CAPSULE The History Behind the Madness
CAPSULE (kap-suh l) noun 1. A receptacle containing document s or objec t s t ypical of the current period, placed in the ear th or in a corner stone for discover y in the future.
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Introduction Alvar Aalto Alex Steinweiss Ladislav Sutnar Erik Nitsche Les ter Beall Adrian Fr utiger Rober t Brownjohn Brad b ury Thompson Cipe Pineles Norman Rockwell Credits
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A MOMENT C AP TUR E D IN TIME ALL ABOUT THE SHOW YOU LOVE
An excerpt from amc.com Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama Mad Men follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell. AMC’s award-winning drama Mad Men made history as the first basic cable series ever to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in four consecutive years. Created by Emmy and Golden Globe-winning executive producer Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate, Mad Men has riveted audiences with the seductive and intriguing world of Sterling Cooper & Partners. Mad Men is anchored by an award-winning ensemble cast, including Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Jessica ParÊ, Rich Sommer, Aaron Staton, Robert Morse, Kiernan Shipka, Jay Ferguson, and Christopher Stanley.
The series revolves around the conflicted world of Don Draper (Hamm), the biggest ad man (and ladies man) in the business, and his colleagues at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Advertising Agency. As Don makes the plays in the boardroom and the bedroom, he struggles to stay a step ahead of the rapidly changing times and the young executives nipping at his heels. The series also depicts authentically the roles of men and women in this era while exploring the true human nature beneath the guise of 1960s traditional family values.
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MEET THE C A ST
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DONALD DR APER Born Dick Whitman, the son of his abusive father and a prostitute, he seizes his moment when he unintentionally kills a man named Donald Draper and assumes his identity. He works his way up to be the Creative Director of a profitable advertising agency. Don Draper becomes a brilliant ad man and the award-winning star of Sterling Cooper. Draper generally lives the picture-perfect life of a successful businessman in the early 1960s. However, Don rarely seems happy with his “perfect� life: he is often stressed, drinks and smokes constantly, and is prone to spells of moodiness.
PEGGY OL SON Peggy starts as a secretary to Don Draper at the agency but eventually impresses the associates so much with her writing, she is promoted to copywriter. She eventually takes a position at a rival firm, but joins back with the Sterling Cooper group after a merger. Peggy is the embodiment of the young woman trying to find her way in a large city. She fights her way through the adversity of her workplace and her love life. Through the course of the show she becomes a strong confident woman.
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PETE C AMPBELL Pete Campbell is a young graduate of Oxford. He is hired at Sterling Cooper as Head of Accounts. He falls in love with Peggy Olson, despite his marriage shortly after they meet. He spends his time at Sterling Cooper desperatley trying to impress Don and gain his respect. Pete has very little ethical boundaries and will lie cheat or steal to get ahead in the office.
BET T Y FR ANCIS Betty is the wife of Don Draper and mother of his two children. She spends hours of her day attending to the home and being a good housewife. She graduated with a degree in Anthropology and modeled in Italy, but she gave up her ambitions to be the wife of Don. Betty tries her hardest to hold the family together despite Don’s infidelities. She eventually divorces Don and remarries Henry Francis, a director under the Governor of New York. She represents the consumer and the roll of the wife in the 1960s.
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ROGER STERLING As the son of Sterling Cooper cofounder Roger Sterling Sr., Roger grew up in wealth. Although his inheritance and charm allows him an easygoing lifestyle, Roger discovers ambition. After two divorces, Roger seeks enlightenment by embracing the relaxed sexual norms and mind-expanding drug culture of the ‘60s, but he feels like a failure when his daughter abandons her own child to live on a commune. Roger tries to correct his mistakes with both his grandson and the son he shares with Joan.
JOAN HARRIS Joan was raised to be admired, but as she struggles to be taken seriously in a man’s world, she set her sights on something better: respect. When Joan agrees to sleep with a client to help win the Jaguar account, she earns a partnership at Sterling Cooper & Partners, ensuring that her son will be provided for. She redefines her role at the agency, leaving behind her responsibilities as office manager in favor of a risky new position in accounts. Joan continues to look for true love while struggling to raise her son.
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MAD ABOUT INFLUENCE MEET THE REAL LIFE ‘MAD MEN
A contribution by Aaron Taube from Business Insider. As any Mad Man fan knows, Don Draper is truly one of a kind, a man with perfect style and a seemingly infinite number of complexities. But despite his many distinct traits, fans and critics have spent countless hours over the past seven years trying to figure out which real-life ad men inspired Draper’s creation and helped forge his unique personality. From our research, four candidates have sprung up repeatedly as the advertising executives people think Draper is most likely to be modeled on. Here’s what we know about them.
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DR APER DANIEL S Don Draper gets his name from Draper Daniels, a Chicago advertising executive who created the famous Marlboro Man campaign during the 1950s. Like his namesake Mad Men character, Draper Daniels was something of a smooth operator with the ladies, persuading a female business partner to marry him, even though she was already engaged. Draper Daniels’ wife, Myra, has said her late husband became a one-woman man once they were married, and even quit drinking at her request. It’s perhaps for these reasons that Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner told New York Magazine that Daniels was not related to the show. “I just saw the name,” Weiner said.
ALBERT L A SKER Albert Lasker is considered by many to be the “father of modern advertising” because he was one of the first ad men to write copy that persuaded people to buy a product rather than merely informing them of what it did. As owner of the Chicago ad agency Lord & Thomas during the first half of the 20th century, Lasker helped sell American Tobacco’s Lucky Strike brand to women by promoting it as a weight-loss method. He was also at the helm of the account when it began its famous campaign describing its cigarettes as “toasted,” an idea Draper is credited with on the show.
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GEORGE LOIS George Lois has been compared to Don Draper for his extraordinary swagger (he once fought a guy for trying to edit his work in a way he didn’t like) and because the two once shared a striking physical resemblance. Lois began his career as an art director at Doyle Dane Bernbach in 1959, just as the agency was beginning to pioneer the sort of work that pushed advertising into a new era marked by a more creative, clever, and self-conscious approach. Despite their similarities, Lois has called Draper a “talentless bum,” and disputes the veracity of the rampant sexism and drinking seen on Mad Men.
EMERSON FOOTE Emerson Foote, the “F” in modern-day agency FCB, famously resigned from his post as chairman of McCann-Erickson in 1964 because he didn’t want to promote the sale of cigarettes. This bold move was later copied (sort of) in Mad Men’s fourth season, when Don Draper took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to explain why Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce would no longer accept clients that sold tobacco. Earlier in his career, Foote had worked on the Lucky Strike account, just like Draper. Foote was also once director of the American Cancer Society, an agency whose fictionalized counterpart began working with Draper’s firm after being impressed by his letter in the Times. The show even went so far as to have Draper’s secretary let him know “someone named Emerson Foote” had called for him after the letter ran.
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FASHIONING A STORY HOW JANIE BRYANT TELLS US A STORY
A contribution by Booth Moore for The Los Angeles Times AMC’s 1960s period drama about slick ad men and curvy women has been an aesthetic gold mine, influencing the slim silhouette of men’s suits, the beauty ideal for women’s bodies and more, particularly during the first five years of the show’s 2007 to 2015 run. It brought the worlds of fashion and costume design ever closer in the process. From the very first season, I — like most viewers — was seduced by the show’s post- 1950s innocence. I dreamed about living in an era before surgeon general warnings, when cigarettes and booze were a given at lunchtime and the polished glamour and propriety of opera gloves and pillbox hats were the norm The look of the show was envisioned by costume designer Janie Bryant, who was inspired by old catalogs, her Southern grandparents and the wares at L.A. area vintage stores — which she helped to make fashion destinations — including Playclothes in Burbank, the Way We Wore on La Brea Avenue and Shareen downtown.
A womanizing, hard-drinking man’s man who could almost be forgiven his sins because he looked so darn dashing in a suit, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) became an instant style icon. His character resonated because it was the antithesis of the business casual, cargo-panted, metrosexual ideal that existed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. On-screen, as the ‘60s raged on, the show’s costumes reflected cultural shifts and the emergence of personal style — Peggy’s plaid pantsuit a symbol of women’s newfound power in the workplace, Stan Rizzo’s beard the mark of a generation determined to break with the conservative past, Sally Draper’s white go-go boots a sign of the rise of youth culture and Megan Draper’s tie-dye mini dress a hint at the sexual revolution. Only Don has stayed the same.
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Janie Bryant on Betty Draper, Episode 8 “My favorite costume of the whole season, hands down, is Betty Draper’s dress in “A Night to Remember.” I call it her Sad Clown Dress! I love it so much. And when it gets ruined in the episode, it’s even better. You know, ruining clothes for TV, it’s just part of the process. I used to have sentimental attachment to that kind of thing, but it’s part of telling the story. And I mean, it was just wrinkled, it can be fixed! She didn’t rip it. Matt loves this dress, too.”
Costume Designer Janie Byrant on Season 2 costumes for Peggy: “As she climbs the corporate ladder at Sterling Cooper & Partners, her whole look changes. She is no longer the naive secretary from season one; now she is a strong, ambitious business woman, and this confidence is also conveyed through her clothing. When Peggy first arrived at Sterling Cooper she who wore school girl jumpers with heart-shaped buttons and had her conservative haircut consisting of bangs and pony tail. Janie used the 1960’s author and Cosmopolitan magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown as her inspiration when designing Peggy’s look.
Janie Bryant on designing menswear, ‘I love the challenges in menswear. Menswear is all about the subtleties in tailoring and construction of the garments. The accessories are so important too and are a platform to really express character through the costume design. Working within theses subtleties gives me the ability to create a character from just a pair of shoes, cuff links, or a tiepin for example.’
Joan Harris, whose style was inspired by the looks of Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe and Lana turner stays true to her outfits by using body shaping dresses to highlight her perfect hourglass figure. Bryant says, “By the late 80’s, into the 90’s, color palettes have gotten so limited for men and women. I always loved the idea of designing jewel tones for Joan, and speaking to how strong her character is, even though she may not know it at the time. It’s an old-fashioned feminine power — which we’re really not taught to use these days.”
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MAD FOR FILMMAKING
THE MOVIES THAT INSPIRED THE SHOW
A contribution by Angie Han from slashfilm.com As Mad Men prepares to come to an end, Matthew Weiner is taking a moment to look back at its roots. The series creator has offered up a list of 10 films that influenced Mad Men The 10 films listed weren’t just inspirational for Weiner — he made them required viewing for the cast and crew, so that the show as a whole is shaped by them. Some provided a realistic look at Mad Men‘s period and setting; others informed its approach to the era or its thematic concerns. Weiner wrote descriptions of each below. THE APARTMENT I had seen this for the first time in film school and was bowled over by the dynamic writing and the passive nature of its hero, Jack Lemmon’s C.C. Baxter. It is definitely a story of its times, firmly rooted in a Manhattan where seemingly regular men behave unscrupulously, and it completely engaged my imagination as a representation of office and sexual politics at the time. It blends humor and pathos effortlessly.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST This film became an important influence on the pilot because it was shot in New York City, right around the time the first episode takes place. While more overtly stylized than we wanted to imitate, we felt the low angles and contemporary feel were a useful reflection of our artistic mind-set. I had studied the film in depth at USC film school and absorbed much of its “ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances” narrative drive. BLUE VELVET Indefinable in genre, Blue Velvet moves from murder mystery to film noir to black comedy to coming-of-age story, almost from scene to scene. With stylistic richness and psychological complexity, it celebrates the horror of the mundane and is filled with reference to a kitschy and ironic “’50s” milieu. This incredible observation informed much of the 1980s and became an inspiration for the series and its attempt to equally revise our mythical perception of the period.
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LES BONNES FEMMES I first saw this in film school and shared it to help the production design of the pilot because it was shot in the streets of Paris, with little embellishment, at exactly the time we were trying to recreate. The thematic aspects were valuable as well, as the film tells the everyday story of four bored working women led astray by their romantic fantasies. My favorite sequence, a kind of postscript to the whole film, is particularly relevant to the series as it features an unknown woman looking right down the lens at the audience. VERTIGO Released to negative reviews, it now ranks for many as the greatest film ever made. I had not seen it before the show began, but finally caught it on a break after the first season. I was overwhelmed with its beauty, mystery, and obsessive detail. I remember watching the camera dolly-in on Kim Novak’s hair and thinking, “this is exactly what we are trying to do.” Vertigo feels like you are watching someone else’s dream. PATTERNS I saw this film version as a child on sick day from middle school; it was originally written and produced for live television in 1955. Rod Serling ingeniously creates a boardroom passion play with a chilling first-person climax that I never forgot. We used it often over the life of the series to get a sense of the real offices and to see how virtue and ambition can clash when the older generation is pushed aside and ruthless business confronts humanity. DEAR HEART Stumbling upon this film gave me the impetus to finally write the pilot. I was taken by this mainstream Hollywood film that reflected a very casual attitude towards sex, something that seemed uncharacteristic to my preconceptions of the era. With its glib bachelor hero and dowdy, conservative ingénue, it tells a tale of moral corruption and heartbreaking duplicity in the form of a light comedy. As Glenn Ford tries to change his ways and take responsibility for his meaningless romances in glamorous Manhattan, I found a jumping-off point for the series. THE BACHELOR PARTY Originally written and produced for live television in 1953, this film reteams writer Paddy Chayefsky and director Delbert Mann, and reflects the painful realism of their previous collaboration, the Oscar-winning film Marty. The “swinging bachelor” was a trope of fiction at this time, but this film poetically undoes the clichés of male camaraderie and presents both the issues of fidelity and loneliness with an unflinching eye.
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING This film became part of the group mind-set for the pilot. Although I felt that it was a visually glamorized, and extremely melodramatic, I could see that its story was a well-observed representation of working women in New York at the time. The workings of the office, the romantic complications, and the living situations all smacked of the truth. Like many popular films of the time, it helped to inform our characters—they certainly would have seen it, and it would have had an impact on their real expectations. THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY I saw this first in film school and was taken immediately with Paddy Chayefsky’s ironic and rhythmic dialogue and by its deep anti-war sentiment. James Garner’s portrayal of Charlie, a callow and glib womanizer who has given up on humanity and is then forced into heroism, influenced our attempt to recreate the mid-century male mind-set and its relationship to existential absurdity.
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ALVAR AALTO ALVAR AALTO ALVAR AALTO ALVAR AALTO ALVAR AALTO
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MODERN ARCHITEC T
A contribution from MUSEO After qualifying as an architect from Helsinki Institute of Technology (later Helsinki University of Technology and now part of the Aalto University) in 1921, Aalto set up his first architectural practice in Jyväskylä. His early works followed the tenets of Nordic Classicism, the predominant style at that time. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he made a number of journeys to Europe on which he and his wife Aino Marsio, also an architect, became familiar with the latest trends in Modernism, the International Style. The pure Functionalist phase in Aalto’s work lasted for several years. It enabled him to make an international breakthrough, largely because of Paimio Sanatorium (1929-1933), an important Functionalist milestone. Aalto had adopted the principals of user-friendly, functional design in his architecture. From the late 1930s onwards, the architectural expression of Aalto’s buildings became enriched by the use of organic forms, natural materials and increasing freedom in the handling of space.
It was characteristic of Aalto to treat each building as a complete work of art – right down to the furniture and light fittings. In 1935, Artek was formed to promote the growing production and sales of Aalto furniture. The design of his furniture combined practicality and aesthetics with series production, following the main Artek idea of encouraging a more beautiful everyday life in the home. As far as design was concerned, Aalto was driven by an interest in glass since it provided an opportunity to handle the material in a new kind of way using free forms. His win in the Karhula-Iittala glassware design competition in 1936 led to the birth of the world-famous Savoy vase. From the early 1950s onwards, Alvar Aalto’s work focussed more and more on countries outside Finland, so that a number of buildings both private and public were built to his designs abroad. His funtional designs are evident in Mad Men’s offices and furniture. The office building was a place where functionality was extrmely important becaus eit directly effected productivity.
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1934, In addition to building a new family home in a Helsinki suburb, Aalto founded the Artek furniture company with Aino and Marie Gullichsen
The infamous Aalto armchair was the staple of many mid-century interiors.
1936, Aalto created his classic series of glass vases. With their eternal and flowing form, Aalto vases seem to mimic the water they hold.
1927-1933, Viipuri Library. City Park in Vyborg, Russia. Aalto won a competition to design the library.
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MAD FOR FURNITURE DON DRAPER’S OFFICE
A contribution by Stephen Coles from The Mid-Century Modernist AMC’s “Mad Men” is not only one of the best dramas on television, it also debuted with perfect timing, at a moment when America’s fascination with mid-century style was at a fever pitch. Set in the early 1960s, nearly every shot of “Mad Men” is filled with objects from an era rich with new ideas, a time when modernism was still fresh, yet more mature than its early years — on the brink of going mainstream. Of course, not everything we see in “Mad Men” was produced in the ’60s, as Production Designer Dan Bishop explains: “You have to watch out for the misinterpretations and prejudices you might have about the era. It’s also very easy to try to jam everything that was introduced in 1960 all into one episode. You have to space it out a little bit. ‘Cause everything that was developed in 1960 didn’t happen in one day.”
Set decorator Amy Wells was responsible for the decor. Many of the pieces are originals, like the Eames Executive Chair (see it at DWR), others are reproductions. Don’s office was gently remodeled between the pilot and subsequent episodes. The simple leather chairs were replaced with cane-back pieces (possibly Hvidt/Mølgaard-Nielsen), and the desk lamp went from Bauhaus to ’50s twin. Don’s all-teak Danish modern desk from the pilot was a beauty with its backside display shelf (lonely and bare) but it was replaced with something that was much more common in an American office at the time: a larger Knoll or Steelcase, with metal legs and an overhanging surface.
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Alvar Aalto’s furniture can be seen throughout the award winning sets of Mad Men. As we the characters evolve from season to season, so do the interior spaces that they live and work in. Aalto’s wood and metal bending technique was the staple of interior design of Mid-Century Modernist design. On the opposite page, is a photograph of Don Draper’s living room on the set of the show. Below is a sofa designed by Aalto’s furniture company, Artek. The sofa’s found in his home and office follow the same style.
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STEINWEISS STEINWEISS STEINWEISS STEINWEISS STEINWEISS
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THE CRE ATOR OF THE ALBUM COVER
A contribution from Design is History Alex Steinweiss (1917-2011) has a massive body of design work that spans several different media. Some of his clients have included the U.S. Navy, PRINT, Fortune and Columbia Records. However, he is most recognized for inventing the modern album cover and much of his work lies in the poster-like images that he created while he was an art director at Columbia records. Before Steinweiss the only album covers that existed were brown paper wrappers that served to protect the album you had just purchased. His idea to create artwork to entice the buyer to purchase the album was an instant success. From 1939 to 1945 he designed record covers for Columbia, during which time he turned out hundreds of distinct designs. After 1945 he began working for other clients including several other record companies and in 1974 he retired to Florida to paint and work on occasional commissioned pieces.
Steinweiss’s covers are still regarded as icons of the genre. He designed them as miniature posters, with eye-catching graphics, distinctive and vivid colors, and creative, original typography. He was an accomplished illustrator, and he incorporated original artwork into most of his pieces.
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1942, Cesar Franck, Columbia Masterworks.
1950, Allen Funt, Columbia Masterworks
1959, Moody Woody, Everest Records.
1940, Dvorรกk, Columbia Masterworks
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MUSIC MADNESS A GUIDE TO THE MUSIC OF MAD MEN
A contribution by Chris Molanphy for NPR Music In telling the story of the fictional ad agency Sterling Cooper, Weiner has strived to capture the 1960s as they were lived, not the decade many selectively remember — the hagiographic “Sixties” from countless documentaries and public-TV pledge drives — and that extends to the songs. Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” hasn’t appeared once, nor has his “Blowin’ in the Wind.” There’s been no “For What It’s Worth” by the Buffalo Springfield, no “A Change Is Gonna Come” from Sam Cooke, nor even the Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie.” The Beatles made a (very expensive) appearance in one episode, but it had nothing to do with Sgt. Pepper or the Summer of Love; another time, when the Fabs’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was featured, it was only briefly whistled by lead character Don Draper. You’d think the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City” would have been a gimme, since the show is set in the dirty streets of pre–fiscal crisis New York, but nope. Avoiding these great but overused songs would just be contrarianism by Weiner if he weren’t so exacting about the songs he does include.
Though they are unlikely to pop up on oldies radio today, many of Mad Men’s songs were megasmashes in their day. The fact is, on the radio and the charts, the ‘60s was generally a pretty schmaltzy decade, not the nonstop Boomer-rock paradise of repute. (Yes, even the late ‘60s.) Pick up any Billboard book commemorating the Hot 100 hits of yesteryear, and as you leaf through the ‘60s you’ll be presented less with classics by Jimi Hendrix or The Who than by curios like the Singing Nun, The Tornados, Kyu Sakamoto, Paul Mauriat and Jeannie C. Riley. All of these one-hit-wonder acts have been showcased on Mad Men, alongside a handful of undeniable classics by the Stones, The Beach Boys and Frank Sinatra. The show’s fans have noticed, and appreciated, Weiner’s attention to musical minutiae — they have crowd sourced lists of every detectable song in every episode. One time, just before the show’s fifth-season premiere, some attentive critics even got Weiner to swap a Dusty Springfield song that was anachronistic to the season’s 1966 timeline by just a few months; he changed it just before the episode aired, thanking the critics and attesting to his “deep appreciation for details.” (You don’t say, Matt.)
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Alex Steinweiss is responsible for every album cover you come in contact with on the show. He may have not designed them himself, but he began an entirely new platform for designers and musicians. With records and record players being the new technology of the era, it was only fitting for them to appear in Mad Men. Above are both scenes from Mad Men of selecting a record and putting it on. To the left is Steinweiss with several of his famous album covers. The album artwork in the clips from Mad Men would likely have the same style as Steinweiss’s.
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SUTNAR SUTNAR SUTNAR SUTNAR SUTNAR
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INTRODUCING INFOGR APHIC S THE STORY BEHIND A DESIGN LEGEND
A contribution from Design is History Ladislav Sutnar (1897-1976), a Czech designer,1897, was one of the first designers to actively practice the field of information design. His work was rooted in rationality and the process of displaying massive amounts of information in a clear and organized manner for easy consumption by the general viewer. He placed a heavy emphasis on typography and primarily used a limited color palette. While he often used punctuation symbols to help organize information one of his signature creations was the idea to place parentheses around the area codes in telephone books. For nearly 20 years he served as the art director for Sweet’s catalog services where he created information graphics and catalog layouts for a wide range of manufactured items.
Before working for Sweet’s he taught at the State School of Graphic Arts in Prague. He was heavily influenced by the ideas of Modernism and his work was so well structured that he had no problems communicating information clearly to an American audience, even though English was not his primary language. Sutnar was a pioneer in the field of designing information graphics, or infographics, a practice which has become quite popular in recent history.
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1943-1946 Catalog for Cuno Engineering Corporation.
Book cover for G. B. Shaw, revealing a Constructivist ethos.
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1959, Advertisement for Knoll.
1961, Design classic Visual Design In Action.
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L A ST C ALL
THE MASTER DESIGNER WHO GAVE THE AREA CODE ITS PARENTHESIS
A contribution by Liz Stinson for Wired.com In the early 1960s, Bell Systems was busy rolling out a new way for people to make phone calls. Called the Telephone Numbering Plan, the method was an effort to scale up the nation’s rapidly expanding telephone network by requiring every household or business account to have a 10-digit number based on location. It was a smart solution to a complex problem, but there was just one issue: It turned out the average person wasn’t great at remembering a seemingly random string of numbers. You might not know Ladislav Sutnar by name, but you certainly know one of his designs. Sutnar is the man who, while working on Bell’s phone books, sandwiched the first three digits of your phone number between two parentheses, thus creating a crucial visual aid that gave structure to an otherwise unwieldy data set. This brilliant bit of information design was so successful, you’ve probably never thought about why it was there in the first place. Sutnar is what graphic design writer and Sutnar scholar Steven Heller calls a “lost master.”
Though lesser known than peers like Paul Rand and Saul Bass, the Czech-born designer is largely considered the grandfather of information design. In 1961, Sutnar published Visual Design in Action, in which he explored his particular brand of rational design principles. At the time, Suntar self-funded a limited edition of 3,000 copies, but the book has been out of print ever since that first run. Now, Heller and a team of designers and publishers are looking to create a facsimile the book to introduce Sutnar’s still-relevant design thinking to a new generation. The project, currently raising money on Kickstarter, promises to be an exacting reproduction of Sutnar’s 188-page original, down to the graphics, typography and paper weight (price: $62).
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The writers of Mad Men wanted to make sure everything was historically correct so that the viewer felt immersed in the culture of the 50’s and 60’s. The telephone was another new technology that was growing quickly. As mentioned in the previous article, if it weren’t for Sutnar’s infographic skills, phone numbers would have been a task to keep track of. He proposed the idea of placing area codes in the early 1960’s, during the time that Don Draper and his crew would have been using their phones. Every scene you hear a phone ring, someone using the new dialing system introduced by Sutnar.
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ERIK NITSCHE ERIK NITSCHE ERIK NITSCHE ERIK NITSCHE ERIK NITSCHE
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ERIK NITSCHE NO FIELD UNTOUCHED
A contribution from Design is History Erik Nitsche lef t an unmistakable mark on the world of design in his approximately 60 year career. Leaving almost no field untouched, he worked as an art director, book designer, illustrator, typographer, graphic designer, photographer, advertiser, and packaging designer. His graphic design work included magazine covers, signage, film, exhibitions, posters and many other adver tising mediums. Before emigrating to the United States in 1934 Nitsche studied at the Collège Classique in Swit zerland and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich.
Nitsche’s work has a distinc tly modernist aesthetic and al t ho ug h he never had t he o p por t uni t y to at tend t he Bauhaus Laszlo Moholy-Nagy has been quoted as saying, “Who is this guy that is doing the Bauhaus in New York?” He designed promotional and advertising campaigns for a host of dif ferent clients including depar tment stores, feature films, record companies and the New York Transit Authority. Nitsche greatly influenced the young generation of designers in America in the mid-20th century including the legendary designers Walter Bernard and Seymour Chwast. Mad Men is placed in the same era that Erik Nitsche was in America creating work. As a jack of all trades, Nitsche did many advertising projects. He is primarily known for his extensive work with General Dynamics, a company known for its manufacturing of aerospace technology. In AMC’s Mad Men, Don Draper finds employment with North American Aviation. This company is also known for it s aerospace technology manufac turing.
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History of Land Transportation, Erik Nitsche
Subway Poster, Erik Nitsche
General Dynamics, Erik Nitsche
Der Querschnitt, Erik Nitsche.
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THE RELUC TANT MODERNIST
A contribution by Steven Heller for Typotheque Eric Nitsche may not be as well known today as his contemporaries, Lester Beall, Paul Rand, or Saul Bass, but he is their equal. Almost 90 years old, this Swiss born graphic designer is arguably one of the last surviving Modern design pioneers. Although he never claimed to be either a progenitor or follower of any dogma, philosophy, or style other than his own intuition, the work that earned him induction last year into the New York Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame, including the total identity for General Dynamics Corporation from 1955 to 1965 and the series of scientific, music, and world history illustrated books, which he designed and packaged during the 1960s and 1970s, fits squarely into the Modernist tradition.
Nitsche does not deny that he was as good - certainly as prolific, if not more so - than any other designer of his age. He also speculates that had it not been for his asocial tendencies (“I preferred to do the work, not talk about it”) and a few poor business decisions along the way (he says he turned down a job at IBM that later went to Paul Rand), he might be as well known today as any of the other acknowledged pioneers. In fact, he worked for many of the same clients, including Orbachs, Bloomingdale’s, Decca Records, RCA Records, Filene’s, 20th Century Fox, The Museum of Modern Art, Container Corporation of America, the New York Transit Authority, Revlon, and more. Judging from the sheer volume of work bearing his signature or type credit, there are few others who can make this claim.
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General Dynamics, Erik Nitsche.
General Dynamics, Erik Nitsche
North American Aviation, original 1960s advertisement.
North American Aviation, 1940s.
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Both North American Aviation and General Dynamics were companies building aircrafts during the war in the late 1930s. As competitors, these companies had a very direct influence on each other, as well as a mutual goal. At the time, the companies were creating aircrafts to help the United States in World War II. As the war came to a close, both companies were left to try and keep their names alive, as demand for their products began to steadily drop. From here, both companies turn towards nuclear development. As this topic was one of controversy, the campaign for General Dynamics that Erik Nitsche created was an attempt to shed a more positive light on nuclear development, as many Americans were still reeling from the severity of the nuclear bombs. North American Aviation is responsible for the creation of the first nuclear reactor in California, providing great strides in the field of nuclear development.
The two companies are incredibly similar in their goals, and while no longer modern competitors were definitely interacting in the 1960s where the show takes place. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising agency briefly worked for North American Aviation in Mad Men season 4. Although the company is dropped as a client soon thereafter, the impact of their employment rattles both Don and Betty. Don is worried that the FBI clearance required to gain access to North American Aviation’s premises may uncover his dark past, and forces the company to drop the account. This scandal reflects the real world scandal that North American Aviation would face in 1967 with the fire of Apollo 1. The company was partly blamed for the deaths of the 3 crew members on board.
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LESTER BEALL LESTER BEALL LESTER BEALL LESTER BEALL LESTER BEALL
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DESIGN FOR GOOD
A contribution from Design is History A man with a very technology-oriented background, Beall grew up playing with Ham radios and creating his own wireless sets. He graduated with a Ph.D in the History of Fine Art and the years following his graduation found him expressing an interest in modern art movements such as Surrealism, Constructivism and Dadaism. His work as an advertiser and graphic designer quickly gained international recognition and the most productive years of his career, during the 1930s and 40s, saw many successes in both fields. Beall’s most notable work were posters to support the Rural Electrific Administration. The Rural Electric Administration was created in 1935 to bring electricity to impoverished areas where as few as ten percent of homes had electric power. Large cities and towns such as the New York suburb that Don Draper lived, didn’t have to worry about living without electricity because people like Beall paved the way after the depression to spread technology and design for good.
Public officials recognized the effectiveness of commercial advertising strategies—like this poster—in their mission to convince rural housewives of the benefits of switching from wood, coal, and oil to electricity. These designs helped improve the lives of others, the ultimate goal of ethical design. We see an example of ethical design when Don Draper decided to stop advertising for cigarette companies because of the negative health effects. Betty Draper even contracts lung cancer because of cigarette use. Don displayed his previously non existent moral convictions in this decision, something Lester Beall would be proud of. When His clear and concise use of typography was highly praised both in the United States and abroad. Throughout his career he used bold primary colors and illustrative arrows and lines in a graphic style that became easily recognizable as his own. He eventually moved to rural New York and set up an office, and home, at a premises that he and his family called “Dumbarton Farm”. He remained at the farm until his death in 1969.
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Fielding Beer is a fictional brand modeled after Hamm’s beer. The use of borders to break down space was popular in mid-century packaging design. The limited color palette is a sign of Beall’s influence on product design, especially the products used in Mad Men.
Hamm’s Beer was an American beer company based in Wisconsin. The Fieldings logo was designed based on this can. Ironically the actor seen drinking the beer is Jon Hamm.
This is a beer can designed by Lester Beall for Atles Brewing Co. in 1952. The use of bright red text on a contrasting white background was an inspiration for the fictional beer design. The subtle curvilinear designs are similar as well.
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FRUTIGER FRUITIGER FRUTIGER FRUTIGER FRUTIGER
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ADRIAN FRUTIGER A PASSIONATE TYPOGRAPHER
A contribution from Design is History Adrian Frutiger has created some of the most used typefaces of the 20th and 21st century. Although interested in many fields including woodcut and paper silhouettes, Frutiger has been passionate about typography for his entire life. Spending most of his career working for Deberny & Peignot updating typefaces and preparing them for photo-typesetting, as well as designing typefaces of his own accord, he has created almost 30 typefaces.
Some of his most famous typefaces include Univers, Frutiger (created for the Charles de Gaulle airport), Egyptienne, Serifa and Avenir. Frutiger is one of only a few typographers whose career spans across hot metal, photographic and digital typesetting. He has also been instrumental in refining his own typefaces to include more weights and true italics, some examples are Frutiger Next and Avenir Next. The creators of Mad Men paid close attention to the 60s era, however, they often failed at accurately representing the typefaces of the time. The typefaces of Adrian Fruitger, specifically Univers, were being frequently used in the true advertisements of the 50s and 60s. If the creators had payed more close attention to these typeface details, Frutiger would have played a direct role in the show. However, it is his works that influenced the creation of the (inaccurate) typefaces the creators chose to use.
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Life In the Middle Ages by G.G. Colton utilizing Univers.
International Quiet Sun Year Stamps.
A history of chemistry, Erik Nitsche
Flodhesten Henry IllustrationsForLaget utilizing Univers.
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MAD MEN MAD PROPS A LOOK AT THE TYPOGRAPHY OF MAD MEN
A contribution by Mark Simonson for Marksimmson.com Considering that the show is about an advertising agency, there isn’t as much type on Mad Men as I would expect. When there is, it’s usually used the way it would have been in the early Sixties, except it seems the type choices are limited to whatever happens to be loaded onto the computer. The show starts out with stylish opening titles featuring glimpses of real ads from the period—and a clinker: What’s Lucida Handwriting (1992) doing here? I usually consider the titles to be outside the world of the story, but considering all the period cues in these titles, this typeface, which was designed specifically for computer screens, is out of place. Then there is the Gill Sans (c. 1930) problem. Gill Sans is utilized frequently within the series. A main use of the typeface is Sterling Cooper Advertising’s logo and signage.
Technically, this is not anachronistic. And the way the type is used—metal dimensional letters, generously spaced—looks right. The problem is that Gill was a British typeface not widely available or popular in the U.S. until the 1970s. It’s a decade ahead of its time in American type fashions. Then there are the ad layouts, supposedly produced by the art department at Sterling Cooper. You can tell the layouts are done with markers and pencils, as they would be, although they seem too sketchy. Perhaps this is to help them “read” as marker layouts on tv. The ad designs feel flat-footed and mediocre, but we also know that Sterling Cooper is not in the vanguard of advertising so maybe that’s intentional. On the other hand, they are way ahead of their time when it comes to type, using faces that didn’t even exist yet.
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Fruitger’s Univers typeface.
Frutiger’s self titled typeface.
Aspect of the Sterling Cooper Advertising agency using Gill Sans, a typeface that was not popular in the US in the 1960s.
A church flyer featuring Gotham, that was not released until 2002.
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Typography is an incredibly important aspect of advertising. Although the show does not focus around this aspect specifically, it does play an integral role in the accuracy of the show, especially to type designers who recognize the errors mentioned in the previous article. A typeface can set the tone for an advertisement and also solidify a time period that the advertisement was created in. For example, advertisements from the 1930s are wildly different from those seen today. In the era of Mad Men, the 1960s, Adrian Frutiger’s Univers was growing in popularity among designers across the world. For this reason, the prescence of odd typefaces, such as Lucida Handwriting and Gill Sans in the show leaves type-savvy viewers scratching their heads.
Adrian Frutiger’s goal was to create beautiful, readable typefaces in large families that would not limit the designers who used them. His creations would be recognizable as being from the Mad Men era, and many designers wonder why there is a lack of Frutiger’s work displayed in the show. However, regardless of its physical presence, the work of Adrian Frutiger and his commitment to beautifully created, readable typefaces directly influenced the designers who would go on to design the typefaces, however inaccurately, used within the show.
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BROWNJOHN BROWNJOHN BROWNJOHN BROWNJOHN BROWNJOHN
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ROBERT BROWNJOHN MAN IN MOTION
A contribution from Design is History Brownjohn was born to British parents in New Jersey and had a successful career in both America and Great Britain during the 1950s and 60s. He immediately showed promise as a young design student at the Institute of Design in Chicago, previously The New Bauhaus, where he studied closely with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. His career ramped up to an early start when he formed the design firm BCG with Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar. However, that career came to an early end in 1959 with Brownjohn heading to London, the firm became Chermayeff & Geismar. His career in London proved as successful as his early career in the US with his most notable contributions coming in the film industry. He also worked within several other industries, creating moving graphics for Pirelli and Midland bank and created the cover for the Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed. His biggest commercial success came from the title sequence for a popular James Bond film, Goldfinger. The women seem glazed and often only portions of their body can be seen.
A reoccurring theme of Brownjohn’s is the female body. More specifically, he abstracts the female body. It is viewed as more of an object included in the work than a human. This loss of individuality is also evident in the show. Time and time again the women of the show have to fight tooth and nail for their spot in the firm. We see Joan objectified for her body instead of her hard work ethic and clever wit. Also, Pete Campbell uses Peggy as an object of affection and frequently deems her unable to be a main contributor to the firm because of that. A 240 page catalogue by Emily King that was produced for an exhibition detailing Brownjohn’s career entitled “Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography” held at the Design Museum in London was also published as a book of the same name. Sex and Typography details the adventures of Brownjohn through detailed information provided by friends and family as well as chronicling his career and the work that he produced.
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Robert Brownjohn shot and directed this title sequence for the James Bond movie, Goldfinger. The sequence shows women painted in gold dimly lit by projections of scenes from the movie. We see the angles of the screen play with the curves of the women’s glistening bodies. We hear Shirley Bassey’s voice singing “Pretty girl beware of this heart of gold, This heart is cold.” This sequence paved the way for the projections and distortions in the Mad Men.
The Mad Men title sequence includes Don Draper in a suit walking into his office. When he walks into his office, the elements within fall downwards. He also falls downward outside the building. He passes ads blown up and displayed on top of the buildings as he falls. They show things concerning Don’s life such as women, booze, and family. After the montage of falling images we see Don sitting on a couch reclining as if it never happened. This animated sequence shows the internal struggle of Don Draper’s subconscious. We see what might be going on in his mind on his way to work.
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Margaret Nolan, the model for Brownjohn’s title sequence in Goldfinger, stands during the filming of the video. Margaret was an iconic actress of the known for her curvaceous figure featured in films of the time. Brownjohn capitalized on this to show his viewers her body. What most people don’t know, is that she was also an artist who worked with photomontage. Nonetheless she went down in history as the woman with the body and not the woman with the brains.
Joan Halloway, the secretary and eventual partner of the advertising firm in Mad Men. Halloway fights continuously for her place as a professional in the firm. Her very curvaceous form and appealing physical features earn her attention, but not always respect. She has one of the greatest work ethics in the firm, but she is often overlooked because of the misogyny of the time period. Advertisers and designers like Brownjohn contributed to this view, or at the very least was a product of the time period.
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Here’s a Kit Kat ad designed by Robert Brownjohn. He employed the colors already associated with the brand to give it a stronger meaning. The clean planes of color and contrast make it effective.
Don Draper pitches a Hershey ad as a timeless symbol of family memories and says that chocolate is American and so he used the logo already in place. The colors also contrast and utilize positive and negative space.
The ad for Lifelons stockings play on the sexualization of women and their obligation to be seen as desirable. Women’s rights were very different in mid-century America. The woman was seen as a subsidiary of the man.
Eleanor Ames, an actress hired by the advertising firm, tries to woo Don. She drapes her legs across his lap. It’s not hard to imagine she’s wearing Lifelons stockings, a symbol of beauty.
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THOMPSON THOMPSON THOMPSON THOMPSON THOMPSON
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BR ADBURY THOMPSON GRAPHIC DESIGN MASTER
A contribution from Design Is History Bradbury Thompson was truly a master of almost every aspect of the design profession. He studied printing production, was an art director for Mademoiselle magazine, designed books, pushed the boundaries of conventional typography and taught design at Yale University. He designed 60+ issues of Westvaco Inspirations for the Westvaco Paper Corporation. His designs reached thousands of designers, printers and typographers. Born in 1911 in Topeka, Kansas and educated at Washburn University. Thompson stayed in touch with the university throughout his career. From 1969-1979 Thompson worked together with Washburn to create the Washburn Bible. The book was the most significant development in Bible typography since Gutenberg first published his masterpiece in 1455. Another significant point in his career, in the field of typography, was his publication of Alphabet 26, which was labeled as a monoalphabet. It contained only 26 unique characters, case was established by size only instead of entirely new characters (i.e. r/R, e/E, a/A). Thompson’s work garnered him the highest award of every major design organization including AIGA, the Art Directors Club and the Type Directors Club. He died in 1995.
Thompson's career was marked by many triumphs, but three stand out prominently as exemplars of his versatility. As the designer of more than 60 issues (1939-62) of Westvaco Inspirations, a promotional magazine published by the Westvaco Paper Corporation, he reached many thousands of typographers, print buyers, and students. He had an uncanny ability to merge and blend modernist typographic organization with classic typefaces and historic illustrations, all seasoned with affectionate sentiment and impeccable taste. Working with modest resources, he saw himself as teacher and guide. “The art of typography, like architecture, is concerned with beauty and utility in contemporary terms... the typographic designer must present the arts and sciences of past centuries as well as those of today... And although he works with the graphics of past centuries, he must create in the spirit of his own time, showing in his designs an essential understanding rather than a labored copying of past masters.� (Westvaco Inspirations 206, 1956).
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Don Draper, Mad Men, speaks to the Bar Keep to discover his next marketing strategy for Lucky Strike. Bradbury Thompson is a master for pushing the limits of design through curiosity, experimentation, and play.
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CIPE PINELES CIPE PINELES CIPE PINELES CIPE PINELES CIPE PINELES
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CIPE PINELES ART DIRECTOR, PIONEER
A contribution from ADC Global During the worst depression this country has ever known, a 20-year-old artist named Cipe Pineles walked around New York trying to sell her paintings of sandwiches and Coca-Cola bottles. Several decades later, of course, magazines like McCall’s would indeed buy Cipe Pineles’ still lives of sandwiches, as would Ladies Home Journal her herbs, and House Beautiful her cheesecake. In the intervening years, Miss Pineles became one of the most highly acclaimed magazine art directors and graphic designers in the country. She worked as design consultant for New York’s Lincoln Center, and as director of publication design at Parsons School of Design. She was born in Vienna, attended high school in Brooklyn, and went to Pratt Institute, where she won a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Scholarship. After graduation, and what she calls an “adventurous” year in the still-life painting business, she became assistant in 1932 to M.F. Agha, then art director of Condé Nast publications. She stayed at Condé Nast long enough to become a 10-year-test-case of The Art Directors Club’s admission policy toward women, and did in fact become its first woman member.
In 1947, she moved to Seventeen as art director, introducing there the commissioning of leading painters to do fiction illustration (on the theory that young readers would have few barriers in accepting fine art). And so the pages were graced by the work of Ben Shahn, Leonard Baskin, Raphael Sayer, Kuniyoshi, Doris Lee, Robert Osborn, Jan Balet, Joe Kaufman, Evalyne Ness, Lucille Corcos, Andy Warhol, Ad Reinhardt, Richard Lindner, and Jerome Snyder. In 1950, Miss Pineles was named art director of Street & Smith’s Charm, where she and Editor Helen Valentine redirected the publication to a then new consumer audience—women who work. She moved to another Street & Smith publication, Mademoiselle, leaving in 1961 to work as an independent designer and illustrator. Cipe Pineles became design consultant to Lincoln Center in 1967, with the entire graphics program of the Center, from stationery to annual reports, under her supervision. Her communication assignments there also included the corporate symbol design and the monthly Journal and Calendar of Events. In 1970 she joined the faculty of the Parsons School of Design, becoming as well director of publication design.
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“We tried to make the prosaic attractive without using the tired clichés of false glamour,” she observed in a later interview. “You might say we tried to convey the attractiveness of reality, as opposed to the glitter of a never-never land.” Cipe Pineles’ work helped to redefine the look of women’s magazines, while also furthering women’s changing roles in society. Until the mid-1950s, when much younger women started making their way into positions of independent responsibility in magazines and graphic design, Cipe Pineles was by herself and a “first” in many respects. She had accumulated innumerable art direction and publication design awards over the years from the Art Directors Club, AIGA, Society of Publication Designers and others. While there were some other women receiving awards, they were always paired with their male art director, while Pineles got single credit. Though she paid her professional dues early and often—awards, juries, panels, presentations, lectures, committees, and boards, including AIGA—and though Dr. Agha had been proposing her for ten years, the New York Art Directors Club would not offer her a membership. The club did not budge until faced with this dilemma: it offered membership to William Golden, the energetic design director of CBS, who pointed out that the ADC was hardly a professional club if it had ignored his fully qualified wife (he and Pineles had married in 1942). Both became members in 1948; she was the first woman member. Also in 1948, Pineles and Golden became the first couple to win individual Gold Medal awards in the same year. In 1975, she was the first woman inducted into their Hall of Fame.
Charm magazine started in the 1940s, but it came into its own in 1950, when it relaunched as “The Magazine for Women Who Work,” and hired Cipe Pineles as art director.
Charm magazine started in the 1940s, but it came into its own in 1950, when it relaunched as “The Magazine for Women Who Work,” and hired Pineles as art director.
AMCs Mad Men ad for Belle Jolie. Secretary, Peggy, exhibits Copywriter potential when describing the trash bin as a “basket full of kisses,” after participating in research for lipstick. 108
ROCKWELL ROCKWELL ROCKWELL ROCKWELL ROCKWELL
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NORMAN ROCK WELL
AMERICAN ILLUSTRATOR, AD MAN
A contribution by Stephan J. Esklson for Graphic Design: A New History While American propaganda posters of the 1940s toned down the “attrocity” themes, like their British counterparts, many images sought to contrast American society with that of Nazi Germany. Perhaps the greatest examples of this theme were the images of the “Four Freedoms,” produced by Norman Rockwell (1894–1978), based on a speech by Franklin Roosevelt. On January 6, 1941, President Roosevelt spoke before Congress, implicitly decrying the lack of civil rights in Germany. He listed four freedoms: “The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way— everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want and the fourth is freedom from fear.”
Rockwell, America’s most renowned illustrator at the time, made four original paintings for the Saturday Evening Post based on the speech. Later, these illustrations were turned into posters advertising war bonds. The Save Freedom of Speech poster features a working man who looks suspiciously like former President Abraham Lincoln at a town meeting. Rockwell’s idealized portrayals of American life earned him a popular following, although progressive artists disdained his representational style. In many ways, the Second World War marked the end of an era in American graphic design, as realistic illustrations such as Rockwell’s, which had dominated American graphic media for decades, had one final hurrah. After the war, the modern abstract styles championed by Conde Nast and MoMA gradually came to dominate the mass media. One reason for this development was that idealized naturalism became tainted in many people’s minds by its association with the manipulative propaganda of Nazi Germany.
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Freedom from Want, 1943. Story illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, March 6, 1943.
Norman Rockwell illustrated the Cherner Armchair in his September 1961 cover of the Saturday Evening Post. This was all it took to catapult Cherner into the design spotlight.
Norman Rockwell is adored by the masses for his traditional portrayal of mid-20th-century American life. His wholesome images create sales for large companies like Coca-Cola.
A 1930s original ad for the “20,679 Physicians” Campaign. The pilot of Mad Men introduced viewers to a fictional character, Don Draper, who creates the slogan, “It’s toasted,” for Lucky Strikes Cigarettes.
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AN ILLUSTRATOR WHO RULED THE MAD MEN ER A FOLLOWING IN THE FOOT STEPS OF NORMAN ROCKWELL
A contribution by Joseph Flaherty for Wired Don Draper has opened a 37th floor window into the art of post-war American advertising, but a new exhibit of illustrations called Mac Conner: A New York Life is attempting to fill in the picture without all the alcohol-fueled melodrama. Born in 1913, McCauley “Mac� Conner studied art by attending correspondence classes as a meek teen during the Depression. In 1937, he graduated from the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art and worked as a sign painter, where he mastered the ability to paint letter forms, a skill that would later translate into the ability to perfectly capture corporate logos. As World War II erupted, Conner worked with the US Navy to create training aids, refreshing his figure drawing skills. The post-war economic boom left brands like Ford and United Airlines, as well as magazines like Cosmopolitan and The Saturday Evening Post, clamoring for his services as an illustrator. By his mid-thirties, Conner had cofounded a creative agency representing over a dozen illustrators.
The exhibit covers this period, the 1950s, when Conners was at the peak of his powers, rendering scenes of American technical progress and romantic entanglements that highlighted the changing norms and mores of the age. Conner prefers to be called an illustrator rather than an artist and the exhibit is faithful to that position. In addition to 70 paintings, the walls are lined with correspondence from editors and art directors, revealing the mechanized nature of the illustration business at the time. Illustrators would specialize, some only drawing cars, while others would fill in smiling families surrounding the new Oldsmobile. The business was much assembly line as atelier and to further communicate the commercial nature of the works, A 16-foot-wide map of New York City shows the connections between the agencies that lined Madison Avenue during the Mad Men era.
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“Don’t Be Like Me” in Collier’s, September 8, 1953. Gouache on illustration board.
“Where’s Mary Smith?” in Good Housekeeping, June 1950. Gouache and gesso on masonite.
The collection is a fascinating time capsule documenting women entering the workplace, the struggle of African-Americans, and a myriad of other social developments, but captured as primary documents rather than artfully recreated prestige cable dramas. Despite the focus on the commercial aspects of the illustration business, the curators took pains to highlight Conner’s aesthetic contributions. Conner taught apprentices that they all used the same brushes, the same models, and the same paints — what differentiated each illustrator was their thoughts, translated into a sense of design. His favored style used color sparingly, and instead focused on capturing dramatic scenes with high-contrast drawings. This had two benefits, color could be used to draw attention to the subject, like the crimson red lips of The Girl Who Was Crazy about Jimmy Durante, and was a technique that enabled rapid turnaround — critical in an era where drop boxes were physical objects and Photoshop was an actual room. According to Terrence C. Brown, a guest curator at the museum and a former director of the Society of Illustrators, there is no direct analog to Mac Conner working today. However, he has no doubt a new generation of illustrators will step and continue the tradition he picked up from Norman Rockwell. Brown says, “Artists who toil in this trade of visual problem solving under deadline are proud to be great in their era and continue to create wherever the market takes them.” 118
“The Girl Who Was Crazy About Jimmy Durante” in Woman’s Day, September 1953. Gouache and ink.
“Killer in the Club Car” in This Week Magazine, November 14, 1954. Ink and acetate on illustration board.
“The Trouble With Love” in Good Housekeeping, August 1952. Gouache on illustration board.
“All The Good Guys Died” in Cosmopolitan, January 1951. Gouache on paper.
“How Do You Love Me” in Woman’s Home Companion, August 1950. Gouache on illustration board.
“There’s Death For Remembrance” in This Week Magazine, November 13, 1953. Gouache and ink.
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goo.gl/QdqWvx , goo.gl/SWUIYO
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117, 118,
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goo.gl/nHvbDm , goo.gl/pl0Wpx
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117- 122
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HAYLEE LOVE Responsible for the design of the cover, about the show, meet the characters, the real mad men, movies that inspired the show, fashion of the time, Robert Brownjohn and Lester Beall.
JANE JONES Responsible for the design of the table of contents, Cipe Pineles, Bradbury Thompson and Norman Rockwell.
124
EMILY KLOCKO Responsible for the design of the sources, credits, Erik Nitsche and Adrian Frutiger.
SAVANNA PURCELL Responsible for the design of Alvar Aalto, Alex Steinweiss and Ladislav Sutnar.
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127