Elaine Lustig Cohen was a groundbreaking artist, archivist, collector, and early graphic designer in the latter part of the 20th century, and remained a vital part of the art world until her death in 2016. This editorial layout is a deftly curated exploration of her work and life, based upon the considerable information, interviews, and archives of her estate, to be found  at elainelustigcohen.com. A glimpse at my research here.

I must confess that when starting this work, I did not see the brilliance that many of the interviewers seemed to recognize in this designer. But as I sat with her original images and typographic compositions over the time it took to complete this project, I developed a great fondness for this revolutionary artist. Lustig Cohen had a structural and layered method of working that inspired and informed how I approached my own work.

I composed images through digital collage and utilized an iron-clad grid system, the rigidity of which allowed me to find the places where I could break the rules for emphasis, or when the opportunity for a visual metaphor or pun presented itself. Though she existed in a time when women were not considered capable of being designers, Lustig Cohen proved herself not only a designer, but in fact an iconoclast.