"The original sketches were done in gouache, with few exceptions. Color separations in black and white. Unless otherwise indicated, all were printed in letterpress/gravure. The paper stock was specially made for FORTUNE of very tough quality."

 

01 January 1937. " When the first sketch was approved, I was given $5.00 to buy a bottle of champagne and a few sample glasses, these to help me get the effervescent and bubbly look and glass brilliance. On finishing I felt I deserved a drink, but the contents had gone flat - so, down the drain. I like the receding curve of the glasses and good color match. It is bold, simple and says 'whoopie'....."

02 December 1934. "When my wife and I first saw this issue displayed at Brentano's book shop we groaned. The original blues were loused up. The frame blue was much deeper making the sky recede with a rich night glow. In fact the effect is an overall single color. I should have been allowed, as with the tickertape case, to exert some command over the ink matchers regardless of their objections to interference. The same vexing problem here of definition - especially the tiny dots where they clogged. In spite of everything I think it is a good design and I found the work very pleasant."

03 October 1939 "This was one of the few not done in gouache. I used Japanese wood-grain papers as paste-up which was fun doing. It was used for all kinds of FORTUNE promotion. I have the original and am waiting for its disintegration."

04 September 1937. "My first full full-color cover without the frame, done mostly with airbrush. The stacks, researched from FORTUNE files, had to be authentic. They stacked nicely in my design and clearly introduced the contents within. Colors restricted by the obvious. Offset."

05 May 1937. "An effective design and pleasing color. The billboard rendering received plaudits from the advertising people for its structural correctness. No great achievement - it was based on authentic sources."

06 June 1937. "Visually concocted with many revised tracings. The quotations copied from real figures. We had trouble with the ink people. The first proofs were terrible, with a poisonous velvet background. I was sent to help the color mixers get the desired hue. My presence was not cordially received (professional jealousy). I suggested adding black, and more black, to their horror, but it worked. I call this one the 'noodle cover'..."

07 February 1937. "I was always intrigued by water displays, even when sanitation men flushed the streets. Admittedly, firefighting streams are less graceful, but artistic licence makes for a rhythmic design. The use of cross-hatch is here fully exploited and the colors suitable to the occasion. One of my favorites. Offset.."

08 December 1935. "The problem here - as in other cases - was to convincingly suggest the glamor of jewellery under artificial light in flat colors. This again might have profited with the use of airbrush. The greens did not match any color swatches - thanks to the unimaginative ink people. But it's festive."

09 FEBRUARY 1940

10 December 1933. "My second cover - an easy one, and seasonally appropriate. Probably meant for some other magazine. I had had it in limbo and redesigned it for FORTUNE. This kind of transplanting happens now and then. The ditch digging was a rejected idea for the NEW YORKER."

11 September 1933. "I have a special affection for this - my first FORTUNE cover, and the beginning of a memorable period. The equestrian treatment might have been better handled. However one should not look a gifthorse in the mouth, or something."

12 May 1941 "This was a challenge in perspective, done the hard way - trial and error. The diminishing tents had to line up true. I wanted to suggest the congested regimentation and drab monotony of military camp life. In the spirit of monotony I made endless tracings and revisions before the final result. Good repro in offset."

13 July 1936. " A natural for the 4th. The trick here as with the others was to give the feeling, within the technical limitations of flat colour, of luminosity and sparkle. Here of all places, use of the airbrush would have been justified. All things considered,it turned out satisfactorily. As with all letterpress/gravure printing, the pressure of the plates tends to squeeze the ink a fraction causing a slight loss of definition."

14 JULY 1934 "I have an old sketch of a cover for the FORTUNE Italian issue of July 1934. The design was rejected in favor of my other submission, which was used. " This design is a typical Petruccelli, with cross hatch and stipple. In Mount Tabor Tony told me that the satirical depiction of Mussolini in this design was rejected by the editorial staff because they knew that it would not have gone down at all well with Henry Luce, owner of TIME/LIFE who at the time was a supporter of the Italian Fascist leader.

15 Design c 1938, used for the poster for the exhibition FORTUNE, the Visual Achievements of FORTUNE magazine". The separations for the printed image were prepared in New Jersey and printed by Mel Clarke at the Norwich School of Art for the exhibition FORTUNE's America at the University of East Anglia in 1985.