Sunday, 29 January 2012

Victorian era advertising


My example of Victorian era advertising is a poster, titled, "Flour of the Family", designed by the
Rochester Folding Box Company around late Victorian era, 1980-1990, for Franklin Mills Flour.  Victorian advertising at this time was very ornate with well crafted, hand drawn typography and intricate boarders.  This example does not include as many flourishes, however, it does feature the hand-drawn typography and detailed realistic illustrations, that were popular at this time.  At the end of the Victorian era designs were less intricate however they still stuck to the symmetrical, idealized beauty, and romanticized illustration that defines this movement. There is quite an interesting back story to this poster, Apparently the woman featured in it never gave her consent, for her photo to be used.  She had some photographs taken by a photographer and he must have sold one of the negatives to the designer of the poster.  To her surprise her picture ended up on 25,000 of these posters all around Lockport, England.  The embarrassment and shock lead to her mental instability, and she filed a lawsuit against Franklin Mills. 
I found my example on http://harvardpress.typepad.com.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks Dahlia, I love the story behind it...imagine, so embarrassed to show the back of your neck..? Also, please adjust teh dates to 1880-1890.
    Thanks for sharing,
    J

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