BBC Handbook, 1928 - cover design by Edward McKnight Kauffer
The BBC were, from their early days, great publishers of this and that with publications, leaflets and magazines designed to inform the public of their services and to further educate them as to the content of broadcasting. It was seen as a noble cause. From the late-1920s until a few years ago they issued an annual handbook, a sort of diary of the year's events and the BBC's services and personalities as, yes, they did allow them even at this date so long as they wore tie and tails. The Yearbook can make useful reading and the adverts are very of the day when radio broadcasting was just starting to go mainstream. But the book itself is an object lesson in old fashioned layout and typography and can be a heavy read as, one suspects, Auntie Beeb intended. What then caused them to go wild with the dust jackets for several years is a matter of conjecture as here, by one of the most eminent artist designers of the day is a cover that must have simply leapt out of bookshop windows and shelves. And perhaps that was the plan - marketing plain and simple, lure people in and ... Anyhow, what a cover. McKnight Kauffer was an emigre American who found his metier in graphic design here in the UK after the First World War largely through early commissions from London Underground.
BBC Handbook, 1928 - cover design by Edward McKnight Kauffer
The BBC were, from their early days, great publishers of this and that with publications, leaflets and magazines designed to inform the public of their services and to further educate them as to the content of broadcasting. It was seen as a noble cause. From the late-1920s until a few years ago they issued an annual handbook, a sort of diary of the year's events and the BBC's services and personalities as, yes, they did allow them even at this date so long as they wore tie and tails. The Yearbook can make useful reading and the adverts are very of the day when radio broadcasting was just starting to go mainstream. But the book itself is an object lesson in old fashioned layout and typography and can be a heavy read as, one suspects, Auntie Beeb intended. What then caused them to go wild with the dust jackets for several years is a matter of conjecture as here, by one of the most eminent artist designers of the day is a cover that must have simply leapt out of bookshop windows and shelves. And perhaps that was the plan - marketing plain and simple, lure people in and ... Anyhow, what a cover. McKnight Kauffer was an emigre American who found his metier in graphic design here in the UK after the First World War largely through early commissions from London Underground.