Fortune's Glorious Infographic Past

At long last, the article I wrote for Print based on my lecture about the amazing infographics Fortune published during the first half (1930-1970) of its 80-year existence.

A number of years ago, I was invited to give a presentation at Malofiej, the Society of News Design's worldwide infographics conference held each year in Pamplona, Spain. At the time, I was Fortune’s graphics editor and had always wanted an excuse to subject myself to going through every issue of the magazine and document its use of charts, diagrams, maps, etc. Talk about falling down the rabbit hole! Of the few hundred images I collected, some 80 went into the presentation, and 18 of those appear in this article.

I still like to imagine that I will do the book one of these days, but size is a real issue. Unlike the early spectacular Fortune covers that are legible even when reproduced as thumbnails (there weren’t even cover-lines in those days), the infographics are often readable only at the original print size. Each page was 11" by 14" in the early days, and many graphics ran as full spreads and with tiny labels. Sumptuous and gorgeous, but not very iPhone-friendly, or even iPad-friendly for that matter. I just can’t see an 8" by 10" format doing justice to the ‘Financial Irrigation of the United States’ (second spread, below), and I’m not sure I can handle being laughed out of the office of any publisher still in business. The research (most of it) is done ...


The body text should be readable when you click on the pages to enlarge.

Primping for Day of the Dead

Illustrator and comics artist Ann Decker had enough foresight to leave the country before the Tea Party comes into power. She lives in Mexico now. Here are two paintings she has in a show for Día de los Muertos. I’m glad to see that Ann hasn’t totally forgotten NYC. She seems to have recalled Manhattan’s social x-rays perfectly.

Check out Ann's website to see more of her work.

The Dogs of Will Rannells (And a Contest!)

Somewhere between Cassius M. Coolidge’s Dogs Playing Poker and William Wegman’s elegant and complex Weimaraners, lie Will Rannells’ canine men of the world.
“What's on the 6th floor?” a history and special collections blog of The San Francisco Public Library, recently featured these Life magazine covers (not to be confused with LIFE, the Henry Luce publication), by Rannells (1892-1982).

Early on, Rannells found that his paintings of dogs set him apart from other artists. It is reported that he thought they were much better subjects than the beautiful girls he had previously been drawing. In fact, his first commercial success (at age 19) was a portrait of a collie that had previously been held in the arms of a girl. When he realized the dog was better off without the human figure, he painted the dog alone and sold it for $40. It later appeared on the June 1, 1912 cover of Country Gentleman. He went on to illustrate for the magazines Life, Judge and McCalls, as well as for a number of children's books.

Will Rannells became an art professor at The Ohio State University, where he taught painting and advertising design. He was active in the Humane Society and was known locally for his efforts to rescue stray animals and for his opposition to vivisection.”

To truly acknowledge the dog days of summer you must head over to Newmanology and partake of, either as a participant or an observer The Newmanology Dog Days of Summer Dog Magazine Cover Contest. There is already a fantastic gallery up, with new additions coming in fast and furious. Add your canine contestant to the mix. Still needed: a bejeweled lady-dog (not just any bitch with bling, must be canine).




Will Rannells covers (starting from the top): "Putting on the Dog," Life (Nov. 3, 1927);
"The Dog Star,"Life (July 16, 1914); "R.F.D.," Life (Dec. 16, 1915);
"An Old Sea Dog," Life (Sept. 3, 1925); Country Gentleman (June 1, 1912);
"Never Again," Life (Jan. 15, 1920). Life courtesy Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor; Country Gentleman courtesy Magazines & Newspaper Center, San Francisco Public Library.

More 45s: If there’s a hole in your sleeve …

... why not make the most of it?

So many of 45 sleeves simply ignore the hole. Some sort of use it. These here, in my opinion, nail it.

















Sources: Record Envelope, flickr: Joy of a Toy, Fabrik

A.M. Cassandre for Harper's Bazaar

In 1936, MoMA held an exhibition of Paris-based A.M. Cassandre’s poster work. That’s when Harper’s Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch, contracted Cassandre to create the numerous surrealistic covers he would produce over the next three years.

Among the handful below, the first two are definitely the trippiest. For a few more, go here.

Michel Gourdon Book Covers

A blue robot ominously transports a limp, chorus girl, in a red-satin bodice. She’s needed for her flesh, of course …

It's just one of the 3,500 covers the prolific Michel Gourdon executed for “Fleuve Noir” Editions between 1950 and 1978. He said in an interview, that sometimes he would produce as many as 20 covers in a month.

Over the weekend, I got to wander through New York’s Antiquarian Book Fair where I saw the original gouache painting, which is quite luminous. Bookseller, Michael R. Weintraub had the illustration displayed along side the book it was painted for, La Nuit des Trépassées (Night of the Dead).

There is lots of Gourdon’s work to be seen online here, here and for some of his pin-up art and more explicit covers go to Deadlicious.

Birds Head Revisited

Tonight is the first night of Passover and Jews worldwide, will be participating in a Seder. There are basically three components to a Seder—a story, wine (you are supposed to drink four glasses), and food. The ratio of storytelling, drinking, and eating, varies greatly from household to household.

For those not familiar with the Haggadah, it is the book that contains the story of how the Jews, after being enslaved in Egypt were liberated by God. Traditional Jewish law has it that it is incumbent upon parents to convey that story to their children as if they themselves experienced God taking them from slavery to freedom. There are numerous interactive components to the Seder in order to keep the children’s attention until the food is served.



I’m guessing that keeping children involved is what prompted illustration of the Haggadah. On account of the commandment forbidding graven images, traditional Jewish texts contain no images whatsoever. In fact, it seems that first illustrated Haggadah c. 1300, was from Germany and didn’t even show human faces. It was called the Birds' Head Haggadah since the characters where shown with heads of birds and other animals. The angels had blank faces.

The actual book resides in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

I'm Jealous of The Jealous Curator!

What a brilliantly simple idea—find art that thrills you because it’s so smart, beautiful, original, etc. and post it, while ranting that you wish you had thought of doing it.

The Jealous Curator defines her site as “A collection of artwork that inspires and depresses me. I know it’s good when I’m left thinking DAMN I WISH I THOUGHT OF THAT”

So, she gets to post great stuff, while channeling all that jealous energy in a positive direction. DAMN I WISH I THOUGHT OF THAT!

Here are some of her finds--the artist's name links to The Jealous Curator's post. After that I link to the artist's website…

Lauren Dicioccio, This is not a plastic bag. It is EMBROIDERY ON ORGANZA!! Her website is here.


Kelly Reemsten , her website here.


Wayne White Great use of thrift shop art. His website is here.


Tina Berning, her website is here.


Gary Taxali, his website is here.


Vivian Maier, website for her photos is here.


Xavier Veilhan, his website is here.


Holly Farrell, her website is here.


Joe Ryckebosch, his website is here.


Tiina Heiska, her website is here.


Lauren Dicioccio (again), her website is here. She explains the method to her madness ...

‘I lay a sheet of frosted mylar over a magazine page. I assign a color to every letter (numbers are shades of greyscale) and apply tiny dots of paint over every character on the page according to my color-code.’

Archie Scott Gobber, his website is here.


Sarah Williams, her website is here.


Anthony Zinonos I’m jealous of his cool initials! His website is here.


Mairead O’hEocha, see more of here work here.