oddmart

I saw this ad today and was impressed by the degree of detail in imitating something that’s apparently meant to look like it was published in 1933. Much “retro” design is a pretty shallow imitation of the original, and in particular, the technical limitations of the time are rarely adhered to or imitated. In this case, however, they do a few things right. The most striking part is the two-color design — it looks like this was printed with just a blue and a red plate. In particular, in “stay wet” you can see the blue bleed through the red (or vice-versa?). Such an effect isn’t hard to do in Illustrator, but it’s often overlooked. This section of the image makes me think of some of the beautiful bleeds done by Aesthetic Apparatus, though the text-over-halftone-photo seems like classic Aesthetic Apparatus style more than it does 1930s printing. Mis-registration (seen here at Aesthetic Apparatus) is a characteristic of pre-computer printing. In this case registration is almost perfect, though close inspection shows just a bit at the base of the bottle.

I like the graphic design in the ad, though I’m not familiar enough with design of the time to know how 1933-ish it really is. The bottle has an engraved look that I associate with catalogs of the time period, and is similar to the Hedcut style used at the Wall Street Journal since 1979. I love the scallops, though they make me think more of the 1970s than the 1920s and 30s. The Gay Nineties seemed to be a popular theme in the 70s (think Phineas Q. Butterfat’s), and the red scallops make me think of the red-striped gay nineties vest.

Now, is this ad “authentic”? Since I don’t see this ad being passed off as something that was created at the end of prohibition, I’d have to say that it’s authentic — it’s an image created in 2007 using the techniques available at the time. I think we may have an unhealthy obsession with authenticity at times. I don’t accuse 1950’s retro design, a favorite disfavorite of mine, of being inauthentic; it is its own genre, a generally cheap pastiche of design from an era with incredibly sophisticated design. But is this ad indistinguishable from something that would have been printed in 1933? I’m sure there are details, stylistic choices, or other subtleties that could disprove that. To my eye, however, it’s well done enough that there are no distractingly out-of-place details, and regardless of is perceived authenticity, it’s just a fun ad.

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Around 1960, Ladislav Sutnar created a booklet for AT&T’s Bell System called How to Show Telephone Numbers On Letterheads, introducing the format for long-distance numbers we know today: (212) 222-2222. This booklet contains 15 example letterheads with Sutnaresque designs with a few different options for displaying 10-digit telephone numbers. From the introduction:

This booklet contains some new contemporary letterhead designs for business and personal stationery. / A variety of ways to display telephone numbers consistent with attractive design is shown. / For maximum usefulness and clarity always show all 10 numerals of the number [include the Area Code]. / The Area Code may be identified by using the words “Area Code” and separated from the local number by extra space, as shown in this book. Or, if space is limited, the Area Code may be identified by setting it in parentheses. / It may be appropriate to use the word “telephone” to distinguish the telephone number from other numbers on the letterhead. / Place the letters “TWX” before the ten-digit teletypewriter number.

Check out my scan of the booklet.

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I love the book SED: Stunning Eastern Design and its miniature half-clone DDR Design, and now I’ve discovered a newer, bigger book on DDR (East German) design, called DDR Design (unrelated to the other DDR Design above), by Günter Höhne (English-language info here). It’s in German only, but lots of large color pictures make it a great piece of extant design porn nonetheless. In the same series as DDR Design, but by different authors are DDR Kochbuch (DDR Cookbook), DDR Backbuch (DDR Baking Book), and DDR Getränkebuch (DDR Drink Book). They’re in German only, and more text-heavy, but design freaks, and English-speakers who care to translate recipes to attain some weak sense of Ostalgia might still get from them some enjoyment.

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The particular circumstances of the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or East Germany) meant little focus on marketing and little attention on design. Even before the fall of the Berlin Wall, some of this design began to be recognized. The show Design in der DDR in Stuttgart in 1988 was perhaps the first recognition of extant design. Taschen puts out two books (with nearly the same content) of some of these Wall-era products: the smaller but newer DDR Design and the larger SED: Stunning Eastern Design. If you’re looking for more instant DDR gratification, the website DDR Alltagskultur (Everyday DDR Culture) provides images for an amazingly wide (and still growing) list of East German products. The site is in German, but language skills are not necessary to enjoy the design, just scroll down in the lefthand frame. Language skills may be needed to enjoy all of the books on their Buchtip(p)s pages. I plan on purchasing one or two in the hopes that they’ll include plenty of color pictures. Finally, a key to the images: on the left is the East German Club-Cola (now available again [de] for those with Ostalgie). On the right is the modern (but still very Extant) Pepsi Schwip Schwap[de] (a German cola/orange drink, not unlike OK Soda). Poor Schwip Schwap seems to be heavily outmarketed [de] by Coca-Cola’s Mezzo Mix [de].

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