Advertising Outdoors: Watch this Space! - Softcover

Bernstein, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714843865 ISBN 13: 9780714843865

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 2004

Synopsis

Outdoor advertising is one of the oldest and purest forms of communication. Until now, however, it has remained largely undocumented. Advertising Outdoors looks at the creative ingenuity of art directors and copywriters who devise the artwork and ideas for outdoor advertising, to explore how their artistic input drives an industry that supplies large-scale frames, billboards, transit shelters, bus sides, taxis, airships and many other locations. David Bernstein also analyses the rise of commercial art and the development of advertising, with close reference to successful advertising campaigns.

This book will be of enormous interest to designers, advertising professionals and clients, though no less accessible to any reader who is intrigued by the complex mechanics of the apparently simple world of advertising.

About this title

Review:

'A masterpiece. It's an Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Posters But Were Too Busy Producing a Sub-Standard TV Commercial to Ask sort of book. Bernstein understands posters. He understands advertising. And he presents his case with consummate wit and precision.' (Campaign)

'A paperback version of the 1997 classic...with incisive text [and] plenty of images.' (Blueprint)

'[A] bright and provocative picture book of eye-catching billboards, posters and other out-of-home executions from the past and present.' (Advertising Age)

Synopsis:

This book focuses on the history and development of outdoor advertising since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The author examines the rise of 'commercial art', the development of advertising as a discipline and an industry and the role it plays in modern life, also making direct reference to examples of successful advertising campaigns. Specific chapters feature such diverse subjects as: the 'rules' of the poster and the demands of outdoors; the development of a brand identity; the relationship of text and image; the case for wit and humour; and the future of the poster in multimedia campaigns. Far from taking a conventional approach, Advertising Outdoors describes the trajectory of the medium through its ambitions, its bullishness and its constant reinvention. The history of the poster and outdoor advertising in general - from early ingenuous announcement to post-modern reflexive culture - is richly illustrated with hundreds of images drawn from the author's personal wealth of knowledge. Above all, Advertising Outdoors is an essay on the principles of communication and regeneration that are demanded by the medium's unique place in our everyday life.

Adopting a thematic approach, the author covers ground from the classic masters of poster design, such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Aubrey Beardsley, to today's most inventive campaigns, such as those by Pirelli and Smirnoff. Littered with short interviews and commentaries by a host of advertising's elite, this book presents the phenomena of outdoors through the eyes of the people that shape it, providing a fascinating account of their creative processes.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0714843865
• ISBN 13: 9780714843865
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240