Ferkai András: Shopfronts - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1996)
Modern shopfronts At the end of the 1920s the first modern shopfronts virtually exploded into an environment of Eclectic, Art Nouveau and neo-Baroque portals. “The fast food buffets built almost at the same time started the whole process and by now quite a few good modern frontages can be seen in the inner city and on the boulevards.” Thus wrote the architect János Komor in the journal Tér és Forma (Space and Form) in 1931. Merchants whose mobile occupation involved travelling abroad readily accepted the modern principles of shopfront design because the huge plate-glass panes linking the shop with the street, the glittering metal frames and the modern graphic designs used for advertising were helpful in competing with their rivals. Soon nobody could resist the new aesthetics. The 1930s represented a golden age in the history of Hungarian commerce. It was a period marked by world- class works by designers and builders. The most outstanding architects, builders, industrial designers and graphic artists were commissioned by traders. Apart from the front and the interior of a shop, the wrapping of the products, the firm’s letter-heads, its advertisements and even its bill slips were all designed by artists. Some companies (Stüh- mer, Meinl, Pauncz, Pók, etc.) went to all lengths to ensure that their chain of outlets had a uniform appearance or, to use a current term, image. They employed a permanent designer who created an easily identifiable characteristic image for the firm by designing its advertising features and always using the same colours rather than standardizing the individual shops. Thus a combination of vermilion and silver became permanent features on the shopfronts designed by Ferenc Kende and Pál Szívó for Stühmer Ltd.’s sweet shops, cream tile covering came to be associated with Meinl groceries and blue glass covering became a standard feature of the outlets designed by József Ernyei for the Fiumei Coffee Importing Co. Many excellent shopfronts are hallmarked by the names of Lajos Kozma, Gyula Kaesz, Pál Rákos, Gábor Forgó, József Szirmai and Pál Weisz. Besides the designers, mention must be made of some building firms as well. Haas & Somogyi Co., Lajos Márkus Co. and the company of József Martini, Lajos Horváth and Béla Füredi all accepted commissions both to plan and to construct frontages. In their advertisements they emphasized that they constructed 23
