27 Chicago Designers
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Twenty-Seven Chicago Designers was a membership organization founded in 1936 by a group of twenty-seven graphic designers, typographers, and illustrators with the goal of promoting their design talent to commercial businesses. The group publication Twenty-Seven was the primary vehicle for showcasing their work. Early examples of Twenty-Seven illustrate the ways in which a modernist design aesthetic came to be adapted by designers working in the Midwest in the 1930s and 1940s. The series charts the stylistic changes of group members over time and firmly positions Chicago as a hub of commercial design in twentieth-century America.
Over the course of its fifty-five-year history, 27 Chicago Designers published thirty-eight issues of Twenty-Seven. Every member was invited to submit a selection of exemplary projects—often advertisements or book, product, and package designs—for publication. John Averill, a typographic designer and founding member of the organization, established the layout of the publication, allocating each designer four pages to present their work. The designers were charged with creating and illustrating their entries, with some even printing their own inserts. The entries were bound in alphabetical sequence, and blank section dividers were used to distinguish adjacent entries.
With the exception of minor size modifications and changes to the binding, Twenty-Seven maintained a consistent format throughout the run of the publication. Its editors imposed very few limitations, and the designers could showcase work according to their own tastes and budgets. As a result, the publication presents a great variety of styles. Members distributed the books to their respective mailing lists, and the publication was made available for sale in select bookstores. In addition to advertising the design talents of its members, Twenty-Seven promoted the services of the printers, engravers, typographers, electrotypers, and paper companies who contributed to the production of the publication. Twenty-Seven thus offers insight into the landscape of commercial businesses that fueled the growth of Chicago’s robust advertising industry.
Many well-known designers participated in 27 Chicago Designers, including Oswald Cooper, R. Hunter Middleton, and Edgar Miller, three of the group’s founding members. The group maintained a membership of twenty-seven designers at all times. New members were initiated through a vote of the existing membership as space became available. A total of one hundred twenty-eight designers would eventually participate. John Massey and Rick Valicenti, who joined in 1969 and 1986 respectively, attained international acclaim. Bobbye Cochran, who became a member in 1986, was honored as Adweek Magazine’s “1984 National Illustrator of the Year.” She was the first woman to be recognized with this distinction.
In 2016, the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago presented Selling Design: 27 Chicago Designers 1936–1991, an exhibition marking the eightieth anniversary of the establishment of the organization. Jack Weiss, a former chairman of 27 Chicago Designers and co-curator of the exhibition with design historian Lara Allison, has invested considerable energy into preserving the history of the group. The Special Collections and University Archives at the Daley Library maintain the administrative records of the organization and a complete collection of the thirty-eight books published by 27 Chicago Designers between 1936 and 1991, when the association dissolved.Source
27 Chicago Designers. Twenty-Seven. Chicago: The Designers, 1938. https://chicagodesignarchive.org/project/1b-30
27 Chicago Designers. Twenty-Seven Chicago Designers: The Fortieth Year. Vol. 31. Chicago: The Designers, 1975.
AIGA Chicago. “Selling Design: 27 Chicago Designers 1936–1991 Exhibit Opening at UIC University Library.” https://chicago.aiga.org/event-internal/selling-design-27-chicago- designers-1936-1991-exhibit-opening-at-uic-university-library/.
“Art: First of Kind Class at Gallery.” Quad-City Times, February 23, 1964.
“Artist to Speak.” The Pantagraph, March 31, 1991.
“David Lawrence, 40, Leading Graphic Designer.” Chicago Tribune, October 6, 1984.
“Designers Featured.” The Times, December 1, 1978.
Essex, Joseph Michael, Lara N. Allison, and Jack Weiss. 27 Chicago Designers: When Art Became Design, 1936–1991. Richmond, British Columbia: Blanchette Press, 2016.
“European Influences on Chicago Designers.” Print 7, no. 6 (March 1, 1953): 26.
Jack Weiss Design Papers, 1939-2015, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Lagana, Gretchen. “Collecting Design Resources at the University of Illinois at Chicago.” Design Issues 3, no. 2 (Autumn 1986): 37–46.
McVicker, George. “European Influences on Chicago Designers.” In Print, Magazine of the Graphic Arts 7, no. 6 (March, 1953): 26.
Patterson, Rhodes. “The 27 Chicago Designers at 50.” Communication Arts 28, no. 8 (February 1987): 70–77.
Society of Typographic Arts. “27 Chicago Designers.” Vimeo video, 10:10. July 6, 2012. https://vimeo.com/45324415.
“The 27 Chicago Designers.” IDEA 22, no. 124 (May 1974): 30–43.
The Art Institute of Chicago. “Selling Design: 27 Chicago Designers, 1936–1991, Sep 26–Nov 20, 2017.” http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/selling-design-27-chicago-designers-1936-1991.
The Chicago Design Archive. “27 Chicago Designers.”
https://chicagodesignarchive.org/client/27-chicago-designers.
Twenty-Seven Chicago Designers: 1986 Edition. Edited by William Kaulfuss. Chicago: 27 Chicago Designers, 1986.
Twenty-Seven Chicago Designers Collection. Special Collections. Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Weiss, Jack. “Exhibition to Honor 80th Anniversary of 27 Chicago Designers.” Graphic Design USA. http://gdusa.com/blog/exhibit-to-honor-80th-anniversary-of-27-chicago-designers.
Yaqub, Reshma Memon. “Whimsy and Widgets.” Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1993.
Young, Chris. “Henry John Robertz, 77; Designer Was an Industry Innovator.” Chicago Tribune, June 25, 2004.