Konstantin Konstantinovich Ivanov received his initial art instruction from his father, the noted graphic artist Konstantin L. Ivanov. Formal instruction began in 1933 when Konstantin Konstantinovich attended an art school in Leningrad. It was from that point on that he dedicated his life to graphic design.

The Poligrafkombinat (printing plant) of Kalinin was the printer for Sovnarkhoz RSFSR (the Regional Council of National Economy of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic). Sovnarkhoz was an economic reorganization that came about in 1957 when over 100 "economic regions" were created in the USSR to localize and reduce the inordinate role of state administered, top-down economics. The printer was located at 5 Lenin Avenue (formerly Voroshilov Street) in the city of Kalinin (now, Tver) situated northwest of Moscow.

The history of IzoGiz begins with the formation of Ogiz, the Association of the State Book and Magazine Publishers. In 1930, the Sovnarkom of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic established Ogiz to centralize publishing under a monopoly in order to eliminate duplication of printed material, to streamline and control publishing production and its output, and to create a base for marketing books, training and technical manuals. In 1931, the Central Committee of the USSR ordered certain publications be separated from Ogiz. The separation principally affected technical manuals and propaganda material issued by the publisher. For example, posters, art magazines and artistic books were placed under Izogiz (Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo), the fine arts section of Ogiz. In 1963, Izogiz was merged with the publishing house, "Soviet Artist" (Sovetskii khudozhnik).