Streamline: American Art Deco
Reviewed by Jim Sweeney
American Art Deco graphics are surveyed in Streamline: American Art Deco Design by Steven Heller and Louise Fili (Chronicle Books, $16.95 paperback). The authors focus on advertising and product marketing. Heller is a senior art director at the New York Times, while Fili is a designer.
Like previous books in this series covering Art Deco-era graphics from various nations (see Dutch Moderne: Graphic Design from De Stijl to Deco), this one is divided by products. The chapters are: fashion and style, house and garden, food and drink, drugs and sundries, business and industries, travel and transport, arts and culture, and type and letters.
While common design elements can be found in the graphics from many nations in this era, the authors conclude that "streamline was a distinctly American design style forged in the crucible of the social and economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s." Economic hard times, they argue, led to innovative marketing approaches. Marketing and product design became recognized professions in this era. It was often difficult, however, to convince businesses that poor sales could be linked to poorly designed or old-fashioned-looking products, Heller and Fili say.
Marketers didn't promote products, they promoted concepts such as speed, action and health. "New and improved" became key words in advertising. Styling became part of marketing strategy. The goal was to get consumers to buy the newest model when it came out, instead of waiting to replace a product until it wore out.
Not that the authors think this was all good. The message was sometime lost in the image. Slavish, tacky imitations of good design often flooded the market. These are forgotten today. It would be easy to conclude that all Art Deco-era graphic design was excellent, because few people saved or collect bad design, so for the most part only the good examples survive. Heller and Fili also note that modern packaging didn't necessarily mean more efficient or easier to use.
Product packaging was in some respects more important in that era, the authors point out. Without television, point-of-purchase displays in stores were the major way to lure customers.
Some of the major designers and artists of that era did consumer product design. The book includes Harper's Bazaar covers by Erte and Vanity Fair covers by A.M. Cassandre. Also in the book is the cover of a 1930 poetry book designed by Rockwell Kent. It depicts a woman standing in a moonlit desert scene.
Even mundane objects were sold with designs evoking elegance and wealth. A 1928 button card for Mermaid Pearls has an illustration of an elegant man in a dress shirt. A gorgeous black and silver box contained Bon Ami cleanser. Listerine came in a classy bottle with sculpted curves.
The image could seem, at least in the 1990s, to be a little silly. For instance, an Underwood electric shaver box shows a man in a tux and top hat shaving.
This article originally appeared in Trans-Lux volume 13, number 3, November 1996.
Where to Find the Book
You can find Streamline: American Art Deco in local bookstores or purchase it on-line at a discount from Amazon.com Books.
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Comments
Created Wednesday, October 29, 1997; Modified Saturday, September 20, 2003.
