Odds and Ends

A new seasonal fundraiser was added to the Kirksville Arts calendar: ARToberfest.

 

I was inspired by a wine label, and as with wine labels, especially with the artsy sketch of the winery, in this case, the Kirksville Arts Center. The design can be altered over the coming years. I do like the scripty font, so that'll stay.

 

Then we have a Thank You ad (newspaper) for this year's Red Barn Arts & Crafts Festival. I've seen many such ads that list just the names. Have some pictures from the event! Show them why they are being thanked, that way they may be inspired to give again next year. And the year after that. And it's never a bad time to push for new members, or remind those who haven't renewed. (Like me, and I really need to take care of that.)

Inadvertently off last week, and I'll be off next week due to a research trip. (I'm purposely disconnecting as much as possible in order to focus.) See you October 29!



It's alive! ALIVE!

The Kickstarter campaign to fund the exhibit Bernard Perlin: An Artist Goes to War is live!

I created the introductory video plus a supplemental one ...

We were very fortunate to have that audio! I used Audacity to edit the sound, and a very antiquated version of Windows Movie Maker, which goes to show that even with the most basic of tools, it's how you use them, and believe me, I'm not a "movie maker." It's the story that matters, and if your story is a boring one, all the bells and whistles in the world will not make it interesting and compelling.

I also did the campaign graphics to illustrate the donor rewards. I'm donating my time and will continue to give my energies to do the advertising, exhibit booklet, and anything else required to get this exhibit together.

So what are you waiting for? Take a look, and make a pledge today!

Ads in Print

I described these ads here, and it's good to see them in print!

Resorts at Sea: December update

The log-jam broke, and I finally fetched some items from storage. The bulk of material retrieved relates to this project. Still, limited to what I could (safely) take, a lot of weeding took place.

Among the pieces were several articles I was 90% sure I had, but until they were in my grubby little hands, that 10% really nagged at me. Now I have clear descriptions of all the public rooms of (almost) all the ships in this study. I say almost, because many of these ships were part of a duo, trio, or quartet, and only the first ship in the relevant series was detailed at length.

Plus, all my ocean liner ads are under one roof. This collection is made up primarily of National Geographics ranging from 1919 to the late 1960s. While by no means a comprehensive collection of all steamship advertising, this is a good representation of how these ships were promoted, plus the occasional interior photo can be found, sometimes in color.

 April 1927; March 1938; March 1946

One of the most prolific advertisers was Matson Lines, with sailings from the

West Coast to Hawaii and the South Seas. It's neat to see the evolution in just

these three ads. Black and white illustration, full-color photo, and a highly

streamlined version of their ships.

September 1954; February 1964

Matson pretty much had the lock on the West Coast-Hawaii route, and

over the years, they crafted the message that they were Hawaii; that you're

in Hawaii the moment you step on board. After the Mariposa and Monterey

arrived in the late 1950s, a greater focus was placed on the South Seas,

as shown in the last ad.

Part of this project may include a compare/contrast analysis between the steamships and the land-based hotels/resorts of the same period. Amenities came into increasing focus as transcontinental jets forced steamship companies to push the benefits of leisurely traveling from A to B. Why travel to a resort, when you could travel in a resort? The question is in itself the answer to how today's cruise ships are marketed. I've a few very good books addressing the topic, and I'm not sure how much more I can bring to the conversation; perhaps a small, yet heavily illustrated section; as that's one thing I've not seen to date.

Edwardian ship in a Deco world ...

To help visually support my Resorts at Sea project, I'm sorting and scanning what seems to be a bajillion steamship company ads. Although the main focus will be American companies and their ships, this one sticks out.

Yes, that Olympic, sister to Titanic. She was still afloat in 1933, the year of this ad. I think this was a year or two before she was withdrawn from service and scrapped. She remained a popular ship/historic relic as her interiors were virtually identical to that of Titanic.

It's interesting to see such stylization to make her modern. Her stacks were not that oblong. And the scale of the ship to the crowd is completely out of whack. On the other hand, I do like the amount of detail in the passengers in the foreground compared to those in the background, well the entire background, actually. Very minimal.

"Rip out that table, and put in three more seats!"

I'm going through some 1958 Holiday magazines, and they are a very interesting time capsule. If you're a fan of Mad Men, there are some Hilton Hotel ads featuring the words of Conrad Hilton. Hilton made a guest appearance this past season, as sort of a mentor to Don Draper. Keeping with the Mad Men atmosphere, lots of liquor ads.

Also saw a few ads announcing new hotels in Cuba. Circumstances would change drastically there the following year. My first love, ocean liner travel, was well represented.

This was also the dawn of the jet age. Propeller planes were quickly being replaced by DC-8's, and 707's. But it wasn't the airlines touting these new marvels, it was McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing, among others.

They're a hoot to look at because it's impossible to imagine planes to be anything else but the "cattle carriers" they are today. Here's a portion of a 707 ad ...

Seriously, room to play bridge? And if you'll notice a copy of Life, Time, and the Saturday Evening Post just right of center, none of those crap in-house magazines. Also mentioned are two kitchens! Two!

In any event, what the hell we did do to have to fly the way we do now? Don't answer that.

Evolutions in Advertising: Steamship Edition

Related links: 
| The Big Ship | Won't you let me take you on a sea cruise? |

I've been amassing a collection of ocean liner ads over the years, and it has branched into other areas of transportation, communication, plus other products. It's interesting to see the changes in styles, the shift from illustrations to photos as graphic elements, the length of copy, the prose used. All in the name to sell us things we don't need, to create that want.

However, some products were necessities. (Or did they become necessities? Hmm ...) For almost 500 years, the only way to cross the oceans was by ship. The ship was a necessity. (Granted, it became a question of which company, which ship was faster, or had the better accommodations, the Queen Mary or the Normandie?) Then airplanes came into the picture, and finally jet travel by the late 1950s. That which was once a necessity now had been demoted to a choice.

The want to travel by ship had to be recreated. Shipping lines began to emphasize the amenities of ship travel, thus predating Carnival's concept of the ship being the destination. The main difference being, cruises today have the same departure and end point. You embark in Miami, tour the Caribbean, and disembark in Miami. Transatlantic travel was embark in New York, disembark in Southampton, or vice versa.

Cunard operatives coined the iconic phrase "Getting there is half the fun!" in the early 1950s. This morphed into "Vacation Islands" by the 1960s. The later ads showed people having fun, engaging in activities, or simply relaxing. While their smaller vessels were more suitable to cruising, the Queens were not, though they valiantly tried. Ironically, their 80,000+ GRT -- huge then -- would today be categorized as "mid-size."

"City at sea" and "France-Afloat." Sounds like a destination to me. I love the artwork in this ad. This is one of a series from the late 1950s. The glamour of the continent (or promise of) really comes across. The Italian Line used amazing illustrations in the mid-1960s, while many others were using photographs. (Mercedes-Benz had a campaign around the same time with some stunning black and white drawings.)

One of the arguments Carnival used in its battle with Royal Caribbean for Princess Cruises was that cruise lines compete directly with land-based resorts, and as a result, are not a separate industry. Carnival won the anti-trust wars and won Princess.

 

In 1958, Moore-McCormack introduced the Brasil and Argentina. This ad references "resort" and "country-club," two decidedly land-based notions. A list of amenities, such as a theater and restaurants add to the resort concept. MooreMac was not the first company to utilize the term "resort" and/or other synonyms in its advertising. American President Lines touted the President Cleveland and President Wilson as "your American hotel abroad" in the late 1940s. Delta Line called each of its trio a "Resort at Sea."

These companies had set route, or a milk-run, and cargo was the primary concern. American President traversed the Pacific: San Francisco to the Orient. Delta and MooreMac to South America. But each company had their flagships; the ones that carried a fair amount of passengers. But like the Atlantic, passengers for these routes soon took to the air.

This is a mere glossing over of the topic. (I admit, that' a generous assessment.) So much more can be done. I've hundreds, if not thousands of ads cataloged, and perhaps even more needing such attention.

During my last semester in college, in Media Criticism, I really wanted to use this subject for my final paper, but I wrote an earlier piece regarding the personification of ocean liners and couldn't reuse the topic, so 40 years of AT&T advertising was analyzed instead. I need to revisit this, and perhaps tie it in with another project.

It's good that I've saved my textbooks!

Related links: 
| The Big Ship | Won't you let me take you on a sea cruise? |