Push Pin Studios
| Industry | Graphic design, Illustration, Communications, Advertising, Marketing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1954 |
| Founder | Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast |
| Headquarters | New York City |
Key people | Milton Glaser Seymour Chwast Reynold Ruffins Edward Sorel |
| Products | album covers, book covers, posters, packaging, advertisements, and corporate and environmental logos and graphics |
| Website | www |
Push Pin Studios is a graphic design and illustration studio founded by the influential graphic designers Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast in New York City in 1954. The firm's work, and distinctive illustration style, featuring "bulgy" three-dimensional "interpretations of historical styles (Victorian, art nouveau, art deco),"made their mark by departing from what the firm refers to as the "numbing rigidity of modernism, and the rote sentimental realism of commercial illustration."[1] Eye magazine contextualized the results in a 1995 article for their "Reputations" column:
In an era dominated by Swiss rationalism, the Push Pin style celebrated the eclectic and eccentric design of the passé past while it introduced a distinctly contemporary design vocabulary, with a wide range of work that included record sleeves, books, posters, corporate logotypes, font design and magazine formats.[2]
History
After graduating from
Sorel left Push Pin in 1956, the same day the studio moved into a much nicer space on East 57th Street.[3] For twenty years Glaser and Chwast directed Push Pin, along with graphic designers and illustrators such as John Alcorn (in the late 1950s), Paul Davis (1959–1963), Barry Zaid (1969–1975), Paul Degen (1970s) among others.[4] Today, Chwast is principal of The Pushpin Group, Inc.[5]
Over the last six decades, the firm's work, and that of the founding designers, along with
in 1970–72.Related publications
The firm's in-house publications included The Push Pin Almanack and The Push Pin Graphic.[5] Out of house, the founding team served as art directors of Audience magazine, a high-end, subscription-only bimonthly arts and literature periodical, for whom Glaser and Chwast "used photographs, drawings, big pictures and lavish colors to accompany articles by Donald Barthelme, Herbert Gold, Martin Mayer, Thomas Whiteside and Frank Capra, among others."[7] Founded in 1971, under Glaser and Chwast's direction, it won the top award of the Society of Publication Designers in 1972. In 1973, however, it folded due to lack of funding.[7][8][9]
Gallery
(Selection was limited by availability.)
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A 1987 photo of Milton Glaser in his studio. -
A 1970 movie poster by Milton Glaser. -
Milton Glaser's typeface "Baby Teeth." -
Book Jacket design by Seymour Chwast in 1968.
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Bibliography
- Chwast, Seymour. Push Pin Graphic: A Quarter Century of Innovative Design and Illustration. Chronicle Books, 2004.
Exhibitions
- 1970 "The Push Pin Style" —
- 2021 "The Push Pin Legacy" — Poster House (September 2, 2021–February 6, 2022)[10]
References
- ^ Interview with Robert Grossman, in Heller, Steven. Innovators of American Illustration. New York: Van Nortrand Reinhold, 1986.
- ^ "Eye Magazine | Feature | Reputations: Milton Glaser". www.eyemagazine.com. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
- ^ Art Directors Club(2002).
- ^ AIGA Biography of Paul Davis. American Institute of Graphic Arts website.
- ^ a b Pushpin Group website, accessed June 6, 2008.
- ^ The Push Pin Style: An Exhibition of Design and Illustration by Present and Former Members of the Push Pin Studios. Communication Arts Magazine. 1970.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
- ^ Seymour Chwast & Push Pin Archived 2008-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, accessed June 6, 2008.
- ^ "SVA Archives". archives.sva.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
- ^ The Push Pin Legacy page, Poster House website. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
External links
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