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

The Street and the Advertisement

quality, colour and form, rises above the standard reached in the former year, then he can bravely state that artistic expression has developed. In the case of the applied arts, however, there are several important factors beyond the primary creator, and the work is not an expression of itself, as it is in the case of the fine arts, for it must serve external ideas and complex interests. An artistically beautiful poster is not necessarily a good poster, just as a shop window packed with goods or "artistically decorated" is not necessarily a good shop window. Moreover, it is just these two approaches that sully shop windows from an aesthetic pointof-view, and that, instead of augmenting, impair, sometimes even thwart, the inclination of the public to buy. The function of a shop window, standing between the shop and the public, would be to mediate between the buyer and the seller. It so often happens that someone walking along a street without thinking of buying certain articles or without any special need for them, seeing a nicely, or better, a well arranged shop window, momentarily forgets his financial troubles, takes a liking to the goods displayed and is, as it were, lured into the shop. But only a well arranged shop window is capable of functioning in this mediating role. It happens much too often that someone goes out to do some shopping only to find that the look of shop windows actually puts him off his original intention. If we try to look for the psychological reasons behind this second possibility, generally, we shall find them in shop windows being over-crowded with goods and being "artistically decorated". Goods in an over-crowded shop window become trumpery, and it seems that, with over-decoration, the tradesman wants only to mask the poor quality of his goods. Constant suspicion is part and parcel of the psychology of the buyer, and he thus unconsciously flees all shops where he suspects some ploy. The buyer's instinctive excessive suspicion of the producer or seller is naturally often unfounded. It is hardly probable that the owner of a badly arranged shop window wants to cheat or fool his customers or even rob them. But it is certain that a tradesman who shows his customers a shop window dumped with goods and over-decorated is not a master of his trade. Such tradesmen do not perceive, in fact, they misperceive, the frame of mind and thinking of buyers, and are not clear about the aesthetic and textural significance of their goods. They do not know that flashy colours dumped together result in tasteless freakishness, and that goods heaped up give one the impression of a close-out sale. The point of a shop window is not to represent all goods on sale in the shop. But a well-placed article or a well-composed range of colours points to value in the window-shopper's eyes, and actually thrill him into wishing to acquire the article displayed or even a better one. A good shop window touches a buyer and captures his imagination; it inspires in him a longing which he can only satisfy in the shop. All good tradesmen must therefore take care not to frighten the buying public away with their zeal, their senseless and confused dumping of goods and kitsch-like decoration of articles in shop windows. The functional shop window is aesthetically simple and economical in the quantity of goods. Unfortunately, most of our tradesmen have not yet realised these simple laws, or even if some of them have, they dare not observe them on account of the competition with their neighbours. One of our big department stores, for instance, had its shop windows arranged in genuinely good taste and acceptable by the most progressive foreign standards for about half a year after its opening. This was all the more remarkable and welcome because such a department store sells, as is well known, medium quality, what are called mass-produced articles. Unlike the shop windows of other department stores, those of this one could bravely compete with the shop windows of any city centre. The image created by this Budapest department store was like any created by the large department stores in the great cities of the world. And we cannot believe that the management or the advertising manager of the store found that its outstandingly well-arranged shop windows had a negative effect on turnover; nonetheless, in a short while, these shop windows were despoiled, instead of simply displaying the articles, the space meant for displaying goods was decorated with stylised paintings, and the whole thing was turned into artistic kitsch. A painter was employed beside the window-dresser, and the elegance of the store was transformed into a cheap, showy cyclorama. But it is not this one instance we wish to talk about; we could pick out any number of similar cases. There are shop windows imitating deserts, oases or mountain ranges covered by snow as the far as the eye can see. In the midst of this the tradesman, blessed with artistic taste and zeal, wishes to sell confectionery, women's clothing, toothbrushes or shoe laces. I began this article by mentioning the aesthetics of the streets, and moved on to the tradesman who misconceives what his own interests are. The beginning and the end are only seemingly unrelated. The mess in the streets of Pest can be connected to the same human mentality and inadvertence, as the disregard and mess of shop windows and advertisement pillars can. And we must again, though sadly, say that our initiatives lag miles behind foreign ones, and our achievements seem to pale in comparison rather than shine. REKLÁMÉLET, MAY 1929, PP. 1-4. 18