Misha Beletsky, the art director of Abbeville Press for the past ten years, recently authored “The Book Jackets of Ismar David.” If you never heard his name, you are not alone. I thought I new them all, and he is new to me too. David (1910- 1996) was an accomplished calligrapher, who turned to jacket design when calligraphy was popular in the late 40s and 50s. The work is reminiscent of George Salter, but with a typographic flair of his own.
His logos for Knopf, Golden Press and Riverside Press are simple and illustrative. Some of his work involved Hebrew lettering, including his typeface David Hebrew. Read more about David’s life here. See his electronic archive here. And the RIT Archive here.
Beletsky‘s study is No. 26 in The Typophiles Monograph New Series published by the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press, and available here.
