A Distinguished Graphic Artist

Alvin Eisenman '43, one of the nation's leading book designers, has been elected president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Though only 39, he already has had an outstanding career in the typographic field, having designed more than 1,000 books, some twenty of which have been selected for the annual list of best designed books.

Eisenman is associate professor and director o£ the graphic arts department of the Yale School of Arts and Architecture and is serving as typographer of the Yale University Press.

In addition to his award-winning book designs, he created the over-all designs for the series of volumes on The Papers of JamesBoswell, edited by Yale and published by McGraw-Hill Book Co. He also was co-designer with Walter Rowe of R. R. Donnelley Lakeside Press, Chicago, of the series of books containing the works of Benjamin Franklin. The first of this series was published last year.

Eisenman entered with the Class of 1943 after graduation from the Horace Greeley School in Chappaqua, N. Y. At Dartmouth he did a great deal of work with Ray Nash, the College's noted typographer. With the coming of World War II, Eisenman stepped up his program of studies and graduated with distinction in art in December 1942. From 1943 until 1946 he served in the Army Signal Corps and received the Army Commendation Ribbon for his work at West Point in designing instruction manuals.

Following the war, he became a textbook designer for the McGraw-Hill Book Co. in New York City, and from 1949 until his appointment at Yale in 1950 he was manager of the firm's design department. In 1955 he was on leave from Yale to be visiting professor in the graphic arts at the Royal College of London.