Leo Lionni (then Art Director of N.W. Ayers), commissioned Herbert Bayer to design this promotional brochure for the General Electric Company (Schenectady, NY). Electronics - A New Science for a New World is a narrative brochure integrating Bayer’s innovative European modern use of silhouette photographs, typography, color and illustrations.

Advertisement for a suite of metal office furniture under the brand name Bigla. Swiss graphic designer, author, writer and co-founder of Neue Grafik magazine, Hans Neuburg was a key figure in promoting the objective style of Swiss industrial graphic design. The thick black rules in this design were a reccurring theme in Neuburg’s work - influenced by Anton Stankowski and pioneered by Max Burchartz.

Advertisement for Bumaxit - insulation material. Zürich designer and co-founder of Neue Grafik magazine, Carlo Vivarelli studied at Kunstgewerbeschule and worked shortly at Studio Boggeri in MIlan, Italy. He was instrumental in helping create a distinct, Swiss style and an authority on Swiss industry trademark design. Vivarelli also designed the cover and page layout grid of Neue Grafik magazine.

Advertisement for Bumaxit - insulation material. Zürich designer and co-founder of Neue Grafik magazine, Carlo Vivarelli studied at Kunstgewerbeschule and worked shortly at Studio Boggeri in MIlan, Italy. He was instrumental in helping create a distinct, Swiss style and an authority on Swiss industry trademark design. Vivarelli also designed the cover and page layout grid of Neue Grafik magazine.

Advertisement for Bumaxit - insulation material. Zürich designer and co-founder of Neue Grafik magazine, Carlo Vivarelli studied at Kunstgewerbeschule and worked shortly at Studio Boggeri in MIlan, Italy. He was instrumental in helping create a distinct, Swiss style and an authority on Swiss industry trademark design. Vivarelli also designed the cover and page layout grid of Neue Grafik magazine.

In 1961, Dutch born Bob Noorda served as art director for Pirelli (tire and industrial manufacturer) in Milan, Italy and was a dominant figure in helping to create the Pirelli style, where he designed numerous advertisements, printed collateral, packaging and posters. In 1965, Noorda and fellow Milanese designer Massimo Vignelli, teamed up to establish Unimark International.

Advertisement for electric cable terminals. Pirelli (tire & industrial manufacturer) was known for commissioning many innovative designers, each with their own style, in their advertising and communications in post-war Milan.

Advertisement for plastic canisters. Pirelli (tire & industrial manufacturer) was known for commissioning many innovative designers, each with their own style, in their advertising and communications in post-war Milan.

Advertisement for couplings. Pirelli (tire & industrial manufacturer) was known for commissioning many innovative designers, each with their own style, in their advertising and communications in post-war Milan.

Pirelli (tire & industrial manufacturer) was known for commissioning many innovative designers, each with their own style, in their advertising and communications in post-war Milan.

One of the most influential figures in post-war British graphic design, Alan Fletcher had a brief stint in Milan where he worked for Pirelli. Fletcher returned to London in 1959 with Pirelli as a client and in 1962 opened Fletcher/Forbes/Gill.

In 1961, Dutch born Bob Noorda served as art director for Pirelli (tire and industrial manufacturer) in Milan, Italy and was a dominant figure in helping to create the Pirelli style, where he designed numerous advertisements, printed collateral, packaging and posters. In 1965, Noorda and fellow Milanese designer Massimo Vignelli, teamed up to establish Unimark International.

In 1961, Dutch born Bob Noorda served as art director for Pirelli (tire and industrial manufacturer) in Milan, Italy and was a dominant figure in helping to create the Pirelli style, where he designed numerous advertisements, printed collateral, packaging and posters. In 1965, Noorda and fellow Milanese designer Massimo Vignelli, teamed up to establish Unimark International.

In 1961, Dutch born Bob Noorda served as art director for Pirelli (tire and industrial manufacturer) in Milan, Italy and was a dominant figure in helping to create the Pirelli style, where he designed numerous advertisements, printed collateral, packaging and posters. In 1965, Noorda and fellow Milanese designer Massimo Vignelli, teamed up to establish Unimark International.

In 1961, Dutch born Bob Noorda served as art director for Pirelli (tire and industrial manufacturer) in Milan, Italy and was a dominant figure in helping to create the Pirelli style, where he designed numerous advertisements, printed collateral, packaging and posters. In 1965, Noorda and fellow Milanese designer Massimo Vignelli, teamed up to establish Unimark International.

In 1961, Dutch born Bob Noorda served as art director for Pirelli (tire and industrial manufacturer) in Milan, Italy and was a dominant figure in helping to create the Pirelli style, where he designed numerous advertisements, printed collateral, packaging and posters. In 1965, Noorda and fellow Milanese designer Massimo Vignelli, teamed up to establish Unimark International.

In 1944, Lester Beall began designing Scope Magazine for the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company. Distributed to the medical community, Scope contained ads for Upjohn products, also designed by Beall. The ads and magazine design show Beall’s experimental use of photography.

In 1944, Lester Beall began designing Scope Magazine for the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company. Distributed to the medical community, Scope contained ads for Upjohn products, also designed by Beall. The ads and magazine design show Beall’s experimental use of photography.

In 1944, Lester Beall began designing Scope Magazine for the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company. Distributed to the medical community, Scope contained ads for Upjohn products, also designed by Beall. The ads and magazine design show Beall’s experimental use of photography.

After college, Leibowitz took a brief trip to Paris, a sojourn which was cut short by the war. Leibowitz was not the only artist forced to leave Europe in the 1930s. A majority of the professors from the Bauhaus, Surrealists, Cubists, the New School sociologists, composers and filmmakers came to the United States to escape the Nazis. Direct interactions with European masters such as those of the Bauhaus, catalyzed and fostered an awakening of new potential of design in America. 

The designers of Leibowitz’s generation (Saul Bass, Lester Beall, Will Burtin, Lou Dorfsman, Leo Lionni, Herb Lubalin, Alvin Lustig and Paul Rand, for example) created a new international style. They absorbed the radical design movements of the early part of the century into an eclectic amalgam. The flatness of modernist space affected backgrounds, the primary colors of Neoplasticism (De Stijl), the acute angles of Constructivism and the free floating of images in oneiric Surrealist space could all be seen in various examples. You can see influences of El Lissitzky, Piet Zwart, and Herbert Bayer, among others.

Intense also was the interactions between colleagues. Leibowitz met Lester Beall in New York and Beall became a kind of mentor helping Leibowitz get commissions. Leibowitz also knew Herbert Matter, Jean Carlu, A.M. Cassandre and later Man Ray, all in varying ways. There was a direct connection between the forms he used and the content he wanted to convey, a praxis shared by most of his generation. In 1959 he summed up his philosophy succinctly:

The complete integration of typography with the graphic image is indicative of the maturity attained by the contemporary designer. The role of designer is that of visual translator. The translation can communicate well only if expressed in clear, concise terminology to the audience for whom it is intended. Ideas and content are expressed with the designer’s imagination and awareness. Synchronized, these qualities are his tools of creativity.

Returning to America during the Great Depression must have been difficult (as it created a precipitous drop in advertising), but Leibowitz, already at the top of his profession, was not drastically affected financially. Philadelphia (Washington Square) had been a core of American print since the early 19th century; it continued into the 20th century with Lippincott and Curtis Publishing and N.W. Ayer & Son, the oldest advertising firm in the United States, led by art director Charles Coiner who became vice president in charge of the department in 1936.

Starting in 1942, Leibowitz established a freelance practice in visual communications. He designed advertisements, packaging, brochures, logos, annual reports and identity campaigns for major American and European corporations and advertising firms. These included AT&T, N.W. Ayer & Son, American Oil, Caltex, Ciba, Container Corporation of America, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., General Dynamics, General Electric, General Motors, Gulf & Western, IBM, ITT, Merck, Olivetti, Otis Elevator Company, Paramount Pictures, Philco, Philip Morris, RCA Victor, The International Red Cross, Inc., Reichhold Chemicals, Inc., Sharp and Dohme, Spalding, Tastycake, J. Walter Thompson, Time Life, TWA, Webster Cigars, and others.

Leibowitz’s designs displayed an acute visual intelligence. Not only were the designs powerful they were consummately made. Leibowitz’s typography was all hand done. His designs were an eclectic aesthetic mix: the engravings hark back to Dada and Surrealism, the photography probably a Brodovitch or Beall influence, the cantilevering of lines and planes from Constructivism. Of his practice Leibowitz said:

Whether precise as geometry or sculptural as stone, it must declare a clear, direct, and strong visual statement, complete as such.

Not only were his works objects of beauty but also they involved an intense search for new visual meanings that would speak of their time. The work reflected the progress and hope of America in the post-war period. His was the era of aerodynamics, the atomic bomb, the first computers, satellite communications and space travel, long playing records, electric typewriters and big business. He was not adverse to combining photographs, blind embossing, crisp silk-screened overlays, airbrushed atmospheres and 19th century engravings.

Leibowitz lived in an environment as aesthetic as his print work. He designed his own home (fig 11) – a perfect example of modernist aesthetic; flat-roofed, planar, clean lined, functional and light. His marriage to Selma Adams was successful; she ran his office and kept his financials, leaving Leibowitz the time to produce the work. They had two daughters and a loving family.

Leibowitz also created fine art in his “spare” time. His paintings (fig 12) present serious hard edge Constructivist work. In them he attained a purity that was universal and beyond the commercial function of his design work. Their closest painting affinities would be with the concrete art of his near contemporaries Max Bill, Richard Paul Lohse, and Ilya Bolotowsky. On November 1, 1974, Leibowitz died of leukemia.

During his career he received 326 gold medals and other awards for his work. He participated in Alliance Graphique International exhibitions in Paris (1955), Milan (1961) and Germany (1964, 1966). Leibowitz had one-person exhibitions in Asia, Europe, North and South America and Australia and is represented in the collection of MoMA, the Library of Congress, the Denver Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art (Washington) and the Musee d’art Moderne in Paris.

In 1944, Lester Beall began designing Scope Magazine for the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company. Distributed to the medical community, Scope contained ads for Upjohn products, also designed by Beall. The ads and magazine design show Beall’s experimental use of photography.

Medical advertisement for Dompé Pharmaceutical (Milan) product. “I have attempted to escape from the geometrical and typographical straightjacket imposed by Swiss constructivism and the influence of Mondrian” (The Work of Franco Grignani by Alan Bartram, Typographica 1, June 1960).

Medical advertisement for Dompé Pharmaceutical (Milan) product. “I have attempted to escape from the geometrical and typographical straightjacket imposed by Swiss constructivism and the influence of Mondrian” (The Work of Franco Grignani by Alan Bartram, Typographica 1, June 1960).

Medical advertisement for Dompé Pharmaceutical (Milan) product. “I have attempted to escape from the geometrical and typographical straightjacket imposed by Swiss constructivism and the influence of Mondrian” (The Work of Franco Grignani by Alan Bartram, Typographica 1, June 1960).

Medical advertisement for Dompé Pharmaceutical (Milan) product. “I have attempted to escape from the geometrical and typographical straightjacket imposed by Swiss constructivism and the influence of Mondrian” (The Work of Franco Grignani by Alan Bartram, Typographica 1, June 1960).

Medical advertisement for Dompé Pharmaceutical (Milan) product. “I have attempted to escape from the geometrical and typographical straightjacket imposed by Swiss constructivism and the influence of Mondrian” (The Work of Franco Grignani by Alan Bartram, Typographica 1, June 1960).

Medical advertisement for Dompé Pharmaceutical (Milan) product. “I have attempted to escape from the geometrical and typographical straightjacket imposed by Swiss constructivism and the influence of Mondrian” (The Work of Franco Grignani by Alan Bartram, Typographica 1, June 1960).

Advertisement for Norm - metal building components (window sills, wardrobes, doors, letter boxes, etc.). Zürich designer Graf was responsible for Norm designs in the early to mid 1960s including: logo, stationary system, advertising, catalogs and signage. This functional ad (from a series of 6) uses black/white objective photography, a strict grid, ample white space and neutral typography. The result is a strikingly simple, clear product representation that communicates a lot with little means.

Advertisement for Norm - metal building components (window sills, wardrobes, doors, letter boxes, etc.). Zürich designer Graf was responsible for Norm designs in the early to mid 1960s including: logo, stationary system, advertising, catalogs and signage. This functional ad (from a series of 6) uses black/white objective photography, a strict grid, ample white space and neutral typography. The result is a strikingly simple, clear product representation that communicates a lot with little means.

In 1952 Schweizer Graphische Mitteilungen (SGM), Revue Suisse de L’imprimerie (RSI) and Typographische Monatsblätter joined forces and merged into a single monthly periodical titled TM. Through the years, contributors Rudolf Hostettler, Emil Ruder and Robert Büchler developed this publication into the premier Swiss typography and printing periodical.

In 1952 Schweizer Graphische Mitteilungen (SGM), Revue Suisse de L’imprimerie (RSI) and Typographische Monatsblätter joined forces and merged into a single monthly periodical titled TM. Through the years, contributors Rudolf Hostettler, Emil Ruder and Robert Büchler developed this publication into the premier Swiss typography and printing periodical.