through type and image. While not the raw expressionism of the most
fashionable designers of the 1990 s, de Harak employed abstract form ever
so subtly to unlock alternative levels of perception. He related this practice
to abstract expressionism, which in the early 1950 s he wholeheartedly
embraced, and while this may be difficult to see amid his orthodox,
systematic design, the nearly four hundred McGraw-Hill paperbacks he
designed in the early 1960 s bring this relationship into clear focus. De
Harak’s rigid grid was, in fact, a tabula rasa on which both rational and
eccentric imagery evoked ideas. The subjects of these books—philosophy,
anthropology, psychology, and sociology, among them—offered de Harak a
proving ground to test the limits of conceptual art and photography. At the
same time he experimented with a variety of approaches inspired by dada,
abstract expressionism, and, ultimately, op-art.
His on-the-job research helped push the design practice towards
an art-based theory. With one eye on the international typographic style,
the other was focused on pushing the bounds of letterform composition.
Following in the tradition of poetic typography of the 1920 s, de Harak
imposed his own levels of legibility through experimentation with various
forms of letter and word spacing.
He built his typographic scheme on Berthold’s Akzidenz Grotesk
from Berlin. This bold European typeface effectively anchored de Harak’s
design and gave him a neutral element against which to improvise with a
growing image repertoire. His early experiments, including fifty covers
done for Westminster records, were the basis for the decidedly modern
book jackets that he designed for Meridian Press, New Directions, Holt
Rinehart and Winston, and Doubleday. And all the approaches he
developed during the late 1950 s led to his opus, the McGraw-Hill
paperback covers that became laboratories for his experiments with color,
type, optical illusion, photography, and other techniques. More important,
these covers would define his design for years to follow.
McGraw-Hill paperbacks were emblematic of 1960 s design. At
this time the international typographic style and American eclecticism were
the two primary design methodologies at play in the United States. The
former represented Bauhaus rationalism, the latter 1960 s exuberance. De
Harak was profoundly influenced by the exquisite simplicity of the great
Swiss modernist Max Bill, but as an American he wanted to find a vehicle
for reconciling these two conflicting sensibilities. Just as he resisted the
hard-sell approach in advertising, he also rejected the eclectic trend to make
typography too blatantly symbolic. “I never saw the need to put snowcaps
on a letterform to suggest the cold,” he offered as an example of the
extreme case. Instead he worked with a limited number of typefaces, at first
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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