Magazine cover, Direction

Because graphic design, in the end, deals with the spectator, and because it is the goal of the designer to be persuasive or at least informative, it follows that the designer’s problems are twofold: to anticipate the spectator’s reactions and to meet his own aesthetic needs. He must therefore discover a means of communication between himself and the spectator (a condition with which the easel painter need not concern himself). The problem is not simple; its very complexity virtually dictates …

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 …