Commercial Art

Commercial Art was published by Commercial Art Ltd in 5 volumes, resulting in 42 issues between October 1922 and June 1926 when it was acquired by Studio Magazine. It was conceived as a trade journal for the British advertising industry and contains numerous, well-illustrated articles on posters, poster stamps, printing, typography, letter art, illustrations, signage, point-of-sale and window display, packaging and more. In 1932 it was announced that the magazine would devote more space to industrial design and consequently, the title changed to Commercial Art and Industry, and four years later, in July 1936, to Art and Industry. In 1955 the magazine adopted the subtitle ‘Pioneer Journal of Industrial Design’. In the last decade of its existence, ‘Art and Industry’ found itself competing with a plethora of new design magazines, notably ‘Design’ published in Britain from 1949, and ‘Industrial Design’ published in the USA from 1954. In an attempt to stem dwindling sales, it changed its title to ‘Design for Industry’ in 1959 but did not survive beyond that year.

Among artists whose work is discussed or illustrated in Commercial Art include H.M. Bateman, Frank Brangwyn, F. Gregory Brown, Austin Cooper, E.A. Cox, G.M. Ellwood, Reginald Frampton, Lovat Fraser, E. McKnight Kauffer, Harold Nelson, Frank Newbould, Charles Pears, Fred Pegram, Tom Purvis, Septimus Scott, George Sheringham, Edmund J. Sullivan, Charles Sykes, Fred Taylor, Horace Taylor and Anna and Doris Zinkeisen,

Number of Artists referenced: 80