Collection of Soviet Design Scrapbooks

The Collection of Soviet Design Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks almost entirely filled with collages of newspaper clippings, labels, and other ephemera and photographic prints of type specimens glued to rectos and versos. Though the scrapbooks themselves were likely created between c.1965 and c.1990, the material within the scrapbooks largely ranges from the 1950s to approximately 1990, with some material of the early 20th century represented as well. The scrapbooks are largely composed of collages of typographically interesting and unusual newspaper clippings and commercial labels from various products. Also included are some photographic prints based on unidentified type specimen books from the late Russian and Soviet periods, as well as original shots of hand-lettered signs and banners. Occasionally, but not often, the typeface has been identified and noted in pen by the compiler.

Two scrapbooks in the collection (items #1 and #2) are part of a set that were produced by an unknown Ukrainian designer, most likely in Odessa, sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s. In addition to material in Russian and Ukrainian, there is also a small amount of material in German and English.

Three items in the collection (items #3, #4, #5) were previously owned by an unnamed family of artists and designers, who took part in designing the House of Culture (Dom kul’tury) of the workers’ village of Maina in the Ulyanovsk region of Russia. These albums carefully preserve various magazine and newspaper fonts, as well as stylistic and design elements, such as candy wrappers and other everyday labels, representing the design of the late Soviet Union. Also included within the scrapbooks are several earlier examples of typographic design possibly dating to pre-World War II.