Push Pin Studios: An Introduction

"New York graphic-design group founded in 1954 by Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser and illustrators Reynold Ruffins and Edward Sorel. During the 1960's they challenged the the orthodoxy of the dominant International Typographic Style, offering a witty, eclectic alternative with immediate consumer appeal. The studio drew endless inspiration from diverse historical sources, such as Italian Renaissance painting, Victorian letterforms, comic books and primitive woodcut illustrations. The Push Pin Studio style was characterized by brightly colored narrative illustration, with forms exaggerated, flattened and unexpectedly juxtaposed to humorous effect. The group specialized in book jackets, record covers, posters and magazine illustrations. Prior to the establishment of the studio, the designers and collaborated on the bi-monthly Push Pin Almanac, featuring illustrations alongside editorial material pillaged from old almanacs. The journal evolved into the acclaimed Push Pin Graphic, which promoted work for the studio. Young designers/illustrators launched at Push Pin include Paul Davis and Barry Zaid. (The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers, 179)

"New York's Push Pin Studios, founded in 1955, had a defining impact on illustration and graphic design of the late 1960s and 1970s. Through its reinvention of passe ilustration and design mannerisms, it triggered stylistic shifts in commercial art distinct from the rationalism of the late Modern movement on the one hand and the staid conventions of common commercial practice on the other. While exhuming Victorian, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco mannerisms from the vaults - two decades before Postmodernism encouraged similar reappraisals of the past and the cliche - Push Pin was not simply nostalgic for the past, but developed a visual language that incorporated it. Push Pin's cofounders, Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser, brought distinct tastes to the style. The former savored American comic strips, while the latter was passionate for Italian Renaissance painting. Despite these formal distinctions, both shared the conviction that postwar design and illustration should not be limited to prevailing sentimental Realism or reductive simplicity. They rejected rote methods and rigid styles while concoting incomparable ways of transforming old into new.
During a period when photography was emerging as the dominant medium among art directors, Push Pin stubbornly used paint, brush, and collage in expressionistic ways. Moreover, Push Pin revived the once seamless intersection of art and typography - illustration design - deemed quaint by Modernists who revered machineage tools and aesthetics. Illustrated posters with original lettering formed a significant part of Push Pin's repertoire. Yet, contrary to appearances, Push Pin was not solely about revivalism; the work achieved newness while avoiding the more dogmatic aspects of Modernism. For example, Glaser's famous 1967 "Dylan Poster," a harmonious marriage of a Persian miniature and a Marcel duchamp self-portrait, is a characteristic example of transmuting two conflicting historical references into a single work.
The year that Push Pin Studios began, neo-Romantic Realism continued to reign, with only a few expressionist blips appearing in magazines. Illustration was literal and narrative (often images were taken verbatim from text passages decided upon by editors or art directors and then captioned to avoid ambiguity). Push Pin's more conceptual and Metaphorical image making pried an opening in the conservative precincts of illustration, especially by changing aesthetic attitudes toward book jackets and record covers - and sprucing up advertisements, too.
The uniqueness of the Push Pin style (aside from its principals' vision) was its keen appreciation of vintage reference material, from illustrative to typographic. The slab serif Victorian, curvilinear Art Nouveau, rectilinear Art Deco, spiky German Fraktur, and other esoteric typefaces, as well as the fount of cartouches, swashes, flourishes, borders, and fluerons borrowed from old type catalogs, were customized for the studio's use. Push Pin routinely created distinct motifs that both defined its own look and influenced others. Chwast for instance, was attracted to 1920s decorative art, which he transmuted into so-called "Roxy Style." This style, along with Glaser's variation on the same theme, influenced the 1960s Art Deco revival and morphed into psychedelic art. They created a style that defined 1960s illustration and transcended it (Illustration a Visual History, 88-89)."

In summery: Push Pin Studio's (P.P.S.) was founded in 1955 by Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Reynold Ruffins and Ed Sorel. While many artists came and left P.P.S. throughout it's history P.P.S. is noted for it's diverse base of past artistic inspiration. In a peroid where the international style and romantic realism were the norms P.P.S. broke that those standards and opened up the world of illustration and graphic design to a number of "new" artistic tastes.