Idea Art #2 A portfolio of original, ready-to-use art ideas by top flight artists

New York: Idea-art, 1956. Looseleaf binding. Limp leatherette cover. Many metal rings. Near Fine. Humorous cartoon artwork being marketed to businesses to use in their catalogues, promotions and other literature. Surprisingly scarce -- no copies found on OCLC nor in commerce on the date of this description. However, some of the cartoons we have seen in the publications of various businesses from the era, and this publication explains to us how smaller businesses might have arranged for artwork that might have been expensive to commission for themselves when their line of business had nothing to do with the production of such artwork. 4to. 29 by 24.5 cm. 80 leaves, most of which are numbered, all printed on a single side, and in all cases but one, that is the recto. The Contents, or table of contents, has two facing pages,with small vignette versions of the illustrations to follow, without their captions -- in other words, entirely visual. While there are fewer illustrated plates, with a single illustration and captioning ideas, this publication, issued a year later, has eight pages of examples of how to take the raw illustrations and apply it creatively to the particular circumstance. In this section, examples draw upon both this and the prior "Idea Art" illustrations, and discussed are novel modes of printing the illustrations, the type of vehicle for the printed use of the illustration, etc. The illustrations in this installment, which we believe is the second of only two, offer upbeat humor, goofy confidence, and exude the optimism of the Fifties. The cartoons are instantly recognizable as being from that period, with their economical use of line drawing, and the vitality and hope of Middle Class America which propel their esprit. Light wear. (Inventory #: 20103)