Suspects, Smokers, Soldiers and Salesladies: by Ivan Chermayeff

Graphic designer Ivan Chermayeff's collages suggest personalities that grow out of envelopes and stamps, letterheads and labels, pebbles and Polaroids, all magically transformed into eyes, noses, mouths, ears and earrings, hats, and cigarettes. Some are sad, some angry, some comic, yet all are engaging and inventive.As Joseph Giovannini writes in his introductory essay, "These are elliptical works that, like puzzles, challenge us to make connections that Chermayeff has made, to bring the fragments into a whole. The wisdom of his wit is that his invention beckons us into our own invention. We are the participants in his creation."For anyone who likes to look beyond the obvious, Suspects, Smokers, Soldiers and Salesladies is a source of endless amusement and inspiration.