Before Penguin
Edicions Proa, founded in 1928 in Badalona at a time of popular culture and athenaeums, is an exponent of the standard of Catalan publishing in the 1930s that came to the fore by way of an exhibition and the illustrated book: La propera festa del llibre serà de color taronja! Cinquanta anys del rellançament d’Edicions...
Spain on posters
In 2005, the Division of Information, Documentaries and Publications from Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade published a catalogue of official posters from Spanish tourism spanning the period between 1929 and 1959. This volume verifies how the promotion of tourism in Spain is not something recent, and, by the same token, it demonstrates contributions...
A sharp point
In 1995 the “American Pencil Collectors Society” was founded in the USA, bringing together an interesting group of writing instrument collectors primarily focused on the collection of graphite lead pencils. For a number of years now, I’ve been pleased to form part of this Association, which publishes the newsletter “The Pencil Collector” as the “Official...
‘Arte Comercial’ magazine, advertising and organization?
“Arte Comercial” (Commercial Art) was one of the few examples in the Spanish publishing world of a journal specializing in the field of advertising. Founded in 1946 by Emeterio Melendreras, a professional that straddled the fields of advertising and design management, it included works by most of the graphic designers of the time: Manolo Prieto...
The El Corte Inglés pennant
I remember the morning I began working as Art Director in the Publicity Department of El Corte Inglés as if it were yesterday. I was sneaking between drawing tables to introduce myself to my new Creative Director when an older man – white hair, smoking a cigar – asked me if I knew how to...
Ramón Calderón from London to Santander
One of the attractive elements of running a blog on the characteristics of “Graphic Pioneers” is coming across a significant graphic work of which I was completly unaware. Thanks to the great help of Mario Crespo López to whom I’m sincerely grateful for the graphic images that are presented in this post, I´ve had the...
San Isidro* Pioneers in Madrid
In 1991, Carmen Herrero, director of Madrid’s Municipal Museum, organized a large and surprising exhibition, for the times, in the city titled “Festival Posters from the Museum’s Municipal collection, 1932-1991”. Although 118 posters were displayed on a variety of themes, the celebration of the San Isidro Festival predominated with a total of 90 posters, including...
“New Artists Collection” (and II)
Among the editions that account for the short life of the “New Artists Collection” (see previous post), number 12 is the one that stands out in the collection. Works appeared under the title “Fantastic Art” in an exhibition with the same name that brought together celebrated artists that included Miró, Calder, Picasso, Oteyza and Tâpies....
Filograf, a world of tests
‘When my father founded Filograf. Instituto de Arte Gráfico, in 1947, a dream he had worked towards came true: to have a design studio and graphic design workshop set up in the same place. His broad experience as a studio manager in the publishing house Industrias Gráficas Seix y Barral, from Barcelona, proved that this...
“New Artists Collection” (I)
The “New Artists Collection” was a “Clan” initiative, the Madrid bookstore-gallery-editorial, promoted by journalist, writer and editor Thomas Seral y Casas in the late 1940s. The activity of this promoter and inventor of cultural initiatives and founder of different gallery-libraries was significant to the renewed modernity tradition in Spain. The “New Artists Collection” consists of...
The Morillas prescriptions
Anna Calvera explains it very well in the text “From graphic artist to graphic designer” included in the tribute book to Antoni Morillas, admirably prepared by his son Lluis, a thorough documentation of his father’s professional path: “in the case of graphic designers the process followed is clear. When they start out as apprentices, they...
The FAD stars
The FAD stars (Foment de les Arts i del Disseny – Catalan design association) In December 1963 each member of the ADG/FAD (graphic design and communication branch of this design association) designed a star for their Christmas greeting. The card was designed by Tomás Vellvé and printed by Industrias Gráficas Casamajó, it is a piece of great beauty...