LETTERING PURIFIED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1939, Page 5

LETTERING PURIFIED

DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIAL ART. LATEST TRENDS IN ENGLAND. The excellence of lettering in London was one thing which came very much under the notice of Mr S. B. MacLennan, who has just taken up duties at Wairaraaa College as art master. Mr MacLennan said an exceedingly high standard was set in England in commercial art and it was at once apparent that not nearly enough attention was being paid to it in New Zealand.

Lettering, said Mr MacLennan. had degenerated in many countries —the letters in many cases were over-decorat-ed, fat and ugly, thin and weak or neither Roman nor Gothic. In Britain. they had purified lettering and in doing so had set a very high standard. Eminent men had concentrated on lettering alone and it had to be admitted that even common signs such as “this way out” or “exit.” executed in perfect lettering, made a difference to the appearance of the place in which the,y were displayed. Posters in England were marvellous productions, said Mr MacLennan. who mentioned the outstanding posters to be seen on the underground railways. It was really a luxury on their part, he said. They spent a tremendous amount of money on them and engaged the most eminent artists to do the work. In fact, most of the more prominent artists now did commercial work —men who until a few years ago were painting pictures were now specialising in super-posters. By so doing they had become quite useful members of the community. Previously there were many people who considered commercial art to be beneath them, but the change that had taken place was really a reversion to the practice of former days, when the masters worked on commission to decorate churches, whereas at present it was the business houses who were the patrons. There was a decided tendency in many of the schools in England to link industry with art and a council for art and industry had been formed, with a view to bringing them together. All through art. said Mr MacLennan, there was a tendency to overcome the mechanical and bring out the persona] element For instance, in posters, instead of having reproductions of pictures. the subject was drawn on a litho stone and reproduced directly from the drawing. The posters were really original lithographs. In ■book work', wooden engravings were made by an artist so that the illustrations were original wood engravings and not reproductions.

Mrs MacLennan. who accompanied her husband from England, has specialised in costume designing. She designthe costumes for the Royal College of Art tableau at the Chelsea Art Ball held last year..