Reynold Ruffins and Simms Taback, Promotional Booklets, New York City 1960s [Uncommon]

(2) Reynold Ruffins and Simms Taback Promotional Portfolio Booklets. 

Ruffins/Taback Incorporated was a productive New York City design and illustration office founded in 1963 by Cooper Union friends and alumni Reynold Dash Ruffins, an early member of Push Pin Studios and Simms Taback, an award-winning commercial illustrator, best known for children’s books. Clients included: Life Magazine, IBM, The New York Times, Roche Laboratories, Graybar Electric Co., Cooper & Brass Research Assoc., Pfizer International, Winthrop Laboratories, NBC Television, Upjohn Company, Dutton, Modern Library, CBS Newsfilm and more. In 1989, Taback and Ruffins started the successful greeting card company, Cardtricks. Taback would later win the 2000 Caldecott Medal for Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. This collection of self-promotional booklets includes:

• Ruffins/Taback Incorporated, n.d. [c. 1964]. Reynold Ruffins and Simms Taback, 210 East 58th Street, New York 22, N.Y., Plaza 8-2540. White glossy stapled covers, 4.75 x 6.75, n.p. [48]. Printing by Morgan Press. Typography by Provident Typographers. Designed by Ruffins/Taback with their colored studio logo on the front cover. Printed in an unknown quantity for promotional use only and never sold publicly. Illustrated throughout with (48) black and white works; mostly one per page featuring: promotional materials, newspaper and magazine advertising and announcements, books and book jackets, annual report covers, folders and mailers, holiday cards, network telops, album cover, packaging and more. Featuring a striking, full-page black-and-white photograph by Dave Barba of Ruffins and Taback, buttoned up and seated in their New York City studio against a wall of work.
• Simms Taback’s (Black&White) Portfolio, n.d. [c. 1980’s]. Represented by~ Milton Newborn, 135 E. 54 Street, New York, N.Y. 10022. Black matte stapled covers, 3.5 x 5, n.p. [28]. Illustrated throughout with whimsical visuals for clients such as Scholastic, New York Telephone, Aetna Insurance, Fact Magazine, and more.

Uncommon and hard to find artifacts from the era when designers sent out printed publications for self-promotion. Near fine, portfolio booklets with only light wear to the covers. Interior pages are unmarked. Ruffins/Taback Incorporated has a tiny tear to the spine head.