Egmont Hegel Arens

Egmont Hegel Arens (December 15, 1887 – October 2, 1966) was an American publisher of literature and art, and an industrial designer and commercial artist specializing in marketing and product packaging.

Career

Washington Square Book Shop Arens purchased the Washington Square Book Shop at 27 West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, from Frank Shay, and operated the store from 1917 to 1923. "he Washington Square Book Shop, presided over by Egmont Arens and Josephine Bell, was during the Twenties the Greenwich Villagers’ favorite shop . . . In what a high-pitched anticipatory mood we ducked into this book shop once or twice a week to see what was new on its magazine rack. Here were the publications of the new movements in American art and thought and literature. Here were the reviews that were stimulating the young." A photograph of Arens in the bookshop by Jessie Tarbox Beals is on the Greenwich Village History Digital Archive. View photograph.

Printing and publishing Arens began his fine press printing and publishing career at the Washington Square Book Shop. A hand-operated printing press was located in the back room, where writers and artists would sit and exchange ideas. Arens published nine issues of Playboy: a portfolio of art and satire between 1919 and 1924. Among the writers published in Playboy were Djuna Barnes, E. E. Cummings, Lola Ridge, Max Weber, Ben Hecht, and D. H. Lawrence. Artists included Gaston Lachaise, Georgia O'Keeffe, Rockwell Kent, Hunt Diedrich, and photographer Alfred Stieglitz. George Bellows and Alexander Brook were among the other artists he published.

Arens operated the Flying Stag Press from 1918 to 1927. In 1918, he began publishing a guidebook, The Little Book of Greenwich Village.

Industrial design Streamliner meat slicer, model 195, by Theodore C. Brookhart & Egmont H. Arens, 1942

In 1929 Arens became Director of the Industrial Styling Division for the firm of Calkins and Holden. He was president of the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen the same year.

Consumer engineering Arens developed the use of "appetite appeal" on packaging. In addition the Harry Ransom Center is the custodian of The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door, a door that was signed by 242 bohemians including Egmont Arens between 1920 and 1925. His signature can be found on the second panel on the front of the door.

The KitchenAid "Streamliner" Meat Slicer, model 410, designed by Egmont Arens and Theodore C. Brookhart in 1940 is displayed in the Museum of Modern Art's gallery exhibition, "Shaping Modernity: Design 1880–1980." The KitchenAid Stand Mixer was exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art's exhibition, "Icons: Magnets of Meaning," in 1998.

From 1962 until his death he was chairman of the board of Egmont Arens-DeRaffel, Inc. in New York. Arens died October 2, 1966, in New York City.

Works published by Flying Stag Press The Little Book of Greenwich Village: A Handbook of Information Concerning New York's Bohemia, with which is incorporated A Map & Directory, published by Egmont Arens, New York, 25 cents; at bottom of ad in January 1919 Playboy: Is this booklet a delicious satire?

Playboy: a portfolio of art and satire, nine issues (1919–1924)

A Portfolio of Linoleum Cuts, by Horace Brodzky, 100 copies (1920)

Paul Thévenaz, a record of his life and art, by Alice de la Mer, privately printed, 1,000 copies (1922)

Drawings by Rockwell Kent, A Portfolio of Prints (1924)

The Months of the Year, by the lettering class of Teachers College (1924)

The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova De Seingalt,, 12 volumes, Aventuros (1925)

Sandbar Queen, by George Cronyn, Flying Stag Plays, No. 1 (1918)

The Angel Intrudes, by Floyd Dell, Flying Stag Plays, No. 3 (1918)

Catalogs of Art Exhibits and Posters