The Poster: An Illustrated Monthly Chronicle, Vol. 1, Nos. 1-6 (June to December 1898)
A bound volume of the first six monthly numbers of The Poster, June to December 1898, a London journal on the pictorial advertising poster, published by its proprietor H. R. Woestyn.
What it is
A bound volume of the first six monthly numbers of The Poster, June to December 1898, a London journal on the pictorial advertising poster, published by its proprietor H. R. Woestyn. The opening editorial, Concerning Ourselves, argues that poster art has earned its place and promises to serve the artist, the lithographer, the printer and the advertiser. Each number mixes a signed feature on one designer or school (Privat-Livemont, Ethel Reed, Will Bradley, Steinlen), interviews with John Hassall and Will True, letters from Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, a Hoardings column reviewing current London posters, and short trade notes. Charles B. Cochran traces how Chéret posters bought for The Black Crook in 1894 changed American theatre bills. W. S. Roger explains how to collect posters by polite letter. Plates carry the artist's name and sheet size, and the Christmas number covers pantomime posters by Hassall and Dudley Hardy.
Why read it now
Two ideas here still hold. First, the journal separates the design from its production: it blames English lithographers, not designers, for dull colour, over-chalking and cheap inks. Today the same gap appears when a good layout is ruined by compression, bad print or a rushed resize, and the fix is the same: specify and check production, not only the concept. Second, the Hoardings column judges live posters in public by name, backing the Beggarstaffs' Rowntree's Elect Cocoa and rejecting American photo-posters. A regular, named critique of real ads trains a team's eye faster than a rulebook. The caption formula, artist plus sheet size under every plate, is a model for any swipe file. What has dated: the verdicts are taste, not evidence. The journal assumes a beautiful poster sells better and measures nothing; modern work on distinctive brand assets supports clear, fast brand recognition, not art for its own sake. Use: hold a monthly review of five local billboards, each captioned with brand, agency and size, plus one line on whether the brand name can be read in two seconds.
Passages worth keeping
A combination of artistic and commercial tastes is a rare possession, and lacking either, advertisers should seek advice instead of relying on their own scrap-book inclinations.
قلة من المعلنين يجمعون الذوق الفني والحس التجاري، ومن ينقصه أحدهما فليستشر أهل الخبرة بدل أن يختار ما يعجبه شخصيًا.
This failure is due, not to the designers, but to the printers.
تأخر الملصق الإنجليزي عن البلجيكي سببه ضعف الطباعة لا ضعف التصميم.
It was hard work at first to convince managers and printers that a fanciful design would attract as much attention as the photographic presentment of the principal characters in a striking scene from a play
كان إقناع مديري المسارح والطابعين صعبًا في البداية، فهم لم يصدقوا أن رسمًا خياليًا يجذب الانتباه بقدر صورة فوتوغرافية لأبطال المسرحية.
No collector can be quite impervious to the fact that his posters become most valuable souvenirs of current events.
الملصق يعيش أيامًا قليلة على الجدار، لذلك يصبح بعد زواله سجلًا لأحداث زمنه.
It must be counted to Mr. Hassall for righteousness that he is always decorative.
يُحسب لهاسال أنه يجعل التكوين الزخرفي هدفه الأول، ولا يكتفي بنقل الواقع كما هو.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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