From Modernism to Shirt-Sleevism
Advertisements of the Thirties, by Steven Heller. Excerpt from the book 'All-American Ads of the 30s', edited by Jim Heimann
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American advertising of the thirties was born in 1925 in Paris along the banks of the Seine. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a playground of modernity, was laid out in boulevards lined with pavilions decorated with geometric ornamentation and neo-classical friezes. The world's leading clothing, furniture, and houseware manufacturers, along with many grand emporia, exhibited their latest products and designs. But one player was noticeably absent.
The United States, the world's greatest industrial nation, declined an invitation to participate. The leaders of American industry believed, as historian Terry Smith explained, "that they could not match the French designers either in making a stripped Arts and Crafts 'modernism' or by boldly countering with a national style."
And they were right. American products were either nondescript or laden with beauxarts ornament to camouflage a mass-produced look. Although mass production was the foundation on which the modern American economy was built, many cultural critics argued that items coming off the assembly line lacked good taste. While the Bauhaus and other European modern avant-gardes had embraced the machine, American industrialists, who could easily afford to improve their products aesthetically, were apathetic. What they did not resist, however, were marketing strategies that would stimulate higher profits. So industry frantically tried to find a new means of increasing sales through the art, science, and hucksterism of advertising.
The man who helped revolutionize American advertising from the mid-twenties through the thirties was Earnest Elmo Calkins, an advertising pioneer, design reformer, and founder of the New York-based Calkins and Holden Advertising Co. Inspired by the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, he described the array of cubistic and futuristic graphics, packages, and displays in the departmentstore pavilions thus in a treatise on the subject: "It is extremely 'new art' and some of it too bizarre, but it achieves a certain exciting harmony, and in detail is entertaining to a degree." Upon returning to the United States he proffered a vision of how American advertising could benefit from European modernism and modern art.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
American advertising of the thirties was born in 1925 in Paris along the banks of the Seine. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a playground of modernity, was laid out in boulevards lined with pavilions decorated with geometric ornamentation and neo-classical friezes. The world's leading clothing, furniture, and houseware manufacturers, along with many grand emporia, exhibited their latest products and designs. But one player was noticeably absent.
The United States, the world's greatest industrial nation, declined an invitation to participate. The leaders of American industry believed, as historian Terry Smith explained, "that they could not match the French designers either in making a stripped Arts and Crafts 'modernism' or by boldly countering with a national style."
And they were right. American products were either nondescript or laden with beauxarts ornament to camouflage a mass-produced look. Although mass production was the foundation on which the modern American economy was built, many cultural critics argued that items coming off the assembly line lacked good taste. While the Bauhaus and other European modern avant-gardes had embraced the machine, American industrialists, who could easily afford to improve their products aesthetically, were apathetic. What they did not resist, however, were marketing strategies that would stimulate higher profits. So industry frantically tried to find a new means of increasing sales through the art, science, and hucksterism of advertising.
The man who helped revolutionize American advertising from the mid-twenties through the thirties was Earnest Elmo Calkins, an advertising pioneer, design reformer, and founder of the New York-based Calkins and Holden Advertising Co. Inspired by the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, he described the array of cubistic and futuristic graphics, packages, and displays in the departmentstore pavilions thus in a treatise on the subject: "It is extremely 'new art' and some of it too bizarre, but it achieves a certain exciting harmony, and in detail is entertaining to a degree." Upon returning to the United States he proffered a vision of how American advertising could benefit from European modernism and modern art.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
All-American Ads of the 30s
Flexicover, 19.6 x 25.5 cm (7.7 x 10 in.), 768 pages
$ 39.99
$ 39.99
Ads that promised happiness and success to a country in crisis
