To Promote Product Design, 1943 Sweet’s Catalog Service [Knud Lönberg-Holm, Ladislav Sutnar]

To Promote Product Design, 1943. Knud Lönberg-Holm for Sweet’s Catalog Service, New York City, USA. 8.5 x 11, 8 pages, stapled with French folded, dark-orange wrappers and gray stock. Design by Ladislav Sutnar (1897–1976).

This wartime booklet describes Sweet’s new marketing services designed to meet the needs of product designers and manufacturers. Texts include: The New Industrial Revolution; Product Design Assumes New Importance; Product Designers Need Information; and New Information for Product Designs. With testimonials by business leaders, a Product Information Check List and Sweet’s Catalog Service offerings and charges, etc. There are no illustrations but Sutnar’s tasteful typography, layout and production skills are evident.

From 1941-60, Sutnar, who settled in NYC from Czechoslovakia, served as the art director for Sweet’s Catalog Service, publishers of a wide range of industrial catalogs. Sutnar and his prolific team of researchers, writers and designers transformed the complex language of product information into clear, concise and easy-to-use visual communication — industrial catalogs, advertising, marketing collateral, books, stationary, internal forms and more in an effort to promote speed, efficiency and guidance. Sutnar said, “The designer must think first, work later” and this is evident in his pioneering work.

Uncommon. An original, Ladislav Sutnar designed booklet in nearly fine condition with the slightest hint of wear to the front wrappers and edges. Uncirculated.