Saturday, November 16, 2013

Vintage Advertising Signs And The Story Behind Them

By Katy Kline


Advertising has been around for as long as anyone can remember. In order to sell products or show people about an event you need to talk about it. Vintage advertising signs were one of the most important starts to this industry.

Signs are something very visual. They can have a wide variety of colors or pictures or a combination of the two. People are generally attracted to vivid artwork. This is why most advertising signs use a mix of bright colors. Also the photography on the poster is a very important aspect. The type that is used really depends on the time period. If you were doing one for the 1960s you would want more psychedelic, bright colored artwork. While if it was for the 1980s, darker, normal tones mixed with very vibrant colors would be used. Also most of these images are realistic looking versus the 60s where things are very artsy.

Advertisements used to be giant and hang high over shops and businesses. This may have been around the 17th century, but even then they had enough sense to know this was dangerous. Since these were not well fastened to the shop, they had the tendency to fall. This meant crushed people in the streets. There was a ruling made that stopped these from being hung. Years later it was decided they were to be allowed but only on the condition that everything was well secured to a building or wall.

The 19th century introduced us to the light bulb. This changed this industry greatly. Now night time was becoming a visual masterpiece. Adverts were now visible in the light and dark. It was worth companies putting in the extra money to make their sings extra spectacular. They were getting more views than ever before.

Another great invention were neon tubes, which were created in the 20th century. The first time one of these was used was in 1921. These have been a prominent staple in this type of business ever since. Neon is usually seen in bigger cities, it will line the streets and give them a magnificent glow.

During a few wars there was a complete cut of the use of metal and tin. They could be used for nothing but war efforts. This really hit companies hard. They had to find an alternate solution. Plastic was what jumped at them. It was pretty inexpensive and very functional. Exactly what they had been looking for.

Some plastics were still more expensive than neon around the 1950s. This did not stop manufactures from choosing plastic. It was simpler to make and did not require other contracts outside of their own company. This meant they could make more of it more rapidly. The price may have been slightly more, but the convenience made up for that. Having a higher production of signs, means filling more orders, which makes up for the slightly higher material cost.

Over the years vintage advertising signs have gone from black and white, to color, to crazy patterns. They were then transformed into visual masterpieces. They had light bulbs and neon tubes, making colors even more vibrant. Eventually things settled down during the war and plastic became the most popular material. Without the advancing of these over time, our world would not be the same.




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