Seven Designers Look at Trademark Design

Egbert Jacobson (editor), Herbert Bayer, Will Burtin, Creston Doner, Egbert Jacobson, Alvin Lustig, Paul Rand and Bernard Rudofsky (contributors)

Paul Theobald, 1952

First Edition. Absolutely one of the coolest graphic design books I have ever seen, and pretty darn rare to boot.

8.75 x 11 hardcover book in screen-printed and embossed cloth-covered boards with 172 pages and 400 illustrations in various colors. Includes original, illustrated essays by Herbert Bayer, Will Burtin, Creston Doner, Alvin Lustig, Paul Rand and Bernard Rudofsky.

Contents:

• Bernard Rudofsky: Introduction
• Herbert Bayer: On Trademarks
• Alvin Lustig: Formal Values in Trademark Design
• Paul Rand: The Trademarks as an Illustrative Device
• Will Burtin: Trademarks / Tradenames
• H. Creston Doner: The Trademark in Product Identification
• Egbert Jacobson: The Trademark Applied On Stationery; On Products; In Packaging; In Advertising; In Architecture; and In Book Publishing

From Jacobson's introduction: "Herbert Bayer then offers a brief classification of the various trademark types. Alvin Lustig discusses the development of their ideas and forms. Paul Rand shows how they may be given new emphasis and variety. Will Burtin stresses their traditional and developing application. In a single case history, H. Creston Doner demonstrates the need for periodic re-evaluation."

The book is a veritable Rosetta Stone of the modern movement — in addition to the seven designers mentioned above, this volume includes work by the following designers, photographers and artists: George Nelson (including designs for Schiffer Prints, Herman Miller and Howard Miller), Raymond Loewy, Ad Reinhardt, Louis Danziger, Ernst Reichl, Henry Dreyfuss, Gustav Jensen, Morton Goldsholl, A. M. Cassandre, Ladislav Sutnar, Ray Komai, William Golden, Herbert Matter (for Knoll International), Alexander Girard, Lucien Bernhard, W. A. Dwiggins, Rockwell Kent, George Salter, Boris Artzybasheff, Julius Shulman, Ferenc Berko and many others.

— Randall Ross of modernism101.com