International studio (42.1910)

Exhibition of A'dvevtising Art

that much of it is irreproachable in drawing, a bit too
impeccable, perhaps, and rather too mannered—
having seen one you have seen all.

One of the main faults of the American work is a
lack of inventiveness. It is inclined to run into
fixed formulas, failing to adapt itself to the circum-
stances and exigencies of each particular case,
which is the thing that lends interest and variety to
most of the foreign work, even where it is bad. I
know of only two exceptions to this among the
American designers. This is found in the work of
two comparative newcomers—Wildhack and F. G.
Cooper. The former's poster advertising Ros-
tand's "Chantecler" is equal .to the best of the for-
eigners in effectiveness and simplicity of treatment,
while his double-cover design for a magazine, com-
bining the advertising on the back cover with the
design and color scheme of the front cover, marks
an interesting departure in this field.

It is along such lines as these followed by Cooper
and Wildhack that advertising art will have to de-
velop in this country, if our own artists are to com-
pete successfully with their foreign colleagues. Al-
ready this point has been taken note of by American
advertisers, who are gradually being impressed with
the superiority of the work of foreign designers, as
in the case of the Yellowstone Park Touring Com-
pany, which employed Ludwig Hohlwein to design
the poster advertising its trips. The same is true

ADVERTISING DESIGN BY M. PERLEY

ADVERTISING DESIGN BY LUDWIG HOHLWEIN

of John Wanamaker's, who have for some time em-
ployed French artists to design their posters. That
is the chief lesson of this exhibition, in which the
foreign work so far outranked our own as to make
the latter seem rather amateurish at times. The
same may be said of the English work shown, char-
acteristic examples of which were furnished by the
Carlton Studios, of London, which was very tame
and ineffective in comparison with the French and
German. Of the latter the work of Bernhard and
Ludwig Hohlwein, already referred to, together with
that of Otto Obermeier, E. Edel and P. S., was all
distinguished by a striking simplicity and appro-
priateness that arrested and held the attention with
unvarying success. Of the French the most notable
contributions came from Steinlen and Mucha, both
men of great ability as draughtsmen and designers.

In matters of printing nothing finer was shown
than the Cheltenham Press exhibit, which in ar-
rangement and choice of type found its highest
expression in a prospectus printed for the United
States Military Academy. In its dignified simplicity
and, above all, legibility, this might well serve as an
example of all that good printing ought to be to the
printers of so-called artistic printing.

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