Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Book Jacket, 1961.

In 1961, Ivan Chermayeff designed and illustrated Sandol Stoddard Warburg’s Keep it like a secret (Chermayeff and Warburg had previously collaborated on The Thinking Book in 1960). The charming title, with its childlike connotations, was later appropriated by the band Built to Spill for their 1999 album. Sadly, we only have the jacket, not the book itself, but I did discover another version of the jacket out there.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Box 19, Folder 4, Gramavision CD packaging, 1989.

Chermayeff & Geismar’s packaging for these Gramavision CDs brings me back to the CD bins in the (long gone) Tower Records on Broadway and E. 4th Street.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Drawer 7, Folder 2. Mobil Masterpiece Theatre.

Masterpiece Theatre was the principal portal into British television for American audiences in the seventies; Mobil, the sponsor, drafted their longtime designers Chermayeff & Geismar to make posters for various features.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Box 22, Folder 3. Interactive Data Corporation.

If Chermayeff & Geismar could be said to have one particular speciality, it would probably be the knack for distilling complex organizational systems into extremely reduced graphic ideas: their calling card in this respect was the Symbol Signs project. But this poster for Interactive Data Corporation, with its monochrome figuration for a symposium, also falls neatly into the category (along with work for Xerox). Click through for the full page.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Pepsi-Cola World, February 1960.

The design firm of Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar established their reputation for brilliant corporate identity work with one of their earliest clients, Pepsi-Cola.

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The most recent addition to the Chermayeff & Geismar Collection is twelve boxes of old and rare art books, ranging from annuals to architecture; Switzerland to Japan. As always, there were plenty of surprises: one was the catalog for an AGI exhibition from 1976, which featured, alongside reproductions of their work, dramatic photos of the designers.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection, Box 40 Folder 11, Xerox booklet, 1960s.

Which ladder will you climb at Xerox?

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection Box 48 Folder 14: Milton Resnick exhibition at Howard Wise Gallery.

Chermayeff & Geismar designed a series of exhibition posters for the Howard Wise Gallery in the 1960s, highlighting the artists’ works. Wise exhibited abstract expressionists including Milton Resnick and Edward Dugmore, and later specialized in kinetic art and light sculputure.

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In the 1970s, the Mead Library of Ideas held exhibitions showcasing the best contemporary graphic design; they commissioned announcement posters from designers including Tony Palladino, Chermayeff & Geismar, and Seymour Chwast.

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Box 1A, Folder 34: Brownjohn, Robert, Chermayeff & Geismar. Letterhead, business cards, envelopes. ca. late-1950s

One of our favorite design ephemera blogs, Silver Lining, recently asked us to participate in their Top 5 feature, where they invite fellow bloggers pick out five things for them to showcase as a series. Beth and I dug through boxes MG1 1A-4B and chose our favorite stationery and envelopes by letterhead wizards Chermayeff & Geismar. See all of them over on the Silver Lining Blog.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Box 16 Folder 13. Dictaphone System 1, 1970.

Is it a top secret missile defense system? A world-wide clandestine computer network designed to topple rogue governments? The futuristic and vaguely ominous-sounding System 1 was actually an office furniture system from Dictaphone’s furniture division Marble/Imperial.

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Halftone pattern from photography promoting Knoll’s Calibre filing system

Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar designed this elaborate promo system for a Knoll modular filing system. Some details from the project follow.

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SVA Collection: RG 5.2 Continuing Education, course announcements

During the 1960s, SVA published a series of course announcements advertising the practical aspects of its evening classes. The text was often dry but the graphics were playful and eye-catching. Here, having some fun with type, are Ivan Chermayeff and Tony Palladino. Chermayeff and Bob Gill are after the jump.

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Ivan Chermayeff designed this poster for AIGA’s “Color” exhibition in 1974, which collected work by artists, photographers and designers. Tightly flowing script creates a pattern made out of textual gibberish, where exaggerated descenders are punctuated at intervals with large blobs of ink. Click through for the whole image, with Chermayeff’s colorful signature.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection, Box 44, Folder 3.

Lincoln Center’s groundbreaking ceremony took place in on May 14, 1959, so this book cover designed by Chermayeff & Geismar must have been created some time in the early 1960s. According to the text, Lincoln Center would make New York City “… the international capital of the performing arts, just as the United Nations makes it a capital for world affairs.”

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Box 2A, Folder 26 and Box 25, Folder 5

An envelope showing the logo for slider chain Krystal, ca 1980s, designed by Chermayeff & Geismar. Doggie bag follows.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection, Box 44, Folder 5 — Norlin Annual Report 1974.

From the Chermayeff & Geismar Collection comes this Norlin Annual Report shaped like an album cover. Inside, along with the actual report, is the record Norlin Salutes The Music in America, which includes works by Morton Gould, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and William Schumann.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Box 44 Folder 6.

Spin to see if new markets overseas raise your income or if underproductivity kills your business.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: Box 13, Folder 13 — Crafton Graphic Company, Inc. Prang 1969.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what a Prang is, your worries are over.

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From Eye 54, a small feature on Ivan Chermayeff’s collection of abandoned gloves. They also link to another post featuring some whimsical collages by the designer.

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