the Pushpin slide library. Seymour Chwast’s contribution to the legacy of Roth-Händle cigarettes, probably for Frankfurter Allgemein Zeitung. He’s in good company: Robert Motherwell did a collage of the same, and, more pertinent certainly, many famous posters for the brand were designed by the great early twentieth-century designer Herbert Leupin. Note: despite the preponderance of smoking-related imagery we’ve been posting lately, Container List does not condone the practice, which doesn’t make you look cool unless you’re already Humphrey Bogart. Kids, it’s just NOT archival.
Continue Reading
-
April 27, 2012
Some more tearing
Promotion by George Tscherny for Strathmore paper, 1958. Torn-paper motifs seemed to have been very much the thing for that year (when Tony Palladino contributed this one). Click through for the full image.
Continue Reading
-
April 11, 2012
Edward Gorey at SVA
From our cache of early SVA course announcements comes this sweet one in dust jacket form for Advanced Children’s Book Illustration taught by Edward Lear disciple and legend himself, Edward Gorey.
Continue Reading
-
March 13, 2012
Saturday’s Generation
Are you a member of Saturday’s Generation?
Continue Reading
-
February 17, 2012
The Chermayeff Century
And when you have Sam Chermayeff, age 9, delivering the opening remarks to the Aspen Design Conference I think you’re firmly in Wes Anderson territory. More at 032c’s site.
Continue Reading
-
February 15, 2012
Phil Hays for SVA
This is a detail from possibly my all-time favorite SVA poster (click through for the whole image). It was illustrated by Phil Hays in the 1960s while he was chairman of SVA’s illustration department. Hays’ later work, especially his portraits of musicians and Hollywood stars, was markedly more hyperrealistic and decadent than this simple three-pane poster of a woman sitting in a chair, smoking. At first it seems something of a strange ad pitch, yet the subject is serene and satisfied and the work is masterly, somehow making the argument for SVA in its inherent quality.
Continue Reading
-
January 13, 2012
Brushes with history
Another example of paintbrushes (standing in for the artist) combined with another object (here, amid or as the hammers on a typewriter) follows the one we featured last week. The poster this detail is from originally was made to promote a panel discussion between the artists Alice Aycock, Alex Katz, and Lucio Pozzi with critics Lawrence Alloway, Hilton Kramer and moderator Donald Kuspit on the relationship between the artist and critic.
Continue Reading
-
December 14, 2011
Little black bag
The subtly provocative design is credited to Frank Kirk, which is not a name I’ve seen on any other SVA publications.
Continue Reading
By Collection
-
School of Visual Arts Archive
-
SVA Historical Event Recordings
-
Gail Anderson Collection
-
SVA COVID Collection
-
Ed Benguiat Collection
-
SVA Publications and Institutional Records
-
Ivan Chermayeff Collection
-
Ralph Caplan Collection
-
Chermayeff & Geismar Collection
-
Seymour Chwast Collection
-
Stephen Doyle Collection
-
Heinz Edelmann Collection
-
Richard Wilde Papers
-
Roger Ferriter Collection
-
Louise Fili Collection
-
Cris Gianakos Collection
-
Bob Gill Collection
-
Milton Glaser Collection
-
Keith Godard Collection
-
Steven Heller Collection
-
David Mazzucchelli Collection
-
Ed McCabe Collection
-
James McMullan Collection
-
Tony Palladino Collection
-
Stefan Sagmeister Collection
-
Paul Sahre Collection
-
Deborah Sussman Collection
-
Fred Troller Collection
-
George Tscherny Collection
-
Henry Wolf Collection