Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Harper's Bazaar


In these two pictures, we see the February cover for Harper's Bazaar and a July poster for Harper's Magazine in 1894.  Though the new cover is not a poster for the magazine, the idea of taking a theme from the month is obviously relevant in the overall design of the cover.  Like in the July poster, where the woman is lighting a string of firecrackers, for the Fourth of July, the February cover is completely red with a large heart in the background, and if that didn't scream Valentines Day, the word "Love" is written in bold letters across the middle of the page.  The use of the holiday themes for the month has lasted since the 1890 posters for Harper's and is still used in publications today.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Morton Salt Girl


Taking a look at the Morton Salt Labels over the past century reminded me of the art nouveau posters from the late nineteenth century.  The earliest logo for the company was from the time when these posters were being created, but as the logo changed as styles did through the years, the art nouveau essence has never left the branding.  Even through to today when everything is being simplified, the Morton Salt company continues to use the nouveau styling for the cover girl for the company.  

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Sick Days

Sick days, for me usually mean multiple hours filled with different movies playing through on my television screen, this rule also applies when the "day" portion of the phrase is changed to "weekend," and therefore, I had spent basically my entire weekend laying down, watching whatever movies we had laying around my house.  

Due to the odd mishmash of movies we have in our house from today and my childhood and now, I have now watched movies like Gran Turino, The Jungle Book, Harry Potter's I, III, and V, multiple episodes of the television series Bonanza, and Friends.  While watching the movies, I noticed that the opening credits, with the overture, set the tone for the whole movie.  Credits, written in different typefaces, alone can give the general mood of the film in the first few seconds.  

Watching Harry Potter, where the credits are three dimensional in dark metallic colors that come towards you slowly, or Bonanza who's simple credits with a western typeface look like a wanted sign in the old west (or at least one would see in a western). 

This I could relate to the 19th century when there was a boom in the typeface business, and hundreds of different, creative, modern typefaces were being created for use in ads, posters, and packaging around the world.  I found similarities because now, like then, people are creating different typefaces to get a specific point across about something, in my case the mood or theme of a movie through the credits.  The creators now are exactly the same as the pioneers of the industry in that they take a base idea, or just one letterform, and create an entire alphabet from it.  Though computers have been added to the process, the ideas still remain the same.