Push Pin Graphic^103
Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Reynold Ruffins, Edward SorelIn 1953 when the first Push Pin Almanack was
published it would have been impossible to
predict that its four principle contributors,
Seymour Chwast (b. 1931 ), Milton Glaser (b.
1929 ), Reynold Ruffins (b. 1930 ), and Edward
Sorel (b. 1929 ), would develop a graphic style
that challenged the prevailing ethic of
functionalism imported from Europe (during the
Bauhaus immigration), practiced by some
leading American corporate and advertising
designers, and manifest in work by exponents of
the Swiss International Style. Yet when that first
four-inch-by-nine-inch compilation of facts,
ephemera, and trivia illustrated with woodcuts
and pen-and-ink drawings was mailed out as a
promotion for these freelancers, other New York
designers and art directors began to take serious notice. Indeed the Push
Pin Almanackbrought in so much work from book, advertising, and film-
strip clients that the four Cooper Union classmates decided to leave their
day jobs and start Push Pin Studios, the major proponent of illustrative
design in America.
The Almanack, originally conceived by Chwast and Sorel as a
bimonthly promotional piece, was consistent with emerging historicist
design trends. Victorian, fat letter type had previously been revived for use
in advertising during the 1930 s, fell out of favor in the 1940 s, and was
revived again in the 1950 s when Otto Storch, art director of McCall’sbegan
using Victorian woodtype and ornament for editorial layouts. Indeed a taste
for things old fashioned was returning, apparently as a reaction to what was
perceived as cold, humorless modernism. “It was called the Push Pin
Almanack,” Chwast said in a 1990 interview, “because it was a quaint
name—and quaintness was popular in those days.”
The contents were usually tidbits excerpted from books and
periodicals and illustrated in styles that evoked the past. Each issue related
to seasonal themes and included a few articles written especially for the
Almanackon graphic design topics. Although it might be compared to Will
Bradley’s early 1900 sChap Bookand other printer’s keepsakes, the Push Pin