Clarence P Hornung (1899–1997) was an American printer, publisher, typographer, and designer of logos and trademarks. He designed for book publishers such as Encyclopedia Britannica, Vanguard Press, and the Book League of America.
The folk at Lux Mentis Booksellers (an online archive hard-to-find books) scanned and posted a selection of Clarence Hornung logos that are worth a mention. They’re from the book Trade-Marks Designed By Clarence P Hornung, published in 1930 by Caxton Press.
According to Randall Ross of Modernism 101, the book’s colophon stated that 750 copies were printed in December 1930, with 650 copies for sale. Each volume was hand-signed and numbered by Hornung, and the American Institute of Graphic Arts named it one of their 50 Books of the Year in 1932.
There were 53 trademarks within the book. Here’s a selection.
There’s not a great deal of info to be found online about the late designer, but Hornung was clearly interested in a broad range of design topics. LibraryThing lists the following works by Clarence Hornung.
- 2000 Early Advertising Cuts
- Advertising Designs of Walter Dorwin Teague
- Allover Patterns for Designers and Craftsmen
- An Old-Fashioned Christmas in Illustration and Decoration
- Background Patterns, Textures, and Tints
- Classic Border Designs by Twentieth-Century Masters
- Early Advertising Alphabets, Initials, and Typographic Ornaments
- Geometric Patterns and How to Create Them
- Handbook of Early Advertising Art: Pictorial Volume
- Handbook of Early Advertising Art: Typographical & Ornamental Volume
- Handbook of Designs and Devices
- Lettering from A to Z
- The American Eagle in Art and Design
- Traditional Japanese Stencil Designs
- Traditional Japanese Crest Designs
- Treasury of American Design
- Two Hundred Years of American Graphic Art
- Will Bradley: His Graphic Art
Some of those would be lovely to look through.
Many thanks to Lux Mentis for archiving the trademarks.
Info elsewhere:
Clarence P Hornung, on Wikipedia
Rare & Beautiful: The Man Who Designed 500 Logos, on Designers & Books
Clarence Hornung, The Master of Marks, on Letterology
Handbook of Designs and Devices, on Amazon.com
If you liked this, you might also like to read about renowned Polish designer Karol Śliwka (1932–2018).
