Vintage Advertising Art and Design

An excellent resource for all creative types. From a graphic design perspective I've found that it contains some great samples that can help with a integration and creating a plethora of marketing collateral.

Dover has always done a great job with these 'clip art' type of publications and I've been using them for several decades. Royalty free (original copyrights long since expired), for use as inspiration or to scan in and redo digitally, the quality is always high. The designs are original from the period - not redrawn or updated.

The majority of the designs come from a few publications: six from 1906-1906 and oddly one from 1927 (creating a mix of art nouveau, arts & crafts, and deco influences. Mixing art deco with art nouveau seems a bit odd and the reason I rate this a solid 4 stars and not 5. Note that the origin of the drawings are books on design (Henderson's Sign Painter, Lesson Sheet 5: Show Card Writing, Modern Ornament and Design, etc.). So these have a nice, generic quality to them and aren't original commercially used art with the names erased.

Several of the designs or designs are greyscale - from full color art likely but converted to black and white for the original publications. Others are line drawn and easy to adapt for modern use. Included are full signage, square motifs, borders, capital letters, fonts, logos featuring 2-3 letters, examples of store hanging signs, ethnic inspired designs (Chinoiserie, Egyptian), shields/emblems, insects/fish/animals, and stained glass.

The book is quite packed with designs - nearly 700. So there is definitely a lot to choose from. Applications for logo design, advertising, to marketing, can be found within.

In all, another great Dover book. Reviewed from an ARC.

Graphic artists may appreciate this for ideas. There are some lively designs, but it didn't feel focused at times. Those interested in a particular era will have difficulty unless they know exactly what they are looking for.

Dover has done it again. It's all here: banners, borders, signs, posters, flora, fauna, alphabets, animals, art nouveau, art deco. and vintage ephemera. A feast for a graphic designer's eyes! This one is sure to provide inspiration for your next project. 5 stars.

This is yet another of Dover's titles on vintage advertising, consisting of black and white images from the 1890s to the 1920s. While there's a wide range of designs, most of them undeniably lovely, I'm not sure how relevant they are to today's art and advertising, as the current fashion for 'retro' is more about the 1950s and 1960s. However, this would be a good reference book for graphic designers and anyone else interested in design.

Reviewed in exchange for a preview Kindle copy.

My goodreads review: link https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/961639309

A very usefull,clip art book, great for graphic design references.
It has a nostalgic tone, and beautiful art from 1890s to 1920s. Mostly art-nouveau and art-deco if i'm not mistaken.

The retro feel is very strong, and i think that this book doesn't appeal only on illustrators and artists.

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE BOOK
- It contains, embelished alphabets, patterns, borders, frames, logos.
- The designs have no copyright.
- They are also very well re-done and have a great quality.
- More than 600 designs..

Dover is the first and last name in images and elements for designers. There are nearly 700 elements for designers to use. Each is from an actual advertisement, dating from the 1890s to the 1920. Many are Art Nouveau, with a few Victorian and Art Deco, and even a handful of Egyptian elements. There are also embellished letters for monograms or dropcaps.

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I love black and white art from the late nineteenth century/early 20th Century.  The art deco and art nouveau looks are still among the classiest period in modern art, in my opinion.  Part of what has made it so fantastic is the care and dedication of the artists who took pride in their work.  It wasn't typically throw-away art, even though much of this was for advertising.

This book collects nearly 700 images, many of them from books on design so they are examples of the typical style for the periods, rather than actual advertising pieces with the advertising brand names removed.  Of particular interest for me were the monthly 'decoration' samples.  One very nice aspect is that these are reproductions of the original works, and not re-drawn works.

Some of the designs are in a gray-scale, and except for the above mentioned monthly decoration samples, I typically preferred the hard black and white images, but then I'm someone who works mostly in pen and ink, so I've always liked the pen and ink look.  For any artist looking to familiarize him/herself in the art of the period, this book is a real treasure-trove of samples.  From letters to borders to signage, there is much here than might be adapted for a modern artist.

Publisher Dover has done a really nice job with this book and other art titles and has proven itself as the place to turn to for quality art books.

Looking for a good book?  Whether you're an artist looking for samples of a period or someone who enjoys thumbing through a book of quality art, Vintage Advertising Art & Design is highly recommended.

This book was good, however I did feel that I found it hard to draw inspiration from most of the designs. I was hoping for more lettering used on signs.

A fabulous resource! This book is full of beautiful vintage art. I found it to be very inspiring and I particularly loved all of the nouveau designs.