came in a variety of sizes and shapes, evolving into discrete books and
booklets on a variety of subjects, usually six times per year. The most
memorable issues were on art deco automobiles (what Chwast referred to
as “Roxy” style), “The Kings and Queens of Europe,” “Rhymes by Edward
Lear,” “The Push Pin Book of Dreams,” “Good and Bad,” “The Kiss,”
“Rock and Roll,” a collection of wooden targets (Paul Davis’s first signifi-
cant work as a junior member of Push Pin), and Chwast’s tour de force,
“The South,” a series of classic (and often racist) Southern stereotypes as
backdrops for photographs of slain civil rights leaders. To heighten the
polemic, a die-cut bullet hole pierces through the heads of the civil rights
workers until in the last picture,. The bullet hole shatters the calm of an
image representing the Old South, which is inset against a backdrop of the
civil rights march on Washington. This poignant and caustic commentary
was one of the few Push Pin Graphic’s with such an overt political message.
By the mid- 1970 s, the contributions made by Push Pin Studios
had become part of the mainstream and the Push Pin Graphichad lost some
of its innovative spark. To rejuvenate himself and expand into different
realms of design, Glaser left Push Pin in 1975 and founded his own design
firm. Chwast kept the Push Pin name and in 1976 decided to revamp the
Graphicinto a standard, nine-by-twelve-inch magazine format printed in
full color. Chwast’s goal was to make it commercially viable by rigorously
selling advertising and subscriptions. He printed eleven thousand copies of
each issue and eventually garnered around three thousand subscribers at the
rate of fifteen dollars yearly (mostly designers in the United States and
abroad who were not on the complimentary mailing list). Interest was high,
but as a commercial property, the Graphicwas losing money at a prodigious
rate. Nevertheless, as a magazine it continued for four years and twenty-
two issues.
Despite a seeming abundance of advertisements from graphic
arts suppliers (mostly designed by Chwast and given in return for their
services), financial pressures ultimately took their toll. “The All New
Crime Favorites” issue was the last Push Pin Graphic, and perhaps not
coincidentally it was the least interesting of all the issues. In all, eighty-six
issues were published from 1953 to 1980 , and ran the gamut from silly to
profound. In its early incarnation the Push Pin Graphichad an incalculable
influence on the conceptualization of graphic design and provided other
firms and studios a model, and indeed a medium, to show their conceptual
skills. But taken as a whole, the eighty-six issues show the evolution of a
significant graphic style (and its makers) that not only eclecticized Ameri-
can graphic design, but also changed the style and content of American
illustration.
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