1950 Paul Rand PORTFOLIO Magazine pre-Alexey Brodovitch Promotional Brochure

PORTFOLIO: A NEW KIND OF GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE. Original 1950 Promotional Brochure designed by Paul Rand. For Alexey Brodovitch's legendary Portfolio Magazine.

Paul Rand: PORTFOLIO: A NEW KIND OF GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE. Accordion-folded brochure with 8 panels, printed recto only. 2 x 8.5 [folded] to 8.5 x 16 [unfolded] promotional brochure published in advance of the first issue of Zachary and Brodovitch's'Portfolio. Printed in three colors with full bleeds and halftone photographic portraits of contributors Giambattista Bodoni, E. McKnight Kauffer, Fernand Leger, David Stone Martin, Herbert Matter, and Paul Rand. Short text descriptions accompany each portrait and provide interesting glimpses into the pre-production development of the legendary magazine.

In the brochure, Fernand Leger is credited with the cover design for the inaugural issue, as well as contributing a portfolio of unpublished paintings. Neither the cover nor the portfolio were ever printed.

Ten of David Stone Martin's album covers were scheduled for full color reproduction. 17 were eventually printed in black and white in a two-page spread.

Herbert Matter was slated to contribute an interesting photographic series on Women, chiefly nudes, with stress on movement and texture. This series never made it into the magazine. And Paul Rand is credited with the layout of this brochure, and Portfolio's trade mark and letterhead. In Steven Heller mononograph PAUL RAND [Phaidon, 1999], the author quotes Frank Zachary as saying that Rand designed the most beautiful letterhead and promotional brochure that he had ever seen (which are now lost).

A rare, perhaps singular, piece of American Graphic Design history. A passionate teacher of graphic design, advocate of photography and collaborator with many prominent photographers, Brodovitch is often credited with having a major influence on the acceptance of European modernism in America. Portfolio' is considered Brodovitch's greatest achievement-- although short-lived, the magazine captured the dynamic work of some of his emerging star students from his famous Design Laboratory, including Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Art Kane. The list of contents and contributors for Portfolio magazine reads like a guest list at some great event hosted by an enlightened art patron.

Producing a magazine is not unlike giving a party -- the editor-in-chief has to be a good master of ceremonies. Like Brodovitch, Zachary likened publication design to cinematography, where the pacing of visual sequences plays an important role. Art directing and editing are one and the same thing -- you have to keep your eye on both the visual and verbal narration line. You have to tell two stories, one in words, one in pictures, completely separate -- but like railroad track, leading to the same place. Zachary recounted to Martin Pedersen in Graphis Publications Zurich, Graphis Press Corp. "Paul didn't think much of magazine design, and he himself was incapable of it, " according to Zachary. When I was editing'Portfolio' I asked Paul to do something in the way of a format, and he just couldn't do it. For an excellent and ever-changing selection of rare and out-of-print design books and periodicals covering all aspects of 20th-century visual culture.

Please contact me for details. The item "1950 Paul Rand PORTFOLIO Magazine pre-Alexey Brodovitch Promotional Brochure" is in sale since Friday, February 26, 2010. This item is in the category "Art\Mixed Media Art & Collage Art". The seller is "modernism101" and is located in Shreveport, Louisiana. This item can be shipped worldwide.