Elaine Lustig Cohen (1927-2016) built a career specializing in book cover design, museum catalogs and building signage, most of which she inherited from her husband's business after his early death at age 40. Cohen was never formally trained as a designer, and worked as a production artist for her husband, after his death she took over the business and built a successful and highly regarded career. Much of the work she did in this phase included graphic design and signage for architectural spaces, having taken over a project for Philip Johnson upon her husband's death. In addition to signage Cohen's design work included idnity design and advertising as well as museum catalog designs, though most prolifically she produced work as book designer. Cohen closed her business in 1969, choosing instead to focus on painting, though she continued to take design jobs occasionally from clients and she designed catalogs for the rare book company, Ex-Libris, she founded with her second husband Arthur Cohen, while all of Elaine Lustig Cohen's work can be viewed as experimental it is the work she did for herself and her husband as clients at Ex-Libris that is exceptionally so. Some of her longest running clients included Meridian Books and the Jewish Museum, examples of work from both can be found in this collection along with catalog designs for Ex-Libris. Cohen earned recognition within the graphic design community with awards like the 2011 AIGA Medal.