Csaplár Ferenc szerk.: Lajos Kassák / The Advertisement and Modern Typography (1999)

The Advertisement and Modern Typography

THE ADVERTISEMENT AND MODERN TYPOGRAPHY In order to maintain the unobstructed production of modern industry, which is based on advanced technology and the rational organisation of work, we must observe various laws of social justice and co-ordinate commerce properly. An industry which produces without consideration for social organisation and commerce as a mediator will easily and periodically surely crash. The balanced state of society primarily depends on a rational solution to the question of production and consumption. Better said, the pace of industrial output should be determined by consumer needs. In order to ensure that the market does not remain empty or that factories do not over-produce, those who organise production must establish organic co-operation with commerce as a mediator, which is acquainted with the demands, economic status and cultural standards of consumers. In order to work freely and without embarrassing surprises on the market, commerce requires well-manufactured quality goods made of good raw materials, and, conversely, in order to turn out cheap, high-quality goods, producers need openminded tradesmen who understand the quality of goods and serve the interests of the buying public. It is therefore a question of what ways and means are available to commerce as the mediator to best fulfil its obligations to individuals and society. The astute tradesman realised long ago that, if he wanted to be an active factor in our lives, he would not only have to scrupulously serve the buyers turning up in his shop, but also to advertise in a well-organised, rational and ongoing manner. In the past decade, European commerce has at last taken notice of the American pace. Producers have begun to rationalise their shops, and commerce has begun to make use of the greatest means of influencing the consumer: the modern advertisement. Advertisements appear in hundreds and hundreds of forms before the consumer, and displays published in papers and magazines are among the most important types of advertisement. According to the latest American statistics, eighty per cent of the buying public read advertisements in the papers, trust them and allow themselves to be influenced by them. In Europe, advertisements cannot claim such a powerful effect, nor are European production and consumer markets so consciously organised. The European tradesman still looks down upon the world with haughty elegance; he still has not realised the significance of the paradoxical truth that goods are not bought but sold. The majority of European tradesmen are only prepared to start an advertising campaign when their businesses are on the brink of bankruptcy, and it is only natural that in this last moment they spend vast sums of money on campaigns that were not thought out and yield little. Even though it is undoubtedly true that advertising, carefully planned and implemented and created with an honest desire that business should be done, brings newer and newer circles of buyers into the market. But tradesmen must be aware of the psychology of the buying public and must make up their advertisements so as to be sober and objective and thus generally inspire confidence. Unfortunately, however, the backwardness of European advertising is caused not only by the lack of principle in tradesmen but also by the ineptitude on the part of the creators of advertisements. The tradesman advertising his goods, the designer of street posters and the printer typesetting newspaper displays have to be clear about the content and formal essence of advertising. The good, modern advertisement must: 1) be cheap and easy to reproduce; 2) be factual, truthful, and convincing; and 3) not praise the article, but qualify and familiarise the public with it. In the case of posters, pictorial stylisation must be given up; in newspaper advertisements, type-setters' pseudoartistic efforts and bravura tricks with characters should be excluded. If typesetters want to contribute constructively to the shaping of advertisements, they must liberate themselves from the various influences of the fine arts, they must concentrate on the given object and its texture. For making advertisements is not a creative but a formative activity. It comes into being for the sake of practical applicability, not for the sake of art. The type used should be surprising and effective, not decorously beautiful. An advertisement overdecorated with festoons and other graphic flourishes distracts from the object advertised. It might appeal to one's sense of beauty, but it will hardly call attention to the cheapness, quality and indispensability of the article, which was the raison d'etre of the advertisement in the first place. Just think of the so-called expressionist advertisements which were all the rage not too long ago, with their whimsically scattered characters and crooked rules. The type-setter might well have given vent to his "artistic" ambitions, but the buyer often as not could not make heads or tails of these "works of art", and had no idea what they were supposed to advertise. Who has the patience to figure out these individualistic games of type-setters? The buying public will, by their very nature, never make concessions in either financial questions or issues of taste. To a certain degree, the producer and the tradesman always stand in opposition to them. The tradesman must therefore give up his individual posturing, remove his masks, and fill his advertisements with purity and directness. And the makers of advertisements must naturally work with such considerations in mind. The advertisement must set out to conquer the market; it must be decisive in form and content and be quick and elementary in effect. After America, it was Germany that most realised the fundamental requirements of making advertisements. The work of German advertisement designers ought to receive the greatest possible attention from our craftsmen. The Germans, as always, direct the development of advertising on the basis of scientific observations. Their flourishing industry and commerce clearly demonstrate that they have built on solid foundations and conducted their experiments in the right direction. In textual composition they try as far as possible to confine themselves to slogans and interjections, in their formal expression they remain within the limits of the capabilities of the printing press. They work with straight 13