wiedler.ch

book (design) story #451

charles rosner:
die kunst des buchumschlages

gerd hatje, 1954
printer: ernst leyh, stuttgart
size: ?? x ?? cm
designer: alvin lustig (jacket)

in the 1940-50s, charles rosner (1902-??) was a well known british writer on design, especially graphic design and book jackets.

this is the 1954 german edition of his standard publication on book jackets, with a jacket design by alvin lustig (1915-1955, see also book 232.

the typeface mix of sans-serif and script in the cover and jacket titles is somewhat '30s tschicholdian.

let's look at rosner's swiss examples: ...

richard paul lohse is present with several designs, but unfortunately not credited for them (name left blank) – see books 444 (left), and 120 (top right).

and below on the left we have book 26, here credited to leo leuppi who indeed provided the backdrop artwork, however the typographic design is by lohse. only the "karl marx" biography on the same page is credited to lohse – interestingly a büchergilde book that is not listed in the lohse catalogue (isbn 9783775709910) ...

below left an alvin lustig jacket design.