Meridian catalog list, cover, 1958 - 1961

The Elaine Lustig Cohen Collection contains two series: Clients and Personal. The Clients series encompasses most of the collection and focuses on Cohen's work as a graphic designer from the mid 1950s to the late 1960s, with much of the documentation consisting of letterheads, book covers, and catalogs. Her book cover designs for Meridan Books are well represented. Cohen counted cultural groups and galleries as her main clients, with these chiefly represented by Kootz Gallery, Jewish Museum, Sona, and the Museum of Modern Art. Other notables include architects Eero Saarinen and Philip Johnson and consist of letterheads and signage for buildings (GM Technical Center and Seagram Building, respectively). Lastly, the collection includes a small number of graphic identification projects that were never realized: Federal Aviation Agency (photocopies), Lincoln Center (designed with Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar), and Monsanto (photocopies).

Personal records include catalogs for posthumous exhibits on Alvin Lustig, Cohen's own exhibits, and giclée prints of her artwork ("alphabet series"). Also included are letterheads (for Cohen and family members), as well as invitations to the annual New Year's Day parties she held with her second husband, Arthur Cohen. Promotional materials designed for her bookstore Ex Libris comprise the main portion of records in this series, and consist of catalogs, shortlists, brochures, and letterheads.