Alvin Lustig and Elaine Lustig Cohen: Pioneers in Modern Graphic Design

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is celebrating the life and works of noted American graphic designers Alvin Lustig and Elaine Lustig Cohen.

The exhibition, “Vitality of New Forms: Designs by Alvin Lustig and Elaine Lustig Cohen” displays the many book and magazine covers, advertisements, packaging, and announcements designed by the couple in the 1940’s and 1950s.

Alvin Lustig believed in problem solving beyond just creating fabulous design, believing solutions were found in form and color. He was also very diligent about doing his research before designing. In fact, if he was designing a book cover, he would actually read the entire book before conceptualizing a design. Combining modern design elements with a progressive approach to typography, his design work was found of the book covers of noted authors such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Tennessee Williams while he worked for New Directions Books. He later became director of the visual research department at Look Magazine in 1944.

He worked with major organizations such as the Girl Scouts of America and Fortune Magazine, contributing his expertise and knowledge of graphic design to their image identities and branding materials. Beyond graphic design and image identity, Alvin also had his hand in architectural design, interior design, sculpture, furniture and lighting. Many of his designs incorporated the popular midcentury modern look seen during the 1950s.

Lustig was a practicing academic, and helped developed the design program at Yale, where he became a Visiting Critic in Design in 1951. He believed in integrating painting as part of the graphic design program, since the blend of the two would help sustain an original, universal approach. His influence in the graphic design world led him to being published in numerous design publications such as Arts and Architecture and Art News. 

When he died from complications from diabetes at 40 years old, his wife Elaine Lustig Cohen, a graphic designer herself, continued his legacy by continuing his design firm. Her graphic designs, influenced by European avant-garde modernist leanings and usually incorporating modern typography, were seen on the marketing materials of several organizations such as General Motors and Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Modern Art. She later founded a rare book shop and gallery Ex Libris in 1973, specializing in European avant-garde books and publications.

Both Alvin and Elaine were awarded the AIGA Medal, the highest honor for a designer. Alvin received it posthumously in 1993, Elaine in 2011.