Gebrauchsgraphik : International Advertising Art : März 1937 : London's advertising art : Frenzel & Engelbrecher "Gebrauchsgraphik" Verlag : Berlin : 1937 : cover
The March 1937 issue of Gebrauchsgraphik, the influential German monthly magazine of advertising art, was a special issue focussing on advertising and publicity trends in London. At the time British graphic design and especially "commercial art" was in a period of some critical acclaim. As the magazine's articles and illustrations show this was, in some ways, down to the work and patronage of several individuals and companies such as London Transport, who particularly in the post-WW1 years, had helped raise the standards of such art, design and publicity.
This is evident from the magazine's editorial; the name Christian Barman, who had joined the new London Passenger Transport Board (successors to the Underground Group) a year after its formation in 1933, is in evidence and the eminence grise of London's transport, Frank Pick, who was also influential across other authorities such as the Empire Marketing Board, the Design & Industries Association to name but two, contributed an article.
There are many examples of LT's long commissioning of posters, press adverts and publicity reproduced in the issue including works by artists and designers who had no place in the Germany of 1937. Like all other German publications Gebrauchsgraphik had by this date been eviscerated by the censorship, and worse, of the National Socialist dictatorship.
The front cover uses the artwork from a 1936 London Transport poster of Buckingham Palace by artist and designer Edward McKnight Kauffer whose career was especially linked to the Undergroudn Group; Pick arguably gave the artist his first commercial break during the years of the First World War.
Gebrauchsgraphik : International Advertising Art : März 1937 : London's advertising art : Frenzel & Engelbrecher "Gebrauchsgraphik" Verlag : Berlin : 1937 : cover
The March 1937 issue of Gebrauchsgraphik, the influential German monthly magazine of advertising art, was a special issue focussing on advertising and publicity trends in London. At the time British graphic design and especially "commercial art" was in a period of some critical acclaim. As the magazine's articles and illustrations show this was, in some ways, down to the work and patronage of several individuals and companies such as London Transport, who particularly in the post-WW1 years, had helped raise the standards of such art, design and publicity.
This is evident from the magazine's editorial; the name Christian Barman, who had joined the new London Passenger Transport Board (successors to the Underground Group) a year after its formation in 1933, is in evidence and the eminence grise of London's transport, Frank Pick, who was also influential across other authorities such as the Empire Marketing Board, the Design & Industries Association to name but two, contributed an article.
There are many examples of LT's long commissioning of posters, press adverts and publicity reproduced in the issue including works by artists and designers who had no place in the Germany of 1937. Like all other German publications Gebrauchsgraphik had by this date been eviscerated by the censorship, and worse, of the National Socialist dictatorship.
The front cover uses the artwork from a 1936 London Transport poster of Buckingham Palace by artist and designer Edward McKnight Kauffer whose career was especially linked to the Undergroudn Group; Pick arguably gave the artist his first commercial break during the years of the First World War.