commercial priorities but nonetheless formed a solid foundation for the
celebration and documentation of graphic design.
In 1934 Leslie founded PM: An Intimate Journal for Production
Managers, Art Directors, and their Associates, initially as a house organ. With
its co-editor Percy Seitlin, a former newspaper man, this small-format (six-
by-eight-inch) “journal” developed into the leading trade publication and
outlet for traditional and progressive work, an American Gebrauchsgrafik or
Arts et Métiers Graphiques(the latter published by the Deberny and Peignot
Foundry in Paris, which also employed publications and exhibitions to
further the French graphic arts).PMexplored a variety of print media,
covered industry news, and developed a strong slant towards modern
typography and design. It was also the first journal to showcase the new
European immigrants and included illustrated profiles on Herbert Bayer,
Will Burtin, Joseph Binder, M. F. Agha, as well as native-grown moderns
Lester Beall, Joseph Sinel, Gustav Jensen, and Paul Rand. In 1939 the name
PMwas sold to Ralph Ingersol, who started New York’s only ad-less daily
newspaper and called it PM, so the magazine changed its name to AD,
which coincidentally reflected a creative realignment within the profession
from production managers to art directors—marking a gradual shift from
craft to art.
Each ADcover featured an original image and redesigned logo.
E. McKnight Kauffer’s was characteristically cubistic; Paul Rand’s was
playfully modern; Lucian Bernhard’s was suitably gothic; and Matthew
Leibowitz’s prefigured new wave in its dada-inspired juxtaposition of
discordant decorative old wood types. Although the articles were not
critical analyses, they were nevertheless well-written trade pieces peppered
with interesting facts and anecdotes. A news column, titled “Composing
Room Notes by R. L. L.” provided an account of commercial arts from a
vendor’s perspective. For sixty-six issues PMand ADdocumented a nascent
profession as it grew out of a journeyman’s craft.
Three years after starting PM, Doc Leslie took over a small room
in The Composing Room shop that, with the addition of a display case and
bright lights, was transformed into the PMGallery, the first exhibition
space in New York dedicated to graphic design and its affinities. Percy
Seitlin described the premiere exhibition: “A young man by the name of
Herbert Matter had just arrived in this country from Switzerland with a
bagful of ski posters and photographs of snow-covered mountains. Also
came camera portraits and varied specimens of his typographic work. We
decided to let him hang some of his things on the walls and give him a
party....The result was a crowd of almost bargain-basement dimensions,
and thirsty too. Everyone was excited by the audacity and skill of Matter’s
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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