«My main interest is to become aware of reality. And I care about the study of art because it is a privileged way for doing so. ”
This quote by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer (1914-1984) situates very well the interests of one of the most polyvalent pioneers of Spanish graphic design. Cirici developed his work in fields as varied as painting, advertising, decoration, architecture, cinema, theater, literature or even active politics.
The aim of this post is to showcase the original advertisements that he designed from 1958 to 1964, supported by the photographs of Oriol Maspons for the Lavanda Puig Water and Soap.
As stated in the catalog of the exhibition “atmospheres” (Barcelona, 2001), graphic designer and art historian Teresa Martínez Figuerola classified this series of advertisements in four periods.
In the first period that goes from 1958 to 1960 the photographs of Oriol Maspons were continued with pen and brush stroke, as well as some sentences with different manuscript treatment for each piece. The second period lasted until 1961 and the handwritten phrases were replaced by a single advertising slogan composed in printing types.
In the third period the drawing disappears completely and photography, in many cases enclosed in elementary geometric forms and with a certain influence of the Bauhaus, takes on an almost absolute prominence. The advertising phrase along with the description of the product becomes parallel typographic lines that are integrated into the total composition of the advertising piece. And in the fourth and final period the advertising phrase disappears completely and photography, often limited by curved shapes, becomes the main motive.
Cirici Pellicer reflected on the article “L’art del perfum”, published in the magazine Serra d’Or (No. 196, January 1976) on the history and development of the perfume industry, stating that “the artistic profession of perfumist resembles that of the musical composer or the painter, who think and make constructions from a range or a palette ». It would seem that he was talking about himself and the advertising originals collected here.