Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

sophisticated illustration to American magazines,” recalled a colleague.
“Other art directors brought powerful or clever images, but Frank brought
an unprecedented sophistication. Of course it came from Europe since in
the early 1950 s there weren’t too many Americans practicing sophisticated
pen work.”
Through Holiday, the artists Ronald Searle, Andre François,
Roland Topor, Domenico Gnoli, George Guisti, and Edward Gorey (one
of the few native Americans) were given latitude to develop their own
picture essays and portfolios. Zachary avoided the reigning stars—“that
would be too easy,” he argued—but rather discovered his own galaxy. In
most cases the artists transformed themselves in this environment. “Frank
gave me a lot of firsts,” recalled Ronald Searle. “From around 1959 to 1969
he gave me all the space one could dream of, the chance to fill it with color,
the freedom to travel, and what proved to be the last of the great venues for
reportage. Off to Alaska! Cover all of Canada! Bring me ten pages on the
dirty bits of Hamburg! No expense spared. The years of travel for Frank
gave me experience that cannot be bought. There was only one problem, he
always called me ‘Arnold’ instead of Ronald. Then he probably always
called [photographer] Arnold Newman ‘Ronald,’ so it balanced out.”
Zachary developed what he called “environmental portraiture,”
common in contemporary magazines but unique in the early 1950 s. “I
would say to a photographer, ‘If a guy is a multimillionaire painter, I want
to see a whole lot of his paintings in the background and on top of that I
want to see his castle in the background, too.’ A photographer just couldn’t
walk in and take a picture of a subject; he had to assemble the components
of the subject’s life,” explains Zachary. An example of environmental
portraiture is a photograph for a special issue of Holidayon New York City
showing highways and parks czar and power-broker Robert Moses
standing omnipotently on a red girder over the East River. The shot
illustrates Zachary’s willingness to expend a tremendous amount of effort
to photograph one perfect image. That is what defined his remarkable art
direction.