Here are all the essentials for creating striking ads and other graphic messages with an attention-getting retro look and feel. Drawn from typographic sourcebooks as well as sign-painting manuals of the early twentieth century, this comprehensive volume includes a wealth of borders, frames, images, and typographic elements for re-creating authentic styles of the 1890s–1920s. An inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists, illustrators, and crafters, these versatile designs will add an antique touch to any project, including scrapbooks and other memory albums.
I borrowed an ebook from my public library, so I can't speak for a hard copy, but this digital copy was all images, no text. They're all examples of vintage ad illustrations (giving Alphonse Mucha vibes) and design elements like borders and random items.
Dover has always done a great job with these 'clip art' type of publications and I've been using them for several decades. Royalty free (original copyrights long since expired), for use as inspiration or to scan in and redo digitally, the quality is always high. The designs are original from the period - not redrawn or updated.
The majority of the designs come from a few publications: six from 1906-1906 and oddly one from 1927 (creating a mix of art nouveau, arts & crafts, and deco influences. Mixing art deco with art nouveau seems a bit odd and the reason I rate this a solid 4 stars and not 5. Note that the origin of the drawings are books on design (Henderson's Sign Painter, Lesson Sheet 5: Show Card Writing, Modern Ornament and Design, etc.). So these have a nice, generic quality to them and aren't original commercially used art with the names erased.
Several of the designs or designs are greyscale - from full color art likely but converted to black and white for the original publications. Others are line drawn and easy to adapt for modern use. Included are full signage, square motifs, borders, capital letters, fonts, logos featuring 2-3 letters, examples of store hanging signs, ethnic inspired designs (Chinoiserie, Egyptian), shields/emblems, insects/fish/animals, and stained glass.
The book is quite packed with designs - nearly 700. So there is definitely a lot to choose from. Applications for logo design, advertising, to marketing, can be found within.
In all, another great Dover book. Reviewed from an ARC.
I love black and white art from the late nineteenth century/early 20th Century. The art deco and art nouveau looks are still among the classiest period in modern art, in my opinion. Part of what has made it so fantastic is the care and dedication of the artists who took pride in their work. It wasn't typically throw-away art, even though much of this was for advertising.
This book collects nearly 700 images, many of them from books on design so they are examples of the typical style for the periods, rather than actual advertising pieces with the advertising brand names removed. Of particular interest for me were the monthly 'decoration' samples. One very nice aspect is that these are reproductions of the original works, and not re-drawn works.
Some of the designs are in a gray-scale, and except for the above mentioned monthly decoration samples, I typically preferred the hard black and white images, but then I'm someone who works mostly in pen and ink, so I've always liked the pen and ink look. For any artist looking to familiarize him/herself in the art of the period, this book is a real treasure-trove of samples. From letters to borders to signage, there is much here than might be adapted for a modern artist.
Publisher Dover has done a really nice job with this book and other art titles and has proven itself as the place to turn to for quality art books.
Looking for a good book? Whether you're an artist looking for samples of a period or someone who enjoys thumbing through a book of quality art, Vintage Advertising Art & Design is highly recommended.
This was given to me by the publisher through NetGalley to review. I really would like to purchase this book because the e-book did not give it justice. For some reason, the advance reading copy given to me was scanned horizontally and had to be read by tilting the head. I can only hope this will be fixed for the people who purchase this. I gave this book 3.5 stars, I would rate it 4 stars if the e-book was done with a little more attention.
Each page is beautifully rendered with a piece of lettering/sign that exudes olden days. I love how they used multiple fonts, it's very iconic of the era. The detail is amazingly precise and something we don't see as often anymore. All Artists can find great inspiration from this book and I know this is exactly what the Author was intending.
If you enjoy having books around that inspire you, feel like creative inspiration can be plucked from the past, this book is for you. I'll advise that maybe buying the actual hardcover would be well worth it, the e-book is a little less easy to navigate and I found myself wanting to have the actual physical book in my hand.
As the book synopsis says, this is a great inspiration for artists, illustrators and crafters who want to create their own designs inspired by this retro era.
There are examples of antique style embelished alphabets, motifs, patterns you can use for borders and frames, as well as examples of layouts for posters and postcards. This is strictly a picture book with no explanatory text, purely a book of inspirational artwork.
My mother was a ticket writer in the 60's and 70's and inspired me everyday to pick up a pencil and draw and create. I remember fondly flipping through books like this while she was working, inspiring me all the more.
If you are looking for inspiration for your own work then this is a useful reference book to have in your bookshelf.
copy kindly provided by Netgalley and the publisher
This is yet another of Dover's titles on vintage advertising, consisting of black and white images from the 1890s to the 1920s. While there's a wide range of designs, most of them undeniably lovely, I'm not sure how relevant they are to today's art and advertising, as the current idea of 'retro' is more about the 1950s and 1960s. However, this would be a good reference book for graphic designers and anyone else interested in design.
I was sent a copy of the book for review though Net Galley, as always, all opinions are my own.
As a graphic designer I love books like this and have quite a number of them on my shelves. I’ve always loved working older styles and typography into my designs and this book gives me a wide variety of images to draw inspiration from. It’s a great resource for anyone in a creative field, but especially those who love to look to historic designs for inspirations.
Seems to me this is not well titled. I think it should have "Reference Guide" attached to the end since this is truly that. Regardless, this volume contains an impressive amount of vintage ad designs that are not only beautiful but elegant and inspiring, and that I believe is the aim of this book.
An excellent resource for all creative types. From a graphic design perspective I've found that it contains some great samples that can help with a integration and creating a plethora of marketing collateral.