2010 American Advertising Calendar
Submitted by drwcs admin
This calendar uses copyright-free images from Duke University’s Digital Libraries Collection Emergence of Advertising in America U.S.
If you wish to have this calendar printed in the 11x14 poster size, you can use Shutterfly to do it. We have made it available as such for personal home use only. Here is the link.
Alternatively, you could save the calendar to a disk and take it to a Kinko's or Alpha Graphics to have it printed. You can download the calendar either from Shutterfly.
The slideshow of this calendar at drwcs.shutteryfly.com offers an excellent way to view the set.
January
Comments: 1950. Who knew the secret to a successful marriage was as simple as buying a car with a spacious glove compartment?
February
Comments: From the 1910s. It's actually the cover of a book of Jell-O recipes. Just about everything you could or would ever want to try with Jell-O, six ways to Sunday.
March
Comments: From 1907. The Victorianism that is evoked here was in fact in its twilight.
April
Comments: 1950. Even the baby is drinking a (large glass) bottle of Seven-Up (by himself).
Also, that's not much of a protective guard rail there at the zoo, is it... In the wild, anyway, aren't polar bears incredibly dangerous?
May
Comments: 1951. I guess this ad is basically saying mankind's newfound electronic wizardry is akin to the hand of God? Honeywell ran a similar ad campaign concept in 1943 using the god Mercury, that I was tempted to use here as well (see here).
Folks of my generation remember UHF channels very well. That's where we first started seeing independent local TV stations appear. The Big Three networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) and PBS remained on the VHF frequency. There was a separate antenna hook-up for VHF and UHF. Lots of TV antennas on television roofs in those days. And 'rabbit ears' sitting atop TVs. Usually you needed both because the roof antennas were most often stationary. The direction the antenna was pointed meant you couldn't get ideal reception for all your channels.
June
Comments: 1947. In the 40's a number of cosmetics companies used Hollywood starlets for their ads, often promoting the star's latest film. For this calendar project there were a number to choose from (many of them lesser stars of the day). I eventually got it narrowed down to this one, Ava Gardner, or Marylin Monroe who 'stood out' as another candidate. This image won out because of its colors, overall composition, and I felt it had the most irony of the lot.
She was only 24 here. Unfortunately, her tomorrow wasn't lovelier. She was a very troubled woman.
July
Comments: Dated 1937, which surprised me. I assumed it was from the 50s.
What happened to the Dionne quintuplets is kind of an interesting story in itself. They were the first recorded set of identical quintuplets to survive from infancy. They were massively exploited by the Canadian government and the advertising industry. The state took custody of them via a law written specifically for that purpose, and they were quite literally used as a Canadian tourist attraction. You can read about it here.
Personally, I'm a supporter of the free market. But there is a darker side to it. And far from protecting these tots, government blatantly colluded in their exploitation.
August
Comments: 1943. As a baby boomer I wasn't around for WWII, but my parents often told me that World War II was basically ever-present in people's thoughts at the time.
Lots of guys and gals were separated by the war. As we know, many GIs didn't make it back home to their sweethearts and families.
The wonderful music of the day really did improve everyone's morale, and helped those who were apart feel connected.
As Tom Brokaw wrote so well in his book on the subject, that was truly one of the most remarkable generations America
September
Comments: 1950.
Um, no condescension here, eh?
Hehe, she even has her arms extended as if taking flight herself.
The advertising execs of the day really were sexist as all get out. Amazing by today's standards.
The themes of the "Women's Lib" movement are nevertheless latent within the image, though, that's for sure. Although it's there innocently, I think. The execs who dreamed up this ad probably had no real idea what was around the corner culturally.
October
Comments: Undated. Looks to be late 1800s? Possibly the early 1900's.
The cynical side of me almost can't help but be in awe at this image. Smoking snuff is depicted as wholesome as a crustless jelly sandwich. Surely rosy cheeked children weren't the target market. But my God.
November
Comments: 1943. What I really like about this ad is that despite its naiveté, it does envision something roughly like the technological revolution of personal computing that did eventually come to pass. Obviously they couldn't foresee exactly what form it would take.
They failed to deliver with the flying cars and jet-packs, though!
December
Comments: 1947. Just a wild guess on my part, but I kinda doubt that most adolescent females of the present day would get genuinely excited by a rail vacation across Canada
This was before my time. But I'd wager that in 1947 a family vacation like that probably was the bees knees.
2010 Wildlife Calendar
Submitted by drwcs admin
This calendar was created with photographs gathered from Wikimedia Commons
I applied PaintNet's "Ink Sketch" effect to the photos. I thought it would be interesting to see what sorts of visual textures would emerge from various animals with that technique. So as I searched for public domain wildlife photographs, I kept an eye out for images that I thought might yield some interesting linear effects. Overall, I'm very pleased with the results.
Here's the link to it at Shutterfly.
January
Comments: Love this one. The photo's light and shade translate beautifully into the ink sketch effect. Perfect.
February
Comments: What a great mug. In the size displayed here you can't see a whole lot of difference from original photograph. But in the 11x14 poster size you can definitely see the ink sketch effect (click the link above for the full sized image).
March
Comments: Perhaps not the ideal photograph for the ink sketch effect, but nevertheless I decided to use it because I really liked the image of this barn owl itself. In the full 11x14 poster size the ink sketch effect shows up a lot better. Increasing the ink sketch effect any further would have made the green color in the background too dark (without doing a whole lot more for the owl itself).
April
Comments: This one too really needs to be viewed in full size to fully appreciate the ink sketch effect. The hide and fur of this bison are rendered very nicely with the ink sketch; ditto the wildflowers in the foreground.
It's a great image! I've cropped the original image here for the calendar. The full image is considered one of Wikimedia Commons finest.
May
Comments: The elephant's hide and the foliage both work well with the ink sketch. Nothing exceptional here artistically with respect to the ink sketch, but it's solid. It's a great portrait of an elephant.
June
(source information)
Comments: Once again I forgot to record the URL source at the time I made the calendar (drat!), but it is definitely a public domain image found at Wikimedia Commons. There are tons of butterfly and moth pics at Wikimedia Commons. Finding it again is like searching for a needle in a haystack. I'll keep searching for the source info, though.
There were many more colorful butterflies and moths available to choose from, But I was drawn to how the textures in the wings came out so vividly with the ink sketch effect.
July
Comments: Here I was willing to sacrifice considerable legibility of the calendar's days and dates simply in order to feature the dramatic fanning of tail feathers by this peacock. Admittedly, from a functional standpoint it's not the easiest calendar to read! But the textures of the feathers came out really neat via ink sketch.
August
Comments: This is one of my favorites for the set. The image is beautiful in itself. But to top it off, the fur and sweep of the mane almost couldn't have come out better via the ink sketch rendering. My wife, who is a Leo, said this was definitely the one to be used for "her month," August!
September
Comments: The colors here are remarkable. And they are true--or at least unaltered from the original. With the ink sketch it looks almost psychedelic. And the many variations in skin texture become more pronounced with the ink sketch.
As is the case with most of these images, the ink sketch effect seems to really brings out the creature's eyes.
October
Comments: Animal fur always seems to come out great in ink sketch. Handsome creature.
November
(source information)
Comments: Once again, I'm kicking myself for not recording the source URL for this back when I found it. It's a public domain image that anyone's free to use for home use. I thought I got it from Wikimedia Commons, but if it's there it'll take some digging to track down. I'll keep searching for it.
Anyway, it came out great in ink sketch! This is one of my top three favorites along with the lion and tree frog.
December
(source information)
Comments: Here too I failed to record the source URL, but it is without question a public domain image that folks can use for a project like this. I'm just going to have to hunt down the source, as with the others above. I'll find them all eventually.
This photo worked out great in ink sketch. Furry critters always looks good with ink sketch. And the light and shade, the profiles receding into the background, etc., all come together very nicely indeed. I get a kick out of the facial expression on the one in foreground.
