MATERIAL REVIEW.
ART AND ADVERTISING.
THERE has been a good deal of talk and writing of a " Brighter London " but little doing, and cleanliness, order, colour and brightness are still to be found most readily underground. When the old Metropolitan Railway exchanged steam and smoke for electricity and grimy brickwork for gleaming tiles, it also set up a new standard of civic decency and established a lead in commercial efficiency that it still maintains. The present vast organization of 'buses, trains and railways that constitutes " the Underground " is served by a publicity
(Continued on verge 458.) department of a far-sighted intelligence that is seldom met with in the world of advertising—that curious conservative, unimaginative world that is usually so naive and heavy- handed in its methods, so glib about " suggestion," so innocent of any subtlety or of any knowledge of " hostile reactions."
The enterprising tyrernakers who persist in devastating country roads with their enraging advertisements are prob- ably unaware that a good proportion of road users come to associate " Booster's everlasting unpuneturable non-skids" with acute feelings of outrage and discomfort and suspicions of a reckless disregard of veracity. At any rate, the present writer has discovered a certain admirable tyre whose makers have thus far refrained from competing in the stupid and ill-mannered roadside shouting match, and he proposes to use no other tyre so long as his enjoyment of the country is not spoilt by ugly and impertinent importunities. Such bullying tactics would be unthinkable on the Under- ground—so far as its own publicity is concerned—and we have there learnt to look for posters that are a real pleasure to see, in which draughtsmanship, printing and colour are all admirable, and where the aids of fantasy, humour, poetry and history are skilfully employed.
Along the motor-ways we get blaring vociferation, but on the Underground railways our eye is artfully caught and pleased, and we find ourselves being willingly allured and almost persuaded that Shepherd's Bush, say, is still a pastoral hamlet noted for its daffodils and rainbows, and that we must buy a ticket thither immediately. Certainly, somehow or other, the Underground has contrived to make one associate light and colour, fresh air and vigour, speed, comfort and leisure with its system—a remarkable achievement for a largely subterranean concern I The Baynard Press has submitted a score or so of posters for review, most of which have been produced to the order of the Underground. Herrick's vigorous line representations of "classical subjects" have long delighted us, and we owe the badge of the British Empire Exhibition—a sculpturesquely simplified lion of remarkable dignity—to the same resourceful artist. Herrick, too, is responsible for some colour fantasies such as the Christmas-tree poster, "The Giant's Stride," and others, whilst Charles Paine, working in a rather less adventurous manner, invites us to Bath and to Hampton Court with placards that are not only extremely pleasant in themselves but also suggest that both places are peculiarly attractive —as, in truth, they are. " H. K. R." has done a bold pen- and-ink representation of Temple Bar for the Legal and General Assurance Society that shows him to have a good architectural understanding. " Shep " gets some pleasant effects by the sparing use of a few brilliant colours and a good display of lettering.
It has been said that the Underground more than pays for its own posters by the sale of spare copies to collectors and the general public—and it is not in the least surprising if this is so. Outside the series sent in by the Baynard Press I can, however, think of few posters that I would willingly receive even as a gift.
There are a few shipping lines that advertise intelligently
and attractively, such as the R.M.S.P. and Holts ; there are Messrs. Heal and Messrs. Derry and Toms ; and there is the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith ; there is a whisky that advertises by means of a vigorously drawn regency horseman who dominates a felicitous little landscape, but beyond these I cannot, at the moment, recall any concern that in advertising its business also decorates the public thoroughfares.
Ctouon Wittturs-ELLIs.
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