George SalterDesign Legacy Of

SALTER

George Salter was born on October 5th, 1897 in Bremen of North Germany. Salter grew up playing instruments such as the cello, and experimenting with problems of set design, costumes and lighting for stage shows. Salter’s secondary school held records of his “satisfactory” pennmanship. After graduating sec-ondary school in 1916, Salter immediately joined the German army and became a mapmaker. After his army career, he enrolled in Kungstgewerbe (School of Applied Arts and Crafts) to study art. In 1927 Salter went to Berlin to concentrate on book design. Between 1922 and 1934 he produced over 350 different designs for 33 different German publishers. Salter eventually migrated to New York City. His reputation paved a path to a teaching contract at Cooper Union in 1937. There, he began to offer courses in calligraphy and lettering. Two thirds of all of Salter’s designs were book jackets. Between 1927 and 1933, several of the book jackets that he created were trademarked, and they became Salter’s greatest legacies. By the end of 1940, he produced approximately 185 book jackets and around 30 magazine covers since his arrival in the United States.

SALTER

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&Schuster

FIGURE 1. Simon & Schuster, 1935-This is one of Salter’s poster style book jackets. One of the last of Salter’s seven categories. These jackets use more direct, concrete imagery and are generally more influenced by advertising styles than anything else. This is the second cover Salter finished after his emigration to the United States. It’s origin is from German poster art of the 1920’s. Here, Salter used the elements of a successful poster; a central figure, simple imagery, and flat colors to make a magnificent cover.

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SimonFIG. 2, 3The two figures shown below are book jackets that Salter designed using the same type of technique that he used to design “Fang and Claw” by Frank Buck.

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Simon

FIG. 4, 5, 6“Am Wegesrand (By the Wayside), pub-lished in Germany by Der Goldene Brunnen in 1961, is the most ambi-tious collaboration undertaken by Salter and his dellow designer, Fritz Kredel. Kredel made the twenty-four woodcuts of meadow flowers while Salter’s calligraphy supplied the verses. It is a masterpiece of delicate images and intimate poetry.”

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FIG. 7This is a book jacket Salter created where he manages to successfully incorporate six different type fonts onto one jacket. He alternates between thick and thin line weight, and as he moves down the cover, he decreases the font in size. In order to show just how different all of these type faces are, I reduced the cover to just black and white to make it easier to read.

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George Salter was not only an amazing Graphic Designer, he was also a profound typographer and calligrapher for his time. All of the typography for his book jackets and magazine covers were done by hand.

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“Versatality”, a word that descibes George Salter extremely well. Salter mastered the whole spectrum of book jacket techniques. From calligraphy to photomontage, to airbrush, watercolor, and pen and ink. He adhered to a design throughout his career, that forever foregrounded the commercial function for his art. Salter had to stimulate the minds and imaginations of his potential buyers. To do so, his covers contained awakening images of the contents of the book, that are usually more suggestive.

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Designed by Liam MurphyTypeset by Liam MurphyPrinted and bound by Liam Murphy, Portland, ME.Composed in Minion Pro, Regular

“Salter was among the first graphic designers in the history of the field to show, consistently over decades, that the face of a book could be as beautiful;, as thought-provoking, as meaningful as it’s prose.” -- Chip Kidd