Ismar David papers

Ismar David, considered one of the few graphic designers, illustrators, and calligraphers of international reputation, was a German-born graphic artist who practiced the first third of his professional career in Jerusalem and the remainder in New York City. He is noted for his brilliant work in Hebrew and Latin calligraphy, lettering, and type design, as well as for his distinctive linear style of illustration. David liked to say that the hand is the most marvelous tool if properly trained, and his own handwork supports this conviction.

Ismar David was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) on August 27, 1910. At the age of fourteen, he left school to apprentice as a house painter and varnisher. After receiving his journeyman papers, however, he returned to study decorative painting at the Arts and Crafts School of Berlin- Charlottenberg, where many of the finest book craftsmen of the first part of the century taught and studied. Hans Orlowski and Johannes Boeland were among his teachers.

In 1932, at the age of twenty-one, Ismar David entered and won an international competition sponsored by the Jewish National Fund for the design of its honorary Golden Book. He traveled to Jerusalem to supervise the execution of the project, and he settled there for the next twenty years and established a studio for interior and graphic design. In addition to receiving a broad range of commissions from private industry, David accepted commissions from national institutions and the state government for design projects including posters, postage stamps, and currency.

During his residence in Jerusalem, Ismar David made one of his most important contributions to twentieth century graphic design with the conception and development of an innovative family of Hebrew typefaces. His interest in developing Hebrew types that would be in harmony with the modern spirit and would help to transform Hebrew into an everyday language eventually lead to David Hebrew. This unshaded and unserifed type design was cast for machine composition in 1954 by the Intertype Corporation and was later available on the Photon machine. In 1984, the Stempel type foundry commissioned David to rerender David Hebrew with diacritical marks for digital composition. To this day David Hebrew is widely used and much copied. The light appearance of David Hebrew makes it well suited for setting poetry. It is also favored for use in exhibition catalogs, finely printed books, and Israeli newspaper supplements.

Before moving permanently to the United States, Ismar David made several visits to New York City. His first trip, in 1939, was to work on the Palestine Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. In 1947, he traveled to New York to study printing methods. With the help of Dr. Robert Leslie, he returned in 1951 to make arrangements with the Intertype Corporation for the casting of David Hebrew. And finally in 1952, David visited New York to design and install an industrial exhibition for Bonds for Israel.

Ismar David emigrated to the United States in 1953, and on June 3rd of that year, married Hortense Mendel. Ismar had met Hortense, an associate of Robert Leslie, at the Composing Room, during his 1951 trip to New York to show Intertype his Hebrew alphabets. The two spent six years together before Hortense died on October 9, 1960.

Upon his arrival in New York City in 1953, Ismar David established a design studio and began teaching Latin calligraphy at Cooper Union and Pratt Institute. He had expected the bulk of his commissions to come from designing decorative elements for synagogues, however, he found his mainstay work in the 1950’s, 60’s, and early 70’s in the publishing industry. David worked steadily as a designer for leading American publishers including Alfred A. Knopf; Atlantic, Little Brown; Ballantine Books; Fleming H. Revell; Harper and Row; Harry Abrams; Houghton Mifflin Company; J.B. Lippincott Company; McGraw- Hill; Pocket Books; Random House; Thomas Y. Crowell; and Viking Press, among others. In a short span, he designed book jackets or covers for more than 200 books.

Ismar David remained a free-lance artist throughout his career. In addition to steady work in cover design, calligraphy, and lettering, Ismar David earned commissions for book illustration and developed the style of illustration for which he is best remembered—a style characterized by striking patterns of lines. This distinctive linear style was particularly well suited for the Limited Edition Club’s 1971 publication of Pascal’s Les Pensées, for which David created a dozen full-page, hypnotic color-illustrations—pre-separated in the tradition of printmaking— as well as ornamental tailpieces, and text frames. As would become his custom, Ismar’s conceptions in vivid oranges, greens, purples, blues, and golds were meant to accompany the thoughts of the author, not to illustrate them literally. His 58 illustrations for the Union of American Hebrew Congregation’s 1973 bilingual edition of The Psalms followed the same non-literal approach. For this project, which David considered his most personal work, he combined his ideas about illustration and type and book design, and his efforts were recognized by The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) with a 1973 “Fifty Books of the Year” distinction. Both Les Pensées and The Psalms proved to be very popular among collectors, and they stand as two of his best efforts in book illustrations.

Though he never lost interest in graphics, much of David’s energy in the latter part of his career was devoted to architectural design and decoration. Perhaps his most important work in this field was produced during a thirty-year association with Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, NY. Beginning in 1965, he planned the layout of the park, including fountains and other features; he also designed mausoleums and other building complexes, and their interiors. He also lettered numerous inscriptions for wall decorations and architectural features in the park. Proof of Ismar David’s uninterrupted connection with graphics came in 1991, when in collaboration with calligrapher and partner Helen Brandshaft, he designed and illustrated a bilingual version of The Book of Jonah, published by the Chiswick Press in a limited edition.

Teaching was another constant element in Ismar David’s career. In addition to instructing at the Cooper Union and Pratt Institute, he gave lectures and conducted workshops on Latin and Hebrew calligraphy over the years. Eventually he distilled his well-tested teaching materials and summarized his views on the historical, aesthetic, and technical aspects of the Latin alphabet into Our Calligraphic Heritage: The Geyer Studio Writing Book. The three-part work of text, alphabet folders, and compositions, encased in a box designed to function as an easel, was published in a limited edition in 1979 by the Geyer Studio—a professional calligraphy studio for whom David worked as a contractor from the late 1960’s through the early 1980’s. David produced the Hebrew counterpart to Our Calligraphic Heritage with the 1990 publication of The Hebrew Letter: Calligraphic Variations. This instructional work includes a text and alphabet charts, and is a writing book in the tradition of European writing books. In both works, David fuses the rich historical background of the calligraphic arts with practical and aesthetic aspects of the art of writing in the twentieth century.

In the early 1990's, Ismar David continued to take on select commissions for graphic design; however, he also expressed his personal interest in three-dimensional form with the creation of such objects as a folding baby cradle and a paper Elijah’s cup and folding seder plate. Before he died on February 26, 1996, in New York City, Ismar David produced his 1996 greeting card— the last in a forty-odd-year series that traces the evolution of his lettering and illustration styles, and the constant influence of biblical themes.

1924

David leaves school to apprentice as a house painter

1928

Begins study of decorative painting at Arts and Crafts Schoolof Berlin-Charlottenberg

1930

Father dies

1931

Wins Jewish National Fund competition for thedesign of honorary Golden Book

1932

Travels to Jerusalem to execute Golden Book project

1932

Emigrates to Jerusalem and opens a studio for interior and graphic design

1939

Mother and sister go from Germany to Shanghai, where theyremain until World War II ends, then re-unite with David inJerusalem

1947

Visits United States to study printing methods

1951

Goes to New York City to design and install industrial exhibitions for Bonds for Israel

1951

Travels to New York City to finalize arrangements for David Hebrew with Intertype Corporation

1953

Emigrates to America and opens design studio in New York City

1953

Begins 16-year stint as instructor of Latin alphabet calligraphy at Cooper Union

1953

Begins 3-year stint as instructor of Latin alphabet calligraphy at Pratt Institute

03 June 1953

Marries Hortense Mendel

1954

Intertype Corporation issues David Hebrew for machinecomposition

1955

The Jewish Museum (New York, NY) exhibits David’s designwork

1956

Represents the United States in the internationaldesign project Liber Librorum

09 October 1960

Hortense Mendel David dies

1960

Publication of S.Y.Agnon’s A Stray Dog marks first booklengthuse of David Hebrew

17 October 1962

Marries Dorothy Hoffman

1965

Begins 30-year association with Pinelawn Memorial Park(Farmingdale, NY) as architectural designer

1966

Attends Type Directors Club meeting in London

May 1967

Completes John Donne inscription for mausoleum atPinelawn Memorial Park

1969

Begins to do contract work for the Geyer Studio, an arrangementthat would last for about fifteen years

September 1970

B’nai B’rith Klotznik Gallery (Washington, D.C.) exhibitsDavid’s drawings for The Psalms

1971

Pascal’s Les Pensées published

1971

Selected Drawings by Tully Filmus is highest scorer in Philadelphia Book Show

1973

The Psalms published

1973

The Psalms chosen for “Fifty Books of the Year” by American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)

06 March 1974

Typophiles celebrate “Ismar David Day”

October 1974

Visits Israel with Typophiles

December 1974

AIGA Gallery (New York, NY) exhibits David’s work

Winter 1978

Italix publishes “The Ismar David Number”

1979

Our Calligraphic Heritage published

June 1981

Conducts workshops at The Calligraphy Connection

June 1982

Conducts workshops at Philadelphia Conference on theCalligraphic Arts

1983

Conducts workshops at Philadelphia Conference on the Calligraphic Arts

1983

Calligraphy Idea Exchange publishes the "Ismar David Portfolio"

1984

Stempel commissions David to re-render David Hebrewwith diacritical marks for digital composition

June 1984

Conducts workshops at The Calligraphy Connection

07 November 1986

Dorothy David dies

1987

Establishes ABCD Architectural and Graphic Studiowith Helen Brandshaft

1990

The Hebrew Letter: Calligraphic Variations published

1991

The Book of Jonah published

26 February 1996

Ismar David dies in New York, NY