There is so much that amazes and surprises me as I read the text.
-William Leavenworth actually had customers send a drawing of one letter and he would create an entire font based on it. In 1834! Wow!
-In one year shortly after daguerreotypes were somewhat perfected, though with limitations, one being the long processing required to print, 5000,000 were made in Paris!
-Louis Prang seemed to me to be a marketing genius! He created markets for products that hadn't even existed before. He was really ahead of his time. He used the new chromolithography to it's absolute fullest to make his ideas reality. His imprint is still a huge part of our culture in the form of greeting cards. Art supplies and self taught art education materials were also his ideas along with some of the very first art journals. He would have fit right in with the entrepreneurship spirit that exists today. He may have given Larry Ellison a run for his money. What a fascinating person.
-John Bufford was another innovative thinker and designer. His drawing talent, use of color and his original thinking beget beautifully realized tonal illustrations.On top of his considerable illustration skills he was one of the first to really consider the complete set of design aesthetics required to create a fully realized vision. The poster he created for the Swedish Song Quartet with the caps over the heads of the soloists reminds me of the Amazon logo:
-William Morris really created a life based on his philosophy and was able to surround himself with what he considered beautiful. I watched a documentary about Valentino the haute couturier and it made me think of Morris. Valentino had the means to create a life of beauty for himself, beauty that he created and very much controlled in every facet of his life. Not many are so lucky to have the ability to control their world to such a degree. Morris had a hand in so many different design concerns that he really did visually control his every day life.
These people left us a considerable legacy of design philosophy, innovation and craftsmanship that is truly awe inspiring.
The part that illustration played in the early days of advertising prompted me to look at an old September 1925 issue of National Geographic for examples. I was surprised at the number of ads that used both photography and illustrations such as this example for Whitman's Chocolates. Click to view a larger version and read the copy as it is really something!
This example shows the use of hand lettering along with photography. It seems a quaint mix of what was then old and new:
Can you believe that in the last years of the 1800's popular magazines carried 1oo pages of advertising in a single issue?? That may actually be worse than today.
The schism between typographers philosophy was born as early as the Victorian era as purists complained about attention getting visuals as opposed to idea that type should "serve the text first and otherwise stay in the background".
Jessica Hische is an illustrator whose work I admire. She tries to create a new drop cap every day. She's mostly successful at meeting that challenge. I think creating an artwork every day is a wonderful way to keep your personal creativity flowing:
Jessica's blog:
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