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 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.

Illustrations from past decades / part 1

For several years from the late fifties to probably the end of the sixties I kept illustrations that caught my eye from various magazines, some going back to the thirties and forties, have a look at the remarkable United states Rubber Company ad. I didn’t concentrate on any particular theme other than the technique: watercolor; pencil; oils; pen and ink; flat graphics; collage et cetera.

    There are still plenty of illustrators around though their work doesn’t feature too much in ads or magazines and the big circulation weeklies that seemed to be in every home years ago have long gone. Illustrations were the accepted visual eye-catchers for editorial and ads in the distant past.
    This selection is part 1.