PHOTO-ENGRAVING
4 issue set
Lester Beall

Lester Beall (designer); Harry Groesbeck (text): PHOTO-ENGRAVING. NYC: Sterling Engraving Corp. 1938. Original edition, set of 4 (of 8 total: issue 2,6,7,8 missing). Each issue is in fine uncirculated condition, with original (unmarked) mailing envelopes. The cover of issue 3 is lightly foxed. Each issue features the influential design work of Lester Beall, precisely at the career point when Beall has successfully reconciled and synthesized the aesthetics of the European Avant-Garde with his own midwestern sensibilities.

Each issue of PHOTO-ENGRAVING measures 8.5 x 10.5 and consists of 8 pages with stapled, self covers. Each issue addresses a particular aspect of photo engraving, circa 1938. Beall's design and typography elevates this series out of its educational/promotional framework and into the realm of fine art. Refer to Remington, pgs. 54-55.

Due to the ephemeral nature of this series, it is unlikely that many sets will ever surface on the open market. The only set I know of resides in the Beall Archives at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Lester Beall (1903 -1969) was exposed to the European Avant-Garde in the early 1930s in Chicago. This exposure to the Bauhaus, De Stijl and the Russian Constructivist aesthetics and idelogy helped shape Beall's Chicago years and established this Missouri native as one of the most influential Amercian Graphic Designers. Beall exhibited a great talent for communicating ideas and elevating the taste and expectations of the corporate client. In 1937, Beall became the first American designer to have a one man show at the Museum of Modern Art, featuring his posters for the Rural Electrification Administration. These posters, his art direction of Scope the house magazine for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals Co., International Paper Co. and Connecticut Life Insurance helped to change the way industry viewed design. His work was a model of the idea that good design could be effective communication and good business.

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