Just had a frustrating discussion where words completely failed me. We were talking about old print advertisements from the 1950’s and I was trying to explain how they differ from modern print advertisements and I pretty much came up empty handed. Phrases like “it was a different style” or “illustrations looked somehow flatter” or " the color pallet was unsophisticated" fell completely short and conveyed no useful meaning to the recipient. I ended up having to resort to showing a picture of what I was talking about.
like this -
Could a more articulate being explain without the benefit of photographs what characterizes the print ads of that era and how they differ from today’s?
Actual responses are appreciated, but at this point my primary goal is to get affirmation that I’m not the only one who has great difficulty in describing it.
Like pornography–I know a 1950’s ad when I see it.
And I think I can describe why: the graphics do not look at all realistic.
This is because of the total absence of one thing we take for granted: color photography.
They used waterpaints , or something similar.
In your link, everything looks two-dimensional, not three. Yeah, they added some shadows for effect, but the whole scene looks distinctly un-realistic. Almost like an impressionist painting.
The beer cans do not look like metal, and the food looks like a comic book. The glass has no sparkle. Also, it all looks “washed out” , with the same faded light source covering the entire scene, equally from every angle.
To make that advertisement today, you could set up the exact same scene on the table top. But we modern folk expect to see a realistic photograph, not an impressionistic painting.
The beer cans would look like , well…beer cans, with weight to them. The food would be realistic enough that you would want to pick it up an put in in your mouth. The glass would sparkle, and show a reflection. There would be visible bubbles on the beer, or steam rising from the food. The salt on the pretzles would look like salt…not little white specs. The potato chips would look crispy and realistic. The objects on the tray next to the round cookies are totally unidentifiable in the 1950’s painting–just blobs of vague color. They may be slices of cake, or small sandwiches.In a modern ad with a real photo, you would know–and there would be enough detail to see the texture of the bread or cake.
We’re creatures of our times,and we expect to see a certain level of technology.
In the 1950’s that ad was the high-tech of its day–it had a full page of color!!!
Today, we expect more realism.
For me, the ads are brighter and simpler, but not stylised like the 20s Art Deco. And they’re actual art, not photographs and not Photoshopped digital images.
The colors also tend to be pastel and more washed out than illustrated ads of today and certainly more so than color photographs, which were pretty rare in the 50’s.
Several others have noted the faded or washed out look. This can be seen in numerous ads of the era. I find that particular stylization somewhat curious. It was clearly intentional - was there some reason for it? Perhaps it was intended to mimic the primitive color photos of the time? Maybe they avoided heavy shadow because there was concern about obscuring the product or subject matter?
Well, desaturated, pastel colors use less ink. Maybe the media displaying these ads preferred to run such ads to save money. Or maybe printing tech was not yet up to making bright, detailed imagery economical for monthly or weekly circulation.
I have nothing salient to offer regarding advertising. I just wanted to thank you for the Drewry’s ad. That took me straight back to my high school years. My high school was a block west of the Drewry’s facility and the yeasty smell of brewing beer is forever attached to my memories of early morning marching band practice and after school cross country practice.
And, using less ink, didn’t run as badly, and didn’t saturate the paper. Highly saturated colours with sharp edges only become possible using more expensive paper., and different production techniques.
I’ve seen the results of amatures trying to do 1980s design on 1960s equipment, and it was not pretty.
There may be a chicken & egg aspect to this: production couldn’t handle modern print design because modern print design wasn’t required. Or it may be a straight technology development – I don’t know.
It’s also a warmer colour palette - some older images are this way because of colour choices back then - other images are that way because age has yellowed the paper, or faded certain pigments in the printing more than others.
To me, the things that make it look like something from the '50s are:
The art is quite detailed (things like drops of condensation on the cans, folds in the tablecloth), but not *so *detailed as to look like a photo. For instance, the artist has included reflections on the rims of the cans, but they’re just white streaks. A more recent ad would push the level of detail closer to photographic; an older ad would have omitted such details.
There’s not a lot of shading to indicate shape. For instance, the olives are shaded enough to tell us that they’re round, but the artist hasn’t bothered to do much shading on the beer cans (instead, the shape of the lid tells the viewer that they’re round). As above, more recent ads would include all of that shading, while an older one would probably have left it out altogether.
Except for details such as the drops of condensation and reflections, color is flat. There are plenty of shadows, but they don’t shade off or blur at the edges.
The shapes are idealized, but not at all stylized. Each slice of meat on the platter and each Ritz cracker sandwich is perfectly formed and almost identical to its companions. But the shapes, colors, and relative sizes of the items are absolutely true to life. A newer ad would have more variation between the items (*you *try getting two identical ham slices!); an older one would have played with the shapes, sizes, colors, or details of those items since they’re just a backdrop for the beer.
Also, IIRC, “Pastel Colors” were “IN” - the old, plain white everything was getting color.
Not eye-popping colors - Pastels! By choice of the “trend setters”.
Not just the kind of food, but the way it is presented, dates it. At the time there was a big emphasis on the presentation of the new industrial foods (like pre-sliced cheese) in formal, structural, often geometric ways. At the time, the US was beginning the great transition from home-produced food to factory food, and from farm style meals to what was thought of the modern suburban meal. Which included the suburban cocktail party. I inherited my mother’s and grandmother’s cook books – my mother’s are full of pictures like the beer ad. My grandmother’s contain things like “a practical menu for a threshing breakfast”.
