DOI issue:
No. 373 (April 1924)
DOI article:The poster designs of Mr. Fred Taylor, R.I.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21399#0202
THE POSTER DESIGNS OF MR. FRED TAYLOR, R.I.
POSTER DESIGN BY
FRED TAYLOR, R.I.
essential, but they are not inconsistent with
attractiveness and beauty, nor are they any
bar to humour. 0000
Anything of an unexpected nature, if
sufficiently important, will attract atten-
tion, but it requires considerable skill to
create, concurrently, an atmosphere favour-
able to the commercial object in view. This
constitutes a formidable problem for the
artist, but it also provides one of the oppor-
tunities for him to justify his calling. 0
The conditions under which a poster
will probably be viewed must be taken
into consideration. It would be a mistake
to crowd with detail a picture which will
be seen only from a distance, but quite
legitimate for display on an Underground
Railway platform where the distance can
never exceed a few feet. 000
The question of cost is of vital import-
ance. A poster artist must have more than
a general idea of the possibilities of adver-
tising in order that he may go straight to
the point. The superfluous is costly, in-
artistic and detracts from the whole, and a
184
knowledge of what is superfluous is quite
as much a matter of careful observation as
it is of instinct. The result will be judged
solely in the light of commercial accom-
plishment and no independent claims to
aesthetic merit will carry weight. 0 0
Technical ability as a draughtsman is a
sine qua non. There may be a hundred ways
of presenting an idea, but the artist must
have at his command all the technical skill
necessary to transfer the selected idea to
paper, and, moreover, to do this in the
shortest possible time and in the simplest
possible manner. 0000
Posters printed by lithography must be
redrawn on a lithographic stone. In ordi-
nary circumstances this is done by a
“ lithographic artist,” who copies, and, in-
cidentally, has to reverse, the original. He
has also to duplicate the drawing for each
colour used, every colour being printed
separately. The experienced poster artist
never loses sight of this redrawing, nor of
its cost, and will adapt his design to the
skill of the subsidiary draughtsman who
follows, and will even study his personal
predelictions for effecting “ improvement.”
All these, and many other considera-
tions, must be taken into account on the
technical side by the poster artist, and few
better illustrations can be found of a suc-
cessful issue than the work of Mr. Fred
Taylor. One finds it difficult to believe
that he can have been hampered by tech-
nical considerations in any direction, and
one cannot altogether suppress a feeling of
regret that the delightful picture of Amster-
dam should apparently aim no higher than
to popularise the Harwich route to that
town; but what an attractive Amsterdam,
and how skilfully the whole is arranged to
give prominence to the purpose of the ad-
vertisement without disfigurement. 0
The Silloth poster is an excellent
example of the possibilities of an adver-
tisement and of the artist's skill in creating
an impression of a purely psychological
nature. Here are no ruined castles, no
seaside promenades, no romantic surround-
ings to which the artist may transport his
public, nothing apparently but a field to
which he must attract the holiday-maker.
And yet Mr. Taylor has endowed it with
all the attributes of a popular resort. Here
are young people in the full joy of life, here
POSTER DESIGN BY
FRED TAYLOR, R.I.
essential, but they are not inconsistent with
attractiveness and beauty, nor are they any
bar to humour. 0000
Anything of an unexpected nature, if
sufficiently important, will attract atten-
tion, but it requires considerable skill to
create, concurrently, an atmosphere favour-
able to the commercial object in view. This
constitutes a formidable problem for the
artist, but it also provides one of the oppor-
tunities for him to justify his calling. 0
The conditions under which a poster
will probably be viewed must be taken
into consideration. It would be a mistake
to crowd with detail a picture which will
be seen only from a distance, but quite
legitimate for display on an Underground
Railway platform where the distance can
never exceed a few feet. 000
The question of cost is of vital import-
ance. A poster artist must have more than
a general idea of the possibilities of adver-
tising in order that he may go straight to
the point. The superfluous is costly, in-
artistic and detracts from the whole, and a
184
knowledge of what is superfluous is quite
as much a matter of careful observation as
it is of instinct. The result will be judged
solely in the light of commercial accom-
plishment and no independent claims to
aesthetic merit will carry weight. 0 0
Technical ability as a draughtsman is a
sine qua non. There may be a hundred ways
of presenting an idea, but the artist must
have at his command all the technical skill
necessary to transfer the selected idea to
paper, and, moreover, to do this in the
shortest possible time and in the simplest
possible manner. 0000
Posters printed by lithography must be
redrawn on a lithographic stone. In ordi-
nary circumstances this is done by a
“ lithographic artist,” who copies, and, in-
cidentally, has to reverse, the original. He
has also to duplicate the drawing for each
colour used, every colour being printed
separately. The experienced poster artist
never loses sight of this redrawing, nor of
its cost, and will adapt his design to the
skill of the subsidiary draughtsman who
follows, and will even study his personal
predelictions for effecting “ improvement.”
All these, and many other considera-
tions, must be taken into account on the
technical side by the poster artist, and few
better illustrations can be found of a suc-
cessful issue than the work of Mr. Fred
Taylor. One finds it difficult to believe
that he can have been hampered by tech-
nical considerations in any direction, and
one cannot altogether suppress a feeling of
regret that the delightful picture of Amster-
dam should apparently aim no higher than
to popularise the Harwich route to that
town; but what an attractive Amsterdam,
and how skilfully the whole is arranged to
give prominence to the purpose of the ad-
vertisement without disfigurement. 0
The Silloth poster is an excellent
example of the possibilities of an adver-
tisement and of the artist's skill in creating
an impression of a purely psychological
nature. Here are no ruined castles, no
seaside promenades, no romantic surround-
ings to which the artist may transport his
public, nothing apparently but a field to
which he must attract the holiday-maker.
And yet Mr. Taylor has endowed it with
all the attributes of a popular resort. Here
are young people in the full joy of life, here