Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A Mid-century Design for Living












In 1946 the publishers of Madamoiselle magazine produced a home planning scrapbook as a design for living. It was designed for the original DIY homemaker and had checklists, charts, diagrams, graphs and floorplans for the young housewife to consult in planning the house of her dreams. The front cover and interior illustrations were created by Frederick Chance who illustrated many cover designs for magazines such as Vogue and Fortune in the 1930s. By the late 1980s, Chance was still at work doing layouts for covers of a rock magazine, according to Brian Withers whose father, illustrator George Withers, was a close friend of Mr. Chance. 
      I am surprised I could find so little biography available on Frederick Chance, as he was such an accomplished illustrator. His cover design for this guide is very reminiscent of some of Alex Steinweiss dinstinguished album cover artwork. Chance certainly deserves far more recognition for his own work.


:: From the Letterology Archives

3 comments:

  1. Wow.. I used to work with Fred Chance at Circus Magazine in 1986.. I had no idea he was that talented..

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  2. How cool! He probably never got to show his true colors in magazine work. This may have been a one-off which allowed him more license to show his talents I presume. Nice to know others remember him still. Thanks for surfacing!

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