New Posters
The Felt & Wire Shop of Mohawk Paper is home to Legendre+Rutter’s poster collection, which is available for sale to the public. For July, we announce six new posters:
- The Cow of Mr. Warhol, for il Museo in Erba exhibition, Switzerland
- Silver Bullets, a film by Joe Swanberg
- Uncle Kent, a film by Joe Swanberg
- Metal Crystal, for the release of the Richard Pinhas album release
- Fall French Market 2010, for the Lycée Français
- Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Series of four posters for “La Mucca di Mr. Warhol”
for the upcoming fall release of “Uncle Kent,” a film by Joe Swanberg
National Archives Building Book on C-SPAN
On a recent C-SPAN program, author Patty Reinert Mason, along with Architect Scott Teixeira and Rick Blondo, National Archives Program Analyst, discuss the history of John Russell Pope’s architectural masterwork, the National Archives Building and the new book “The National Archives Building: Temple of American History.” Commissioned by Thora Colot, the Executive Director of the Foundation for the National Archives, the book became the result of more than a year’s worth of work by Legendre+Rutter, Mason, and project manager, Christina Gehring. To learn more about the history of the National Archives Building, you can watch the video program online.
“The National Archives Building: Temple of American History,” by Patty Reinert Mason, was designed by Legendre+Rutter
Judge Me
St. Thomas Aquinas once said (not that we go around quoting him often), “beware of the person of one book.” To him, this statement was almost certainly intended as an inditement of the closed-minded followers of one rigid doctrine. We could also take it to mean that a wise person takes knowledge from many sources. For graphic designers who create covers for books and magazines, the lesson is clear: insistence on a singular visual and metaphorical style serves neither the content nor the reader.
Inculte Publishing, France
Inculte is a French independent publisher created by a group of up-and-coming young writers. Since 2004, the company has published a quarterly review, a collection of monographs, and many hardcover novels and essays. Our latest work for Inculte includes book covers within the series “Afterpop” and “Temps Réel.”
Cover for “Big Fan,” a tragic fiction about the life of an obsessed fan of the band Radiohead.
Book cover for “Les Soniques,” by Niccolo Ricardo & Caïus Locus
Cover designs for “Lost Album” by Stéphan Legrand and Sebastian Le Pajolec, and “The Cannibal Keys,” by Claro
Covers from the Inculte series of philosophy books, “Reédition Arc.” Each cover is an embossed letterform construction, which represents the initial of the author (e.g. Lyotard, Joyce, Freud, etc.).
Observatoire du Samu Social de Paris
Founded in 2003 by Dr. Xavier Emmanuelli, with the support of the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, Samusocial was created to help address the immediate and urgent needs of citizens on the streets of Paris. The Samusocial report, “Mental health & the addictions of the homeless” (2010), has a cover designed by Yann Legendre.
The New York Times
The last December issue of 2008 for The New York Times featured this cover design for the Arts & Leisure section, entitled “The Year in Culture.” This illustration assignment represents a core capability of Legendre+Rutter not found with many traditional graphic design studios—the ability to merge art and meaning as a strategy for great communication.
Amnesty International
This book, published by Amnesty International in Paris, features posters that express a theme of free expression.
The New Yorker
The original “Eustace Tilley” cover of The New Yorker from 1925 appears to the left. At right, Yann Legendre’s “Deconstructed Tilley” was one of 12 winning covers from the annual competition, curated by The New Yorker’s art editor, Françoise Mouley.
International Interior Design Association
IIDA worked with us to create not only a new cover for their design journal, Perspective, but also to launch a fresh approach to the journal’s visual attitude. This first issue expressed the seductive magnetism that designed artifacts wield.
While the adage that one cannot judge a book by its cover is certainly true, we want to believe that a well-designed cover gives the reader a vision of the journey within. It is not a reflection of the narrative but a window into it.
A History Museum for Today’s Issues
Throughout its history, France has been shaped and influenced by the migration of diverse cultural groups. Over time, government policies regarding migration into France have also varied widely, from the open, American-like policies to encourage the development of a larger workforce after World War II, to the more restrictive policies of the 1970’s, when the oil embargo slowed the country’s economy and spurred higher unemployment. The complex social and political issues of immigration in France have become even more so with expanding global population, access to transportation, lurking xenophobia, and consideration of the politics of the larger European Union. Today, France has been forced to acknowledge that it has become a transit country for asylum seekers and illegal migrants trying to make their way, not only to a home in France but to places all over Europe.
In order to help people understand the historical forces of human migration that were vital to shaping France—and to inform the public about the important immigration issues of today—the French government created La Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration, a museum dedicated to educating the public on the history of immigration in France.
The formation of the institution itself was not without a good amount of political controversy, since it was created with public funds and established during a time of serious debate in France on laws related to immigration. But three years since its opening, the museum has a robust season schedule of exhibitions and events, a visible presence on the streets of Paris, and serves an ever-growing role in promoting understanding and dialogue about French immigration.
Legendre+Rutter serves as the primary graphic design partner of La Cité, helping to promote the museum and inform the public through printed publications, posters, and other designed objects. The logotype for Cité was developed to take the shape of a human form, and this form has been extended and manipulated in both playful and serious ways in the design of the museum’s graphical identity and marketing materials. The purpose of this flexible identity is to keep the image of the institution alive and contemporary, as well as personal and accessible.
Subway billboard to promote the new season of events at La Cité
Poster informing visitors about the recently completed renovation of a portion of the museum
Annual and seasonal program posters
Exhibition posters
Poster announcing an exhibition for children
La Cité Homepage, including an animation promoting the opening of the new Mediatheque (at right)
This poster for “The Night of the Museums,” promoted La Cité’s participation in the citywide event, when all of Paris’s museums are open, free-of-charge, for the entire night.
Website home page featuring “La Nuit” banner
Back of the “La Nuit” poster, folded to form a “coin-coin”
Promotional materials and banner for the opening of the Mediatheque, a library / technology center in the museum
Front and back of a poster announcing “Fête de la Musique”
Pop-up New Year’s card
Three-frame lenticular postcard announcing the new season of events
