Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Cops and coppers

As I've noted, one of the nice things about early twentieth-century advertising was the use of hand-drawn artwork.

The charm of which is apparent, I think, in these two adverts for 'Gallaher's Park Drive Cigarettes' from 1927.

(They also demonstrate a rather relentless -- though perhaps typically British -- fondness for punning.)

(Daily Herald, 7 April 1927, p. 8)

(Daily Herald, 16 June 1927, p. 8)

5 comments:

Ashok said...

Thank you! The style is simple and direct, but the artist is definitely getting the most out of his use of line.

I almost want to take up smoking.

JCWood said...

You're welcome.

There was a lot of fine drawing in advertisements at this time, many of which featured very sharp contrasts and simple lines (I'm wondering whether this had as much to do with printing technology as with aesthetic preferences). I hope to feature more as I get the chance.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ashok said...

Yeah, I'll link to you from my blog as soon as I get back to messing around with the blogroll.

Bill Watterson has a bunch of writings on other cartoonists and illustrators that have made me really think about what goes into drawing. A sample:

http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cpeanuts01.html

KB Player said...

Have you read Dorothy Sayers's Murder Must Advertise which is set in an advertising firm in the early 1930s? It's a rubbish detective story but the detail of how advertising worked is fascinating, eg the matching up of the pictures to the copy and how that could go embarrassingly wrong.

Ashok said...

KB Player - I gotta say, the first time I saw this post I wanted to say something about Sayers, because she had written jingles for beer ads that used a rich illustration style. You beat me to that.