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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Calkins believed that cluttered design (Wheaties, p. 526), comic strips (Camel, p. 53) puerile drawings, and copy (Sar ka, p. 299) were demeaning and confusing. Instead he proffered techniques that created mystiques through stylized, symbolic, and abstract forms. This meant that advertising could be less dependent on copy because the image was the primary mode of communication. More important, this model also elevated the art director above the copywriter in the hierarchy of advertising. Calkins felt that the so-called "art expert" was just as important as a literate copy chief. Throughout the twenties and thirties agency art directors acquired new-found prominence - indeed, art directors used illustration to create modern auras. Given Calkins' method, commonplace objects - toasters, refrigerators, pencils, shortening and coffee tins - were presented against dynamic patterns and at skewed angles; and contemporary industrial wares were often shown in surrealistic and futuristic settings.
Modern art was a value additive and valuable camouflage. "When the uglier utilities of business cannot be beautified," wrote Calkins, "art is used to make them disappear." Suggesting a special relationship between the advertisement and goods by graphic style was something Calkins called "atmosphere," a fetishistic trait that ultimately rubbed off on the product itself.
Nonetheless, Calkins was a pragmatist. The cleverness of advertising could not exceed the public's capacity to understand what was being advertised - and be hooked in the process. He sought to raise the overall standard, yet this was accomplished in the "most advanced yet acceptable" manner and "style" was the means, not the end. Advertisements for Camay (p. 288), Kinsbury Pale (p. 75), and Thompson Products (pp. 14-15), to name but a few, were a true synthesis of the modern style and traditional commercial art. This was not simply a pyrrhic victory; Calkins was honestly content to create modernistic allusions because, he explained, "Improving the physiognomy of advertising had a twofold result. It directly influenced the taste of the public and indirectly conditioned the production of goods."
In some quarters the new commercial advertising style increased sales, which triggered greater production, which then stimulated the economy. Manufacturers and retailers were happy, and designers and artists were major contributors to this bounty. A commercial artist of the day once wrote, "I've seen this styling idea coming closer and closer to the thing that really counts... a container that millions of hands stretch out to buy because it says something to them that they can't resist!"
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Calkins believed that cluttered design (Wheaties, p. 526), comic strips (Camel, p. 53) puerile drawings, and copy (Sar ka, p. 299) were demeaning and confusing. Instead he proffered techniques that created mystiques through stylized, symbolic, and abstract forms. This meant that advertising could be less dependent on copy because the image was the primary mode of communication. More important, this model also elevated the art director above the copywriter in the hierarchy of advertising. Calkins felt that the so-called "art expert" was just as important as a literate copy chief. Throughout the twenties and thirties agency art directors acquired new-found prominence - indeed, art directors used illustration to create modern auras. Given Calkins' method, commonplace objects - toasters, refrigerators, pencils, shortening and coffee tins - were presented against dynamic patterns and at skewed angles; and contemporary industrial wares were often shown in surrealistic and futuristic settings.
Modern art was a value additive and valuable camouflage. "When the uglier utilities of business cannot be beautified," wrote Calkins, "art is used to make them disappear." Suggesting a special relationship between the advertisement and goods by graphic style was something Calkins called "atmosphere," a fetishistic trait that ultimately rubbed off on the product itself.
Nonetheless, Calkins was a pragmatist. The cleverness of advertising could not exceed the public's capacity to understand what was being advertised - and be hooked in the process. He sought to raise the overall standard, yet this was accomplished in the "most advanced yet acceptable" manner and "style" was the means, not the end. Advertisements for Camay (p. 288), Kinsbury Pale (p. 75), and Thompson Products (pp. 14-15), to name but a few, were a true synthesis of the modern style and traditional commercial art. This was not simply a pyrrhic victory; Calkins was honestly content to create modernistic allusions because, he explained, "Improving the physiognomy of advertising had a twofold result. It directly influenced the taste of the public and indirectly conditioned the production of goods."
In some quarters the new commercial advertising style increased sales, which triggered greater production, which then stimulated the economy. Manufacturers and retailers were happy, and designers and artists were major contributors to this bounty. A commercial artist of the day once wrote, "I've seen this styling idea coming closer and closer to the thing that really counts... a container that millions of hands stretch out to buy because it says something to them that they can't resist!"
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
