Otto Storch and McCall's fifty years ago / part 1

Otto Storch was the Art Director of McCall’s for fourteen years from 1955. He was one of the New York School of designers that gave popular magazines a circulation lift from the mid-fifties onwards. Others included Bill Cadge on Redbook, Henry Wolf for Esquire and Show, Allen Hurlbert on Look and Arthur Paul for Playboy.
   I always thought Storch was the best of the bunch because of his knack of creating easy-on-the-eye pages that pulled you in to read them. Like Herb Lubalin, Storch was very keen on expressive typography on the page. Some of these type spreads are shown below and look perfect because the choice of the headline type, sub-head and story length blend together seamlessly. Have a look at The Dietrich legend and Dream up a dressing room with the huge brackets, they look as perfect today as the did fifty years ago.
   Another Storch visual technique was integrating photography and headlines, especially with the food photos, mostly taken by the brilliant Paul Dome, look at his wonderful hot dog and corn cob below. The fashion and beauty pages also looked different because the headlines and other photo graphics on the page create a fresh take on clothes and accessories.

   I couldn't keep piles of magazines for years so I removed the spreads I liked best and kept them.  Unfortunately mass-market paper doesn't keep too well in an attic so some of these layouts are not at their best but they will give you an idea of Otto Storch's wonderful page designs.
   Parts 2 and 3 are in the December 2012 archive.

...now go to December 2012 archive for Parts 2 and 3