A Type Specimen page, 1950
"Elaine Lustig Cohen (b. 1927) is the pioneering female graphic designer who incorporated the aesthetic vocabulary of European modernism into American graphic design, during the 1950s and 1960s. After training as a painter, she developed her design skills working with Alvin Lustig (whom she married in 1948). Following Lustig's premature death in 1955, she took control of the studio and between 1955 and 1961 produced a distinctive series of covers for publishing houses Meridan Books and New Directions. With their strong concepts, abstract forms and typographic invention, they represented a break from the prevailing tradition of pictorial illustration in book-jacket design. Her ability to summarize the content of text in the cover design was further aided when, working for architects including Eero Saarinen and Philip Johnson she produced signage schemes intended to express a building's character. She designed many posters and catalogues for New York-based arts organizations, including the American Center for the Arts, the Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Jewish Museum. She married Arthur A. Cohen, publisher of Meridian Books; in 1973, they established Ex Libris, New York, a bookshop and gallery specializing in rare volumes of the European avant-garde. In 1995 her contribution to graphic design was acknowledge by an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York." (Livingston, 2003, 51). She continues to paint and create dynamic graphic collage-based work and is represented by Julie Saul Gallery, New York. Elaine Lustig Cohen donated her collection to RIT in 2008. " -Graphic Design Archive Online
7th Annual Purim Ball, The Jewish Museum, 1963
Hans Hoffman, 1997
Primary Structures: Younger American & British Sculptors, 1966
Literature in America, 1957
The Philosophy of Spinoza, 1958
The Federalist, 1961
Dangling Man, 1959
Max Ernst: Sculpture and Recent Painting, The Jewish Museum, 1966
Jonathan Edwards, 1959
Silver and Judaica Collection, The Jewish Museum, 1963
The Recollections of Alexis De Tocqueville, 1958
The Ideal Reader, 1997
The Disinherited Mind, 1958
Joseph Conrad, 1947 (co-designed with Alvin Lustig)
The Book of Jazz, 1958
Philosophy in the Middle Ages, 1959
Scenes From the Drama of European Literature, 1959
Jerusalem and Rome: The Writings of Josephus, 1960
Clear Writing, 1959
God and the Way of Knowning, 1957
Artists and Enemies - Three Novelas, 1997
New Year's Party Invitation, 1958
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see more of Elaine Lustig Cohen's book covers @ Scott Lindberg's excellent flickr page [link]
and at Graphic Design Archive Online [link]
also see thesilverlining's post which inspired me to finally post these [link]
there are a few more of her works at my flickr page [link]
and even more works at Julie Saul Gallery [link]