Designers are people who are paid to produce visions of better futures and make those things happen.

Between 1898 to 1902 around 2,600 independent companies merged into approx. 270 corporations, controlled the basic industries. While at this time these companies had few brands they dominated the marketplace and had a great return on capital.

With the population in America almost quadrupling between 1860 – 1920 the marketplace skyrocketed from having no need to advertise much because no one had to print ads being on billboards! With the industrial revolutions and consistent immigration America was more densely populated than ever before, companies now had to look for new ways to stand out from their rapidly growing competition.

As incomes also steadily increased and many consumers had some money in their pocket after bills a demand for more consumer goods like Vacuums, irons, toasters, and washing machines. Other products also appeared that were entirely for enjoyment, at the same time the Automobile changed what people did in their leisure time.

In the 20-year period following 1900, the annual volume of advertising surged more than fivefold, growing from $540 million to just less than $3 billion.

The early 1910s

With the spread of literacy print advertisements in the early 1910s still resembled the very crowded and text-heavy ads of the 19th century.

But we do see the seeds of modern design in print advertising planted as well; although these ads did typically have very long body copy compared to today’s print, the decade did manage to produce some iconic images such as the ‘I Want You’ ad for the US Army.

Queue Colour Print!

Although there was already colour used in previous print ads it had become commonplace in the 1910s to print in magazines, this meant beautiful coloured illustrations where THE advertising trend of the decade. These kinds of prints are still super collectible today with the incredible art of the ink drawing a decade before with the explosion of colour as well, illustrators who worked for companies like the New Yorker were being commissioned to draw or paint these advertisements.

With such a change in the economy its no wonder the way consumables were marketed changed so dramatically as well. We can all be thankful this changed happened though because it opened the door to the ever-evolving way we market products today.

One decade down and 9 to go – come back for the next time to see how designers continued with the long text but started developing the ever-relevant use of negative space.