Dec 15, 2016 5:30 AM

Gallery: Forget Hallmark. Vintage Holiday Cards Are Where It’s At

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The Cooper Union's Herb Lubalin Center has collected more than 100 holiday cards from famous designers, including this one from illustrators Jean and Roy Doty.
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Herb Lubalin designed this card, which reads '72 either way you flip it.

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The cards are from the collection of Arnold Roston, who kept and donated them to the Cooper Union.
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Here, a Christmas tree built out of the factorial sequence.

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In the late 1960s, Louis Silverstein, then the New York Times' art director, drew a bow from the paper's grid.
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Milton Glaser's holiday card for Advertising Composition Inc.

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Although intended to spread holiday cheer, the cards also allowed graphic designers to show off skills usually reserved for clients.
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Paul Rand designed this for the Advertising Composition Inc.

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Rand highlighted the company's acronym with red letters.
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Swiss designer Walter Marti created this new years card in 1960.

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Ladislav Sutnar's holiday card.
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A card from the illustrator Richard Erdoes.

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The card from branding agency Chermayeff & Geismar.
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The Met's holiday card.

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The cards were a mode of personal expression for designers who usually dealt with clients.
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A card from modernist graphic designer Lester Beall.

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