Magazine cover, Direction

One of the objectives of the designer who deals with type matter involves readability. Unfortunately, however, this function is often taken too literally and overemphasized at the expense of style, individuality, and the very effectiveness of the printed piece itself. By carefully arranging type areas, spacing, size, and color, the typographer is able to impart to the printed page a quality that helps to dramatize the contents. He is able to translate type matter into tactile patterns. …

Direction Magazine (1935–1945) was a self-supporting, one-woman operation: Marguerite Tjader Harris was proprietor, publisher, and editor. A sophisticated traveler, she was able to meet, befriend, and cajole distinguished personalities to write for her and support her ideas: Theodore Dreiser, Le Corbusier, Julius Meier Graefe, and many others were among those who provided material for the magazine — a politically oriented, anti-fascist publication. In 1938, at the age of 24, I was asked to do …