My argument is that all graphic designers hold high levels of responsibility in society. We take invisible ideas and make them tangible. Thats our job.

– Debbie Millman

Although the advertising industry had taken many hits along the previous decade when the U.S.A entered the war in December of 1941 the impact on advertisers was felt immediately.

With rubber and fuel under strict rationing, automobile production came to a standstill and many factories converted to military production, the 1942 year models would be the last model to be rolled out by the auto industry until 1946. Naturally, a lot of other industries slowed right down as well, they didn’t all cease production but production was not at the level it once was just yet.

HOWEVER, Ad agencies are naturally creative – when confronted with the problem of what to advertise when there is nothing to sell they turned to emphasising what they were doing to help the war, how others can help and how what they sacrifice today can help in new products to enjoy when the war was over.

A serious threat to advertising was taxation, and when in October 1942 the Internal Revenue Service announced it would carefully examine deductions taken for advertising, agencies, advertisers, publishers and broadcasters rushed to Washington to lobby against such scrutiny. Shortly after the IRS announcement, Washington relented on the tax question, allowing “reasonable” ad costs to remain deductible. After all, the war effort required advertising if war bonds were to be sold, rubber and scrap drives were to be effective, rationing was to be accepted and a whole range of civilian controls and policies was to be effectively publicised.

The design of advertisements that arose through the last two decades would be used to set the stepping stones toward the experimental designs that would follow.

1940s print and signage are still widely collectible and completely an art form of its own and will hopefully still be appreciated for years to come!