Poster designs, ca. 1930-1940s and n.d.

ArchivalResource

Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Poster designs, ca. 1930-1940s and n.d.

Poster designs, ca. 1930-1940s and n.d.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61426045

Collection comprised of black and white poster designs (for billboard or other transit advertising), some printed on cards and some photographed and mounted in volumes, that document the advertising design holdings of several outdoor advertising companies. The majority are stock posters in preliminary sketch form with simple lines, but the collection also includes finished designs with brief information on exhibition and award status. Stock designs were created without actual brand names so more than one advertiser could use them by simply inserting their own brand name or product into the ad. The designs include work created or acquired by the Donaldson Lithographing Co., Foster & Kleiser, General Outdoor Advertising Co., and the AD-VER-TIS-ER, Inc. These designs provide a snapshot of American consumerism during the interwar years by demonstrating how advertising professionals in the 1930s and 1940s represented products in order to entice shoppers. In addition, the designs document the production of commercial art during this time period, in both the artistic process of creating ad artwork for billboards or other transit advertising space, as well as in the relationship between ad agency and client. Proven designs were available to the ad agency as sales tools to prospective clients, and these stock images could be reused, so there was less need to customize advertising campaigns for individual clients.

729 items (3 lin. ft.)

Duke University Libraries, Duke University Library; Perkins Library