DOI Heft:
No. 68 (October, 1902)
DOI Artikel:Wood, Esther: The national competition of Schools of Art
DOI Artikel:Jenkins, Will: Illustration of the daily press in America, [2]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22774#0367
American Press Illustrators
ILLUSTRATION OF
THE DAILY PRESS
IN AMERICA. BY
WILL JENKINS.—
PART II.
BOOKBINDING BY FRANCIS D. RYE (CAMBERWELL)
BOOKBINDING BY FRANCIS D. RYE (CAMBERWELL)
Kensington examiners, commenting upon the lack
of posters among this year’s exhibits, remark that
“ this may be a healthy sign that students have
spent their time upon less ephemeral kinds of
design.” Thus naively does officialism betray its
inability to comprehend, or even desire, one of
the most vital and hopeful tendencies of modern
decoration—the solicitude for beauty, fitness, and
grace in ephemeral things.
Space will not permit of detailed comment upon
the examiners’ reports as printed in the official
catalogue, but this is a subject to which we hope
to return in a future number of “ The Studio.”
It is the business of the
draughtsman to do his work in
a manner which will stand the
test of printing under the par-
ticular conditions arising from
the limitations of the processes
employed in making an illus-
trated daily paper, and, further-
more, to strictly observe a certain
harmonious relation to the type
and to the page. For a number
of years this need of harmony
and relationship was very dimly
understood, and even now there
is too much striving for effect
and too many vain attempts to
make things look what they are
not. Few seem to understand
that there is a vast difference
between a page which compels
attention by force of its har-
monious strength or beauty and
one which jumps at you. Some
of these “jumping” pages, es-
pecially from the Sunday edi-
tions printed in colours, are
veritable nightmares. They
might be made equally striking
as pages without being at the
same time offensive to some
thousands of readers. As an
architect carefully considers
the arrangement and quantities
to be occupied by solids and
voids, so it is possible to place
a coloured map or plan on the page in agreeable
relation of scale and position to its surrounding
paper.
A spot of black here, a swing of line or an
arabesque there, will do wonders to enliven a
commonplace group of half-tone blocks. Take
pleasant shapes of masses grouped in relation to
their density and in such a way as to agreeably
admit the rectangular forms of type columns, and
the possibilities in the roomy pages of a newspaper
become important as problems, requiring to be
well understood and managed by men having
knowledge of the laws governing design. There
281
ILLUSTRATION OF
THE DAILY PRESS
IN AMERICA. BY
WILL JENKINS.—
PART II.
BOOKBINDING BY FRANCIS D. RYE (CAMBERWELL)
BOOKBINDING BY FRANCIS D. RYE (CAMBERWELL)
Kensington examiners, commenting upon the lack
of posters among this year’s exhibits, remark that
“ this may be a healthy sign that students have
spent their time upon less ephemeral kinds of
design.” Thus naively does officialism betray its
inability to comprehend, or even desire, one of
the most vital and hopeful tendencies of modern
decoration—the solicitude for beauty, fitness, and
grace in ephemeral things.
Space will not permit of detailed comment upon
the examiners’ reports as printed in the official
catalogue, but this is a subject to which we hope
to return in a future number of “ The Studio.”
It is the business of the
draughtsman to do his work in
a manner which will stand the
test of printing under the par-
ticular conditions arising from
the limitations of the processes
employed in making an illus-
trated daily paper, and, further-
more, to strictly observe a certain
harmonious relation to the type
and to the page. For a number
of years this need of harmony
and relationship was very dimly
understood, and even now there
is too much striving for effect
and too many vain attempts to
make things look what they are
not. Few seem to understand
that there is a vast difference
between a page which compels
attention by force of its har-
monious strength or beauty and
one which jumps at you. Some
of these “jumping” pages, es-
pecially from the Sunday edi-
tions printed in colours, are
veritable nightmares. They
might be made equally striking
as pages without being at the
same time offensive to some
thousands of readers. As an
architect carefully considers
the arrangement and quantities
to be occupied by solids and
voids, so it is possible to place
a coloured map or plan on the page in agreeable
relation of scale and position to its surrounding
paper.
A spot of black here, a swing of line or an
arabesque there, will do wonders to enliven a
commonplace group of half-tone blocks. Take
pleasant shapes of masses grouped in relation to
their density and in such a way as to agreeably
admit the rectangular forms of type columns, and
the possibilities in the roomy pages of a newspaper
become important as problems, requiring to be
well understood and managed by men having
knowledge of the laws governing design. There
281