(You can click on the image to see a larger view.)I found this image online at http://www.gtj.org.uk/storage/components/batch_6022/GTJ22938_2.jpg
It is from the Castle and Regimental Museum in Monmouth, a town in southeast Wales. The image is a circus poster from the Victorian era. What caught my eye on this piece is the liberal use of various typefaces, as we studied in class, and also the addition of the large picture in the upper half of the poster.
The picture gives weight to the piece, immediately drawing your eye. From here, your eye moves upwards to the nearby red “Astley’s” large headline, which makes you read the upper half of the poster. “Presteign,” “3 Elephants!” and “St. George and the dragon” are also all in large red letters. This gives hierarchy to the piece: Presteign is important because that is the location the circus will be; 3 elephants were probably a big deal in that day, so they would want to point out that; and obviously a “dragon” must be a centerpiece of the circus. All other titles/sub-headings are also in larger texts than the main body text.
The size of the different text areas gives away the hierarchy of the piece. Also, using the fat font/wooden typefaces, we can see that this surely is a mark of the Victorian era. I like the poster—it obviously is jam-packed with information, and seems hectic, but I think it is a good translation of the circus atmosphere—packed and hectic as well. It would be fun to see a modern-day circus adopt this type of poster for themselves.
It is from the Castle and Regimental Museum in Monmouth, a town in southeast Wales. The image is a circus poster from the Victorian era. What caught my eye on this piece is the liberal use of various typefaces, as we studied in class, and also the addition of the large picture in the upper half of the poster.
The picture gives weight to the piece, immediately drawing your eye. From here, your eye moves upwards to the nearby red “Astley’s” large headline, which makes you read the upper half of the poster. “Presteign,” “3 Elephants!” and “St. George and the dragon” are also all in large red letters. This gives hierarchy to the piece: Presteign is important because that is the location the circus will be; 3 elephants were probably a big deal in that day, so they would want to point out that; and obviously a “dragon” must be a centerpiece of the circus. All other titles/sub-headings are also in larger texts than the main body text.
The size of the different text areas gives away the hierarchy of the piece. Also, using the fat font/wooden typefaces, we can see that this surely is a mark of the Victorian era. I like the poster—it obviously is jam-packed with information, and seems hectic, but I think it is a good translation of the circus atmosphere—packed and hectic as well. It would be fun to see a modern-day circus adopt this type of poster for themselves.
While not modern, I think that it would be interesting to see this incorporated into a modern poster design. My eye was also drawn first to the image, and then followed the same hierarchy that you pointed out. It would be interesting to find out the printing process they used for this. It seems to me that the image is a woodblock. Just from a design standpoint and getting picky, I think the lettering should be revisited as the baseline and kerning are inconsistent. Otherwise, good find! It seems circuses are the only ones to really use the Victorian style poster.
ReplyDeleteI find the text very interesting throughout this whole piece. As you can see in the header, the word "ASTLEY'S" is tilted just slightly. It almost looks like they didn't align it straight on the sheet when they were printing it. It is not a large enough tilt for it to be considered intentional.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the "FOR ONE DAY ONLY" text below the image, they look like they were playing around with italics. It doesn't seem like the appropriate place to use italics. The text on this page could use a little refining, such as the stencil letters below the picture. Is that font and text needed or could they have just made the font they are using throughout the piece bolder?
Looking at the imagery and layout, the piece is put together relatively well. The imagery along the side of the poster really ties everything together. To portray a circus, they might need to use a little bit more coloring next time (such as blues, yellows, and reds).
Each new show on the poster, seems to use a new font. It's a great example of a Victorian poster, the traditional poster. I think that the image really draws your attention because of the dark back ground, and the amount of black used. It really takes away from the red that they did attempt to use to draw your attention to the headlines. The decorative border is really interesting as well, its detail is really lost in the jumble of words.
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