Speak Up is run with Six Apart’s 
One of the most gratifying perks of working on Graphic Design Referenced — aside from the unbelievably intense pressure of writing 400 pages and making sure we don't tell any lies — has been the opportunity to interact with many of the design artifacts we are featuring: We now have a healthy collection of 1960s Playboy magazines, 1980s The Face, LP albums from the 1970s, a Lufthansa 1968 timetable by Otl Aicher, and other items. And if I was excited about our previous visit to the Herb Lubalin Study Center at Cooper Union, I can only begin to tell you how ecstatic I was to visit the Graphic Design Archives in the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) at the beginning of this month.
Just one of the many aisles in the Graphic Design Archives at RIT.
The Graphic Design Archives are perhaps the most comprehensive collections of the work of American designers practicing from the 1950s – to 1980s, including Saul Bass, Lester Beall, Alexey Brodovitch, Will Burtin, Tom Carnase, Cipe Pineles, Paul Rand and Bradbury Thompson, among others. On a windy Friday morning I JetBlued myself over to Rochester to spend the better part of the day going through the archives to select work from Beall, Sutnar, Pineles, Carnase and Rand for inclusion in our book. As I expected, the collections and condition of the work were superb, and it was a real pleasure to go through the carefully labeled folders and boxes. I only had a handful of hours as I had to hop on a plane that evening, so I didn't have the luxury of kicking back and browsing every page of Caterpillar's corporate identity manual, or read through Rand's famous presentation book for the Next logo, or bring out the full collection of Harper's Bazaar to see all the covers and spreads. I only had enough time to make some selections and snap some quick photos to give everyone a very limited sneak peek at what lies in this treasure trove of graphic design history.
Due to the sensitivity of wrongful reproduction or usage of RIT's materials, the following photographs are, on purpose, not the best and are oddly framed by folders, pencils and my laptop, as well as some being taken in unflattering angles.
Lester Beall
Lester Beall's letterhead and folder cover, die-cut.
Corporate identity manual for International Paper. Top: This is how logos were provided for reproduction in the days before .EPSes and .GIFs. Bottom: Swatches of how the green should print in different paper stocks — slightly more effective proof than today's PDFs.
Corporate identity manual for Connecticut General.
Corporate identity manual for Caterpillar.
Corporate identity manual for Martin Marietta Corporation, which would merge in 1995 with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin.
Covers for Scope, a publication by Upjohn Pharmaceuticals.
Ladislav Sutnar
Small brochure for Addo-x, titled "Adventures with a Logotype."
"Transport, the Next Half Century" brochure. I could not keep my eyes off of this one. It was truly amazing.
Foxboro catalog.
Holtzer-Cabot Corp. catalog.
Paul rand
Presentation book for Next.
Presentation book for The Limited.
Presentation book for American Express.
Cummins Annual Reports.
PDR Computer Impressions capabilities brochure.
One of many guideline documents for IBM. Very humorous note.
Many thanks to Kari Horowicz and David Pankow for opening their collection to us, and for their help and support with our project.
Jump to Most Recent Comment
nicool’s comment is:
i went to RIT and feel very lucky to have studied design with such an enormous archive. i will have to go back and visit soon. it's pretty unbelievable there.
On Sep.18.2008 at 11:05 AM
JonSel’s comment is:
Damn that's juicy stuff.
On Sep.18.2008 at 12:33 PM
Steve’s comment is:
omfg
On Sep.18.2008 at 01:46 PM
Jason Puckett’s comment is:
That is some pretty amazing stuff. I hope you were wearing gloves.
On Sep.18.2008 at 10:53 PM
Ricardo Cordoba’s comment is:
Thanks for sharing these photos with us, Armin! What a great collection!
On Sep.18.2008 at 11:11 PM
Jason Tselentis’s comment is:
Wow, Armin & Bryony, seeing these articles really made my day. You are getting to touch some history work, and it's great that you got to share it through Speak Up. I look forward to seeing the book!
On Sep.19.2008 at 08:08 AM
Diane Zerr’s comment is:
I love the Connecticut General style book!!!! Nice photos, I can't wait to see the book.
On Sep.19.2008 at 02:39 PM
Tom’s comment is:
I went to RIT as well, but unfortunately for Illustration (or maybe fortunately, but I should have studied design as well) so I never had the interest to take a serious look into the design archives, only browsed briefly during a presentation Kari gave in the library.
Next time I go back to visit Rochester, it will be my first stop.
On Sep.22.2008 at 11:35 AM
Casey McGarr’s comment is:
This is so great. I love seeing the work of the great designers and how inspirational to have a look at it first hand. Do the archive available for students to look through for research/inspiration?
On Sep.22.2008 at 03:48 PM
Armin’s comment is:
Casey, as far as I know, yes, they are.
On Sep.22.2008 at 04:09 PM
Keith Harper’s comment is:
I went to RIT also - it is an amazing resource to have as a student. If any of you are passing through Rochester, I suggest you take a look!
On Sep.23.2008 at 12:03 AM
pat Taylor’s comment is:
Amazing cool!
On Sep.23.2008 at 04:53 PM
Paulina Garcés Reid’s comment is:
What you failed to mention in this article, which I think is extremely important, is that it's mainly the work of Roger Remington, the Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design at RIT. Without him I don't think RIT would have such a wonderful resource.
http://www.rrogerremington.com/
"At RIT he has developed a unique scholarly resource, the Graphic Design Archive. This project involves preserving and interpreting the original source materials of 27 American Modernist design pioneers such as Lester Beall, Will Burtin, Cipe Pineles, William Golden and Alvin Lustig among others."
On Sep.25.2008 at 09:06 PM
LogoBlink’s comment is:
I'll add 2 or 3 pics just to tease in my blog and will put a link to this page :)
I like most " Do not alter the logo, even in humor".
On Sep.27.2008 at 05:14 AM
James’s comment is:
Rockin it like it's 1962...
Just like Roger R. likes it.
Kevin’s comment is:
That is truly amazing. what an opportunity to look through the designs of the greats. Would any of you happen to know who the "Transport, the Next Half Century" brochure was for or perhaps where you could find a copy?
On Sep.29.2008 at 11:41 AM
Eric Ortner’s comment is:
Being an RIT alumni class of 98 I can say having access to this resource was an amazing asset in my eduction. Below are a few photos I took on my own back in 1997 for an Interactive Design class. Back then I was sure I wanted to work in publishing...
ronald hasler’s comment is:
My eyes are bulging outta their sockets ... thank you for the time travel ... we have big shoes to fill, eh?
On Oct.12.2008 at 05:14 AM
