Random Picture Entry: Vintage Fortune Covers

I must have been Paul Rand in a past life, or at least Bradbury Thompson. There is really no other explanation for how spellbound I am by the aesthetic of post-war Madison Avenue graphic design. I mean, I guess it could be because it is objectively gorgeous and consciously timeless, but that's a really boring interpretation of the deafening chord this stuff strikes in me. It's highly more exciting to chalk it up to unfinished business from past incarnations.

The 1950s and early 1960s were to graphic design what the late 60s was for popular music: an era when rules were made to be broken, when complete control and confidence was handed over to the creative prowess of a given artist. Those were the days! The contemporary perception of post-war America is rife with pompous Internet Age pity: Oh, those poor, naive, repressed fools! This is true enough- we all know the classic examples of 50s-style frigidity (Rob & Laura Petrie sleeping in separate beds, etc), but let me offer a counterpoint here:

Okay, fine. Maybe they didn't have Wikipedia, but at least the mid-century American population wasn't totally manipulated by sterile, heartless ad campaigns rid entirely of aesthetic value and defined primarily by overwrought blitzkriegs of market research and the maniacal exploitation of low self-esteem. The tragedy of the McAmerican lifestyle is that attempts at revolution always end up backfiring. The psychedelic sixties taught record companies how to prevent their personnel from taking LSD and recording noisy rock operas; the glory days of fifties Madison Avenue showed advertising firms that if they don't lay down the iron fist, those crazy creative types will never know restraint!

Most of the biggest names from this decade started off in editorial design before moving on to corporate work; interestingly enough, Fortune magazine has been rightfully heralded as the most consistently innovative of all such magazines, most likely because they totally scored into claiming children's book author and illustrator Leo Lionni as their art director:

Here are some of my personal favorites:

And just to really solidify my point about how bleak graphic design can be in 2008, here is what Fortune looks like nowadays:

The times really are a-changin'. Unfortunately, they seem to be a-changin' for the waaaaaay worse.

Posted by Laura in Random Picture Entry
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