TOMER, A. - The theory and practice of layout en Page. The Studio Ltd.

The First English Edition of the lavishly printed Bible of "Moderne", soon to be called art deco. Thanks to Tolmer's work the deco style persisted until the Second World War, and influences design to this day.

"Mise en Page is an impressive piece of production. Printed in blue and black, it contains numerous tipped-in pages with some outrageous pieces of finishing. Foils, embossing, hand painting, different stocks (including wood veneer) and enamelling are just some of the arsenal of devices on display. That the book was produced by a printer is no surprise. Alfred Tolmer (1876-1957) was a French printer who also ran his own design studio, a not uncommon practice in 1920s Paris. This book on the art of layout was a highly influential publication , which promoted the moderne style of design - a seductive blend of curvilinear forms that ignored the intellectual tendencies of the avant-garde. Mise en Page , or 'layout' demonstrated to designers the possibilities inherent in the 'free use of process' afforded by the use of photo-reproduction.

This liberation from the constraints of traditional print forms meant they could effectively cut and paste layouts, photographs could be cut out and juxtaposed, and image, line and text could be overlaid. Tolmer reached back into the history of art, and delighted in the contrast between antiquity and the modern. A sarcophagus and a cocktail shaker stand side by side, an ancient female torso mirrors the hull of a yacht, and Josephine Baker poses with a statue of Saint Anthony. As much as it represented the decadence of the age, this playful mélange of elements opened the way for new forms of advertising and design ." (Jason Godfrey)