When holiday cards were a designer’s powerhouse portfolio

Alexander Tochilovsky, the man who curates the renowned Cooper Union’s Herb Lubalin Center keeping the legacy of the iconic designer alive, shared the institute’s stunning holiday cards collection with WIRED.

These beautiful artworks created between the 1950s and 1970s by the likes of Paul Rand, Milton Glaser and Louis Silverstein were sent to another designer, Arnold Roston.

The collection of cards that was donated by Roston to Herb Lubalin Center, bears more than just greetings.

“There was no Behance or Dribbble,” Tochilovsky says, so designers often turned to greeting cards. “They’re really a glimpse into what designers think about when they make something personal,” he adds.

Milton Glaser “fashioned a Christmas tree from the type settings” straight of the catalog of typography company Advertising Composition Inc. and “Swiss designer Walter Marti celebrated the arrival of 1960 by affixing a single line onto colourful circles to denote the year”.

Check more holiday spirit here.