Sunday, November 6, 2011

The Ford book of styling / 1963

 

A wonderful example of corporate hubris from the Ford Styling Office as they try to convince the readers of these pages that their cars are a stylistic spin-off from two thousand years of art.

    Published in 1963, the book has a soft cover, 72 pages in a 12 by 8.5 inches landscape format and handsomely designed by Jerome Gould Associates. The book has several half pages, four pages on tracing paper and the cover and first page are embossed.
    Look through the pages and notice how the copy and images blend fine art and the styling of Ford cars together. An obvious contradiction and nowhere does it mention that car styling is basically marketing to sell a new model each year, the very opposite of fine art which has been with us for centuries. 
    Gould and Associates also produced a sixteen-and-a-half-minute film based on the book's contents, click around the net and you'll find it somewhere.
    The 1956 Styling book is in the January 2013 archive.














































































































































































































1 comment:

  1. I have this fabulous book, having received it from my Aunt Grace as a Christmas present when I was 9. One of my favorite things!

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