Coquemer : les années folles d'un typographe moderne

A modest printer and typesetter who arrived in Paris at the turn of the century, Léon Coquemer (1881–1948) left his mark on graphic design in the 1920s with his original and resolutely modern creations, whose avant-garde style helped lay the foundations for our advertising art. Although he influenced his contemporaries, he has been forgotten in the history of French graphic design. His modernist intuition, which as early as 1917 anticipated the spirit of the times that would usher the 20th century into modernity, challenges the chronology and authorship of certain graphic revolutions that took place after the war.

His colourful invitations to fashion shows by designers Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet, his advertisements for jazz concerts in trendy cabarets, and his menus and programmes for official events at the 1925 International Exhibition earned him a place in the pantheon of French Art Deco.

This book dedicated to Léon Coquemer reveals a previously unseen facet of the Roaring Twenties in Paris, a time of frivolity and celebration, through more than 300 astonishing small-format prints commissioned by the Parisian luxury world from the artist, reproduced here for the first time.