CipePineles. From Cover

Transcription

1 CipePineles From Cover

2 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Colophon Typefaces used: Body text: Helvetica Neue, light. 10pt, 14pt leading. Titles: Onyx regular, 60 pt, 72pt leading. Running head: Didot regular, 10 pt, 14 pt leading Didot italic, 48pt., 60pt leading. The Beginning Working at Seventeen 6 12 Printed at the Katzen Arts Center at American University, on April 25, Charm and Beyond 16 Designed & Written by Rebecca Barton, sophomore at American University, for GDES , Introduction to Typography Bibliography

3 Image credit: See citations Introduction Cipe Pineles (pronounced SEE-pee pi-nell-iss) was a prolific graphic designer made famous by her work with magazine layouts and cover design. She broke gender barriers by holding the position of art director on many magazines known for their preference for males, and even became the first woman to be selected to enter the American Institute of Graphic Design. From her time spent working with Condé Nast himself, to her years as art director of Seventeen and Charm, and finally to her years teaching design at the collegiate level, Pineles led a full life and left behind many accomplishments. Although she unfortunately passed away in 1994, her work has certainly stood the test of time, and continues to serve as an inspiration for graphic designers from this generation and beyond. 4 5

4 The Beginning Cipe Pineles was born Ciporah of still life painting. Some of her water- Pineles in 1908 in Vienna, Austria. Her colors were exhibited during her senior early life consisted of much moving year at Pratt. around. She was born in Vienna, Austria, moved to Poland in 1920, and then finally relocated to New York in She began learning the English language by studying Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol with her sister. Cipe officially became a U.S. citizen in While in Brooklyn, she attended Pratt Institute, and thus began her interest in art. She began her first job in the design industry in 1930 at Contempora, Ltd. People who knew Pineles noted that her constant moving affected her in many ways, and caused her to seek out connec- After Pratt, Pineles sought employment to improve her financial situation. However, the only job she could find was for teaching, and so she taught watercolor art at a school in New Jersey. Pineles also faced the added difficulty of trying to find a job in an industry run by men. The only time she would get called back for an interview, Pineles recalled, was when the person reviewing her application made the mistake of assuming she was a man. As soon as they found out she was a woman, however, she was turned down. Finally she landed to learn more about fabrics and patterns, and what worked well together and what didn t. Pineles worked tirelessly on the project, and it paid off Leslie Foster Nast, Contempora s director of design, invited her husband Condé Nast to the premiere of Pineles project, and after seeing her work Nast offered her a job. Top left: Cipe Pineles self-illustration, 1945, 12. Top right: Watercolor of cactus, 1929, 12. Left: Cipe Pineles selfillustration, 1979, 12. Bottom right: Sketchboard for Glamour Magazine, 12. Bottom left: Illustration by Pineles for a holiday card, 1940s, 12. tions, making her a very personable a job at Contempora, Ltd. She also and friendly individual. began a job designing for the resort While at Pratt Institute, Pineles Green Mansions. She began design- took courses on lettering and poster ing their brochures and stationary. design, magazine cover design, book It was at her job at Contempora, illustration, and composition. How- Ltd. that Pineles first began reading ever, when asked later in life, Pineles high fashion magazines. She began said she could not recall taking any an assignment for the company that courses on commercial art. While at had her designing fabrics, and so she Pratt, Pineles began her lifelong hobby poured over high fashion magazines 6 7

5 In 1932, Pineles began working at composition to visually execute it for Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue, a feature in the magazine. Her ability Vanity Fair, and House & Garden, to come up with novel ideas served under the innovative art director, Dr. her well, and Nast, who was notori- M. F. Agha. It was during this job that ously meticulous about selecting cover Pineles first became widely exposed to designs, chose to use her designs women s fashion magazines and lay- three times. out design. Agha ran his office using The first cover, developed for a process of consistent experimenta- Vanity Fair, showed the gap between tion, and continuously told his staff to rich and poor by showing a fat cat improve every aspect of their design, banker dressed in clean newsprint no matter how good they thought it refusing to shake the hand of a skinny looked. Pineles recalled that it was a poor man on a crutch, dressed in very challenging job, but that the pro- rumpled and dirty newsprint. Her first cess she followed in creating designs cover for Vogue was developed for the under Agha served as a model for the holiday issue, and showed a pair of process behind the designs she would woman s hands upstretched toward create for the rest of her life. jewelry spelling out Vogue. Her sec- One of the most memorable ond cover for Vogue showed a closely assignments for Pineles was Agha s cropped photo of two women on a request that she choose a different black background, a concept Pineles typeface for every headline in Vogue. Pineles studied old typefaces and even drew some of her own. She noted later that although previously she had disliked type, this process made her appreciate typography, and helped her to develop an eye for seeing when a typeface worked and when it didn t. During her time at Condé Nast, Pineles also had the opportunity to work on feature assignments. She would develop a concept and combine typography, illustration, and Above: Cipe Pineles in her office at Condé Nast, 1930s, 11. came up with after being given the image surrounded in black to use for the cover design. In 1937, Pineles left the U.S. to work on the British version of Vogue. She worked there for a few years, and then returned to the U.S. to work on the new Condé Nast magazine, Glamour. Glamour was designed for women who did not have the income and luxuries of the women targeted in Vogue. Nast himself wanted to ensure that the new magazine catered toward a woman who had a career, something that Vogue was not designed for. Pineles began working on layout and cover designs for the magazine early on, but did not receive official recognition on the magazine s masthead until a few years later. Although the magazine presented Pineles with a wonderful opportunity to be involved with a magazine s design evolution from the beginning, Pineles, a working girl herself, took offense to Nast s clear attitude of condescension toward Glamour readers. The magazine s design started off very similar to that of Vogue s, using Bodoni for long text and script or stencil types for headings. Eventually the design evolved, with the display type becoming a lighter weight. Any changes Pineles suggested to the layout of the magazine had to be approved first by Nast, and so design changes to the magazine came slowly. By 1945, the magazine started adhering more strictly to a gridded layout. 8 9

6 During the six year period of 1937 to 1943, Pineles experienced a number of life changing events. She became an established art director, which was a fantastic Left: Cover for Vogue designed by Pineles, November 1940, 11. Right: Pineles design for Vogue s April 1939 issue, 11. development for her career. In her personal life, she met and married fellow Condé Nast employee Pineles friends and family were William Golden right before he left told of the incident, and those to train for the army. As Pineles who did know largely ignored struggled with the difficulties of the incident, and after time adjusting to her new husband be- forgot about it. ing in the army, a major shakeup The December 1946 issue at Condé Nast occurred. In 1942, of Glamour marked Pineles Nast died, and his successor Iva last issue as art editor. Al- Pat Patcevitch took over all of though it is unclear whether his responsibilities. Patcevitch and she was exaggerating, Pineles Agha did not get along, however, maintained that she was fired and within a year Agha left Condé from her position, saying, In Nast. Although the official docu- some situations and in some mentation said that Agha resigned, places it s an honor to be fired. Pineles knew he had been plainly If you are afraid of it you are eased out by Liberman was no easier for Pineles. She disliked working for Alexander Liberman, Agha s replacement, and felt overworked and uninspired under his leadership. Her husband was still in the army meaning they could only meet occasionally on weekends. The distance put extraordinary stress on their new marriage, and made it difficult for them to start a family, something both Pineles and Golden wanted dearly. Things did not improve for Pineles. She found working with Liberman was becoming increasingly difficult, and she did not like the direction Glamour was headed in. Furthermore, Pineles found out that she was unable to have children, and she was devastated. Her husband, who had been discharged from the army at that point, delivered the news that he would be leaving for a cross-country business trip for CBS, Pineles begged him not to go, but he left anyway. For Pineles, this was the last straw. In June of 1946, Pineles threw herself in front of a subway passing through Times Square Station. Through sheer luck, she fell between the rails and the train passed over her, leaving her uninjured. The New York Post wrote the incident and quoted her as saying in the ambulance, I just wanted to die. I just wanted to die. Oddly enough, as severe as the incident was, Pineles life went on relatively unchanged. Only a few of allowing your employer to have the last word on your worth. To add insult to injury, the last issue misspelled her last name as well. Later that year, Pineles received a timely offer from a former Vogue colleague, Helen Valentine, asking Pineles to assist in the design of Velntine s newly launched teen publication, Seventeen. Offering her full artistic control, the position was exactly what Pineles needed, and thus began the next major chapter in her career

7 Working at Seventeen Seventeen magazine was born from the rubble of the movie magazine Stardom. Dr. Agha, who was the art director of Stardom at the time, knew Helen Valentine from Vogue and suggested to the magazine s current publisher that he offer her the struggling magazine. Valentine said she would only take over if the magazine redesigned itself as a magazine designed for teenagers, an audience she felt had been neglected and belittled by the more prestigious fashion magazines. On the contrary, Valentine believed that they re young adults and should be treated accordingly. While at Seventeen, Pineles had the opportunity to work with not just one, but two powerful women. Helen Valentine, the magazine s editor, had a strong and clear vision for the magazine and helped give it its focus. Estelle Ellis was the promotions editor for the magazine, and her skills at promoting and marketing the magazine helped turn the fledgling magazine into a success, garnering over one million readers in five years. Ellis is also credited with identifying teens as a marketable audience. Along with Pineles knack for creating an artistically and visually pleasing magazine, the three made a formidable trio. They became very close and remained friends for life. The strength of their friendship certainly contributed to the success of the magazine. Pineles later observed that Seventeen was her favorite magazine to work at, simply because Valentine made her feel as though everything was possible. For Pineles first issue of Seventeen, she commissioned fine artists to illustrate the fiction stories presented in the magazine, a trend she decided to keep for many of the issues she worked on. The idea benefited both readers and the artists: the readers were exposed to fine art they might not otherwise see, and the artists were able to reach a vast audience. To aid in her selection of artists for the magazine, Pineles contacted museums across the United States and asked them to send a list of the Left: Cover for Seventeen s Girl Meets Boy issue,designed by Cipe Pineles, April 1948., 7.

8 fifty most important artists of the time. Five responded, and Pineles ended up with 147 artists whom she compiled into a reference list for her future issues. Pineles also asked artists she knew and artists she met through friends, and even commissioned her own husband, William Golden, from time to time. Pineles took a unique approach to the relationship between art director and commissioned artist. Whereas many art directors of the time took complete control and told the artist what to paint, Pineles opted for hands-off approach. Rather than telling them a passage to illustrate, Pineles simply gave them the entire short story and allowed the artist to choose which passage moved them the most artistically. Pineles believed that by taking this approach, the quality of the illustration would be much higher. While the fiction layout followed a traditional two column approach in Bodoni or Clarendon, the layout for feature articles was much more inventive and playful. She organized the text into one wide column under a title usually set in a decorative typeface. Pineles often used images that related to the article to create the typography. For example, Pineles used staples and paperclips to create the letterforms in the title of an article on secretarial training. Pineles also designed perhaps one of the most visually important aspects of the magazine: the cover. Throughout her time at Seventeen, the title was set in bold, italic and condensed Bodoni, with little to no type included in the rest of the image. The cover typically only included an image of a single female, with the exception of each April s Girl Meets Boy issue. Seventeen had many recurring themes, including home, Seventeen s birthday, back to school, and the It s All Yours issue produced by readers. Each of these themes was introduced on the cover and reflected inside. Pineles personal favorite cover was the one that appeared to be a girl in a bathing suit and her reflection. One of the most popular themed Seventeen issues was the annual teen issue. Pineles would scout out talented young teens and display their work in the magazine. This, however, required coordinating communication with teens across the nation. The hard work paid off, though, and many of the teens went on to have successful design careers, some even working going on to work for Golden himself. Striving to be as modern as possible, the fashion section of Seventeen was the most experimental layout in the magazine. The fashion feature often spanned multiple pages. Type from the title moved around the page, changing size and font but never typeface. Fabric patterns created a 3 [At Seventeen] everything was possible textural background for the pages. A shadow was used behind photographs to make them appear as though they were coming off of the page, and stood in a visually striking contrast to the flat fabric patterns. Although by today s standards the designs may seem dull, Pineles faced many challenges during her time. Without the aid of a computer, printing overlapping images was difficult and costly. Pineles also struggled to make the change from a four-color to a two-color page seamless. To do this, Pineles had two go-to strategies. The first was to have an image set over the gutter of the page to keep the reader s eye moving across the difference. The second was to use an image that matched a color that appeared in both the two-color and the four-color spread so that the change was more subtle and less jarring. Pineles also worked with metal typography, meaning that she had to kern and lead by cutting up the letters and placing them by hand. With her design for Seventeen, Pineles became a regular winner at the annual Art Directors Club show. The ADC was an exclusive club, and new members were inducted only by an invitation from the club itself. At the time, the board was composed completely of males. Agha, a member of the board, suggested that Pineles be inducted for years, but the board continued to reject his proposal. In 1948, the board invited William Golden to join, but he declined, telling them they could not be a serious design club if they were not willing to admit his wife. The next day, both Pineles and Golden received an invitation to join, and in 1948, Pineles officially became the first woman to be inducted into the Art Directors Club

9 Charm and Beyond After three years at Seventeen, Pineles left her position there to become the art director of Charm magazine. The magazine bore the bold tagline, The magazine for women who work. Charm catered to an audience of women who both held professional jobs, and were interested in the latest fashions. Pineles created layouts that showed the latest fashions, but made them applicable to the working woman s wardrobe. The magazine presented outfits for the office, the commute, and for lunch-hour. Pineles admired the approach of the magazine because it was real-world applicable, saying of the publication, You might say we tried to convey the attractiveness of reality, as opposed to the glitter of a never-never land. Much like at Seventeen, Pineles designed many themed issues for Charm. The most popular of these were the She works in [City Name] series, where Pineles would design an entire issue around the theme of a city. While at Charm, Pineles and her design team won awards from the ADC and the AIGA every year during her tenure as art director. However, this golden period came to an end in 1958 when the magazine s publisher, Jerry Smith, died. Without him, there was no one to defend the progressive women s magazine from the maledominated advertising department, who wanted to turn the magazine into a more traditional women s magazine to sell to potential advertisers. After Smith s death, there were many editorial staff changes, and most changed the magazine for the worse. Pineles observed that the new editors joined primarily for the salary, and didn t believe in the magazine s original direction, which was to cater to the working woman. Pineles did not like the direction the magazine was headed in, but continued to work for a few years. In 1959, Condé Nast bought out the magazine and combined it with Glamour, marking the end of Pineles time both working for Charm and with Helen Valentine and Estelle Ellis. Sadly, late in October 1959, William Golden passed away from a heart attack, leaving Pineles and their 8-year-old son Tom behind Left: Pineles design for Parson s The New School of Design portfolio andcatalog, 1970s, 11.

10 Dedicated, inspirational, dependable, imaginative, persuasive, perceptive, enthusiastic, intuitive, pertinacious, indefatigable, 99% infallible, durable, and wonderful, wonderful Cipe. --John Russo After leaving Charm, Pineles became art director for Mademoiselle, another women s magazine. The artistic freedom she had enjoyed at her previous magazines was gone, however, and so her tenure at Mademoiselle did not last long. She was fired after the December 1960 issue had gone to press, and after this she decided to leave the magazine industry permanently. In 1961, Pineles remarried the established designer Will Burtin. Although his stark and distinctly German personality contrasted with her warm and friendly one, they worked together well. Professionally, she began doing freelance work, and developed graphics for The Lincoln Center. After she left The Lincoln Center, Pineles became a professor at Person s The New School of Design. From 1962 to 1987, Pineles taught publication design to a number of students who went on to have successful design careers. One of her 3 former students, Melissa Tardiff, went on to become the art director of Town and Country magazine, and said of Pineles course, She didn t teach style she taught content. Pineles eventually took over the school s promotional program in 1970, and succeeded in creating a strong visual identity for the school as it expanded and opened a new location in Los Angeles. Pineles came up with the idea of both uniting and differentiating the two locations by identifying the New York location with apples, and the L.A. location with oranges. In 1987, Pineles retired, although she continued to do freelance work in until her death in Pineles left a lasting mark on the design world, and paved a path for many other women designers to follow. Today she is remembered for breaking gender barriers in the world of design, and for her unique designs, and she continues to be a role model for young designers. Bibliography: Information Sources 1. Art Directors Club / Hall of Fame. Art Directors Club / Home. Web. 25 Apr Scotford, Martha. Cipe Pineles. AIGA. AIGA. Web. 25 Apr Scotford, Martha. Cipe Pineles: A Life of Design. New York: W.W. Norton, Print. Images 4. Pineles, Cipe. Pick Your Potato Layout for Seventeen Magazine. Digital image. AIGA. Web. 5. Pineles, Cipe. Seventeen Magazine, March Digital image. RIT Library. Rochester Institute of Technology. Web. 6. Pineles, Cipe. Seventeen Magazine, May Digital image. The Red List. Web. 7. Pineles, Cipe. Seventeen Magazine, April Digital image. Web. 8. Pineles, Cipe. Seventeen Magazine, July Digital image. Burning Settlers Cabin. Web. 9. Pineles, Cipe. Charm Magazine, March Digital image. Web. 10. Pineles, Cipe. Charm Magazine, January Digital image. RIT Library. Web. 11. Scotford, Martha. Cipe Pineles. AIGA. AIGA. Web. 25 Apr Scotford, Martha. Cipe Pineles, or How to Make History. St Bride St. Bride, 25 Sept Web. 25 Apr Image on cover: Hand illustrated by Rebecca Barton,

11 Cipe Pineles was a prolific graphic designer made famous by her work with magazine layouts and cover design. She broke gender barriers by holding the position of art director on many magazines known for their preference for males, and even became the first woman to be selected to enter the American Institute of Graphic Design. From her time spent working with Condé Nast himself, to her years as art director of Seventeen and Charm, and finally to her years teaching design at the collegiate level, Pineles led a full life and left behind many accomplishments. Although she unfortunately passed away in 1994, her work has certainly stood the test of time, and continues to serve as an inspiration for graphic designers from this generation and beyond. To Cover