Formed in 1921 as the state planning commission, Gosplan carried out a unified program for the Soviet economy and it coordinated state-run economic regions. Gosplan had its own publishing and printing departments. Its printing division, Gosplanizdat (State Publishing House of the Economic, Planning and Accounting and Statistical Literature of the State Planning Committee of the USSR), was formed in the 1940s.

Iskusstvo was the Art Publishing House (A.K.A. Visual Arts Publishing) that was created in 1936 from Ogiz-Izogiz (State Art and Literature Publishing House). It disseminated books and journals dealing with graphic design and the fine arts, and it issued numerous posters. Since the Iskusstvo banner was part of the State Printing Works in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Moscow, its two main offices were located in those two cities.