Posters and publicity : Fine printing and design. — London, 1926

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Past Year

 

The union between art and publicity grows closer and stronger every day. Commerce, generally, is now demanding more and more advertisement to further its aims and activities, and is better realising the valuable help that artwork can render to this end, while artists, through seeking understanding, are more keenly alive to the problems and needs of commercial publicity, and are improving their equipment in consequence. In calling to mind, therefore, the activities of advertisers during the past year, and by glancing as it were over many parts of the world, it soon becomes evident that the artistic standards of advertising, which have lately gained in power and force, are being steadily maintained and frequently advanced. Now that publicity takes its place as one of the established institutions of daily life, the times of immature experiment are over; those ill-considered schemes, adventures into the unknown, and drastic attempts to secure originality at any cost, which often marked the artists’ early union with advertising, are things of the past. Out of earnest striving and failure knowledge has come, and the present time emerges as a period of consistent effort and stable progress. This satisfactory state of affairs, with much in the advertisement matter of to-day touching a high artistic level, has been due to a variety of causes to which the public, directors of business enterprises, printers, publicity managers and agents, and artists also, have all contributed. The public are growing keener and more discriminating in their appreciation of good and effective design ; competition and the desire for commercial expansion are stimulating great activities; more fine printing is available; processes of reproduction are constantly improving; and managers and agents of publicity, through specialisation, are offering better services, and are keeping in line with developments in the world of art. Although other and greater opportunities yet wait upon them, all those connected with advertising are now pressing forward towards the betterment of their practices.

 

The Poster

 

From the bulk of good work accomplished certain examples stand out, but it is among the posters that some of the most significant advertising is to be found. This is not surprising, for the poster is attractive to both advertisers and artists—a first-class medium of publicity and a conspicuous selling agent, its use is encouraged by advertisers, and it presents exceptional opportunities to artists who are able to think and work in that large manner which appeals to the public with certainty and force. Workers in this field, too, are adding their own quota to a subject which is comparatively old in the history of modern advertising, old enough to have gathered its own traditions and claim its own “old masters.” The influence of the past, therefore, is potent, even though it may operate subconsciously; present-day poster designers are impelled by what has gone before and, by bringing to their work new ideas, impressions, and interpretations, are carrying on and developing the practices and traditions that, in course of years, have accumulated round the form of public appeal which was the first to attract the serious attention of artists. With recollections of the glorious past in mind, recalled by the names of Chéret and Steinlen, the Beggarstaffs and Beardsley, Louis Rhead, Bradley, Penfield, and others of note, it is good to know that the artists of this generation are also rising to opportunities, are building up their own traditions, and are fashioning a worthy superstructure on the foundations that years ago were so well and truly laid.

 

Notable Designs

 

Notable posters have recently emanated from various countries. Switzerland, America, Canada, Great Britain, and especially Austria and Denmark, have contributed outstanding designs that, collectively, evidence development and progress in the art of the poster. It is true that in these works differences of temperament and outlook are evident, and influences of local currencies in artistic thought are plainly obvious, but in sundry ways they all bear witness to the new spirit of the times. The recent output of the artists concerned merits careful study, and interesting examples will be found in the printed designs in this volume by Rob Stöcklin, Hugo Laubi, W. F. Elms, S. F. Turner, E. McKnight Kauffer, Tom Purvis, Steven Spurrier, D. M. Batty, and by Josef Binder, F. Wacik, Erwin Lang and Sven Brasch. They show to what extent, and in which directions, the practice of this branch of applied art is being carried forward.

 

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Download link (pdf; yandexdisk; 117 MB)

 

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