SVA Archives

June 09, 2015

Western Union’s ‘Computer Letter’

Ed McCabe’s characteristically direct copy for Western Union’s spammy-sounding “Computer Letter,” 1983. Click through for more and the full page.

June 08, 2015

Henry Wolf for Karastan carpets

An excellently memorable and surreal campaign photographed by Henry Wolf for Karastan carpets.

May 21, 2015

Milton Glaser’s Boris Vian

Milton Glaser’s watercolors for a French edition of Boris Vian’s I Spit On Your Graves.

April 14, 2015

Baader-Meinhof Library Escape

James McMullan’s process is detailed step-by-step, showing exactly how he composed and executed the complicated tableau of the Baader-Meinhof Group’s escape from a Berlin library.

March 30, 2015

Paula Scher’s identity for SVA

In 1988, the School of Visual Arts commissioned Paula Scher—a longtime faculty member but not yet a principal at Pentagram—to redesign its corporate identity.

February 24, 2015

I’ve seen you on the beach and I’ve seen you on TV

Malcolm Garrett was the subject of “Ulterior Motifs: An Exhibition of Graphic Devices 1977-1993,” an exhibition held at SVA in 1993 that featured Garrett’s logotypes for clients in the music, publishing, and retail industries.

January 20, 2015

Prints from Galleria del Deposito

Italian screenprints from the collective gallery in Genoa, Italy.

January 06, 2015

Welcome back—and to 2015

Students will return to SVA next Monday but we’re back and the archives are reopened already. Here’s Seymour Chwast’s cover design for Time‘s promotional calendar for the academic year 1982–1983.

December 20, 2014

Saks Fifth Avenue’s Folio

Henry Wolf’s work for Saks hearkened back to his days at Harper’s Bazaar and Show.

December 16, 2014

Have one

A great one from Tony Palladino, a cleaned-up and stripped-down version of the tear-off fliers that used to proliferate to such an extent that they almost became invisible. This Christmas card both grabs your attention and evokes nostalgia.

December 16, 2014

Lost and found

Newly unearthed SVA exhibition posters (1969-1970) from Cris Gianakos.

December 11, 2014

Christmas mail bag

Steven Heller collected more than 250 Christmas cards from artists for a 1980s book project. Many of the cards are hand-drawn or painted, but even the reproductions are playful and highly personal.

December 10, 2014

Portraits of Pnin

Several incarnations of Vladimir Nabokov’s most lovable protagonist, Timofey Pavlovich Pnin.

December 04, 2014

Milton Glaser for 7 Up

Milton Glaser’s finely detailed sketches for a 7 Up advertising campaign.

November 24, 2014

Pop pourri, part 2

Reader Don O’Hara sent us a few additional iterations of the Jem “Classic Series” we featured last week.

November 19, 2014

Pop pourri

Milton Glaser was hired by Deluxe Communications Corporation/Jem to design a set of LP sleeves for oldies releases they called The Classic Series.

November 16, 2014

C&G for Howard Wise Gallery

Chermayeff & Geismar designed a series of exhibition posters for the Howard Wise Gallery in the 1960s, highlighting the artists’ works. Wise exhibited abstract expressionists including Milton Resnick and Edward Dugmore, and later specialized in kinetic art and light sculputure.