Some ephemeral points of comparison between the work of Seymour Chwast and Andy Warhol.

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Seymour Chwast Collection: Series 5, Item E33. Photograph by Carl Fischer.

In 1995, the Cooper Union celebrated the 40th anniversary of Pushpin Studios with an exhibition and special sale of drawings and paintings by the three founders, pictured above: Seymour Chwast, Edward Sorel, and Milton Glaser; along with works by John Alcorn, Sam Antupit, Michael Aron, Vincent Ceci, Paul Davis, George Leavitt, Tim Lewis, Jim McMullan, Reynold Ruffins, Jerold Smokler, Richard Mantel, “and others.” This reminded me of another similar device that captured a group that is also heavily represented by the Archive.

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One regular advertiser in the Push Pin Graphic was Metropolitan Printing.

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Seymour Chwast’s designs for Bic Parfum.

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Some type-based design from Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast.

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Seymour Chwast’s intricate composition of his illustrations.

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Seymour Chwast takes on Bazooka Joe.

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And now, the companion piece to the Pushpin beers post. “Any port in a storm.”

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Before Push Pin Studios, before the Push Pin Graphic, there was the Push Pin Almanack.

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A short tour of Seymour Chwast’s designs for beer and soda packaging.

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Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, 1964. Image courtesy of the SVA Picture Collection

Bob Dylan’s brief relationship with Joan Baez was exhaustively documented, but we get interested when that affair highlighted the work of Push Pin Studios. In 1964, Dylan and Baez were photographed at Newark Airport in front of Seymour Chwast’s poster for Booth’s Gin: an incongruous, but not surprising, image of two icons flanking a countercultural message from a corporate advertiser.

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Seymour Chwast Collection. Series 1: Original Art. Box 1, Item O4. (Marked “Neisser rand darf beschnitfen werdfin.”) Marker on paper (mounted), 20 × 24 in.

Here in New York we’re struggling through a heatwave. Perhaps a good course of action for those lucky enough to reside in air-conditioned high-rise Soho lofts is to keep it cool by lounging about with bright furniture, like the sporty cat in this illustration by Seymour Chwast (undated, but probably for the Frankfurter Allgemein Zeitung).

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In the late-1950s Seventeen magazine was a clearing house for an incredible stable of graphic talent. Among the contributors were many artists and designers associated with the School of Visual Arts, including Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse and others like Rudolf de Harak.

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Icons of culture and folklore are interpreted by the artists of Push Pin.

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Chermayeff & Geismar Collection: USIA “Graphic Trends” portfolio: Robert Weaver

The United States Information Agency deploys its secret weapon in the Cold War: designers and illustrators.

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In the mid-80s Seymour Chwast was approached by Georg Kovacs, Inc. to experiment with furniture in the Pushpin style.

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Milton Glaser Collection Box 65, Folder 1: Detail from poster for The Push Pin Graphic No. 52, 1967.

In 1967, Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, and James McMullan produced psychedelic “travel” posters for an issue of The Push Pin Graphic.

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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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Milton Glaser Collection: Esquire’s Christmas Gift Catalog, n.d.

Push Pin’s nutty and sweet Christmas Gift Catalog for Esquire exemplifies the eclectic spirit of that studio.

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In the early 1970s, Push Pin Studios produced a line of candies under the name “Pushpinoff Sweets.”

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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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Seymour Chwast Collection: P 192

In 1971, Phyllis La Farge and Seymour Chwast collaborated on the children’s book The Pancake King, which described the rapid ascent of a young master of the griddle pan. It spoke of the joy of breakfast, the perils of fame, the importance of family and of maple syrup. More spreads from The Pancake King are viewable on Flickr (thanks to Norman Hathaway), and show Chwast’s dexterous use of scale and bleed between spreads, and tidily-set Bodoni. The book was included in AIGA’s Fifty Books of the Year.

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Seymour Chwast Collection: Box 4, Item 28 (burger not included)

In 1979, McDonald’s hired Seymour Chwast to contribute one version of the packaging for the introduction of their new product, the Happy Meal. The promotion cost one dollar, and comprised a hamburger or cheeseburger, twelve-ounce soft drink, a small order of french fries, and a McDonaldland Cookie Sampler (not pictured). Along with their comestibles, the first customers could look forward to discovering either a McDoodler stencil, puzzle book, a McWrist wallet, an ID bracelet or McDonaldland character erasers.

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Milton Glaser Collection: Drawer 20, Folders 10. Seymour Chwast, logo label for Push Pin; on the reverse of item P16 in his recent donation to the Archives

Seymour: The Obsessive Images of Seymour Chwast, with an introduction by Steve Heller and an essay by Paula Scher, came out last April. A lively conversation around the book and the work it included built up in a comments thread at Design Observer last week, which brought in Scher and Heller, along with Michael Bierut, Armin Vit, Lorraine Wild, and others. Some unhappy commenters questioned the significance of his work, and this lead to a pretty interesting consideration of the concept of “dated” art (my favorite writing on this subject is I. A. Richards’ essay “Permanence as a Criterion,” which finds both “dated” and “timeless” problematic from the start).

This label, stuck authoritatively on the back of a mounted board as a bit of corporate identity — complete with the overrule, grotesk “Group Incorporated,” and high-contrast logotype — exploits its context to achieve a kind of reflexive wit, a kind of acknowledgment of what is being put over, that gives it a unifying effect (it is at once more than, and no more than, a “bit of corporate identity”). This is achieved with an unusually unaffected air — a combination that I think has always characterized Chwast’s work.

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Seymour Chwast Collection: Posters.

We recently received a wonderful donation from illustrator and designer Seymour Chwast. He was a founding partner of Push Pin Studios in 1954, along with Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel and Reynold Ruffins. The studio’s name was changed to the Pushpin Group in 1985 and Chwast remains as its director. Here’s a sampling of the 80 posters we received; future posts will highlight original artwork and other printed materials that offer a comprehensive view of Chwast’s influential career.

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