Comparisons

The development and progression of advertising is clear through the designers with the slow reduction in the use of type within the adverts, the images seem to become more vibrant. I don't mind adverts with large amounts of text but some of Ogilvy's work i don't feel would work as well now as it used to, however its clear that William Bernbach's style and layout is still used in contemporary adverts when used in newspapers and other forms of publication adverts.

Abram Games

The style of his work — refined but vigorous compared to the work of contemporaries — has earned him a place in the pantheon of the best of 20th-century graphic designers. In acknowledging his power as a propagandist, he claimed, “I wind the spring and the public, in looking at the poster, will have that spring released in its mind.” Because of the length of his career — over six decades — his work is essentially a record of the era's social history. Some of Britain's most iconic images include those by Games. An example is the "Join the ATS" propaganda poster of 1941, nicknamed the "Blonde Bombshell" recruitment poster. From 1942, during World War II, Games's service as the Official War Artist resulted in 100 or so posters.

I really like his strong bold style which almost presents things as icons i like his use of imagery and the way he combines images like in his  "grow your own food" and the message 'use spades not ships'. The layout works nicely in projecting this message which is the ship against the spade which sits quite nicely against one another. I like how this reaffirms the message to make it more interesting than it would otherwise be.

William Bernbach

William (Bill) Bernbach (August 13, 1911, New York City - October 2, 1982, New York City) was a legendary figure in the history of American advertising. He was one of the three founders of Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) and directed ad campaigns such as Think Small for Volkswagen Beetle, which is recognized by Advertising Age as the top advertising campaign of the twentieth century.

Leo Burnett

Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971) was an advertising executive who created the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, Toucan Sam, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7up "Spot", and Tony the Tiger.

n 1935, he created his own agency in Chicago, which is now known as Leo Burnett Worldwide. He was inducted into the Copywriters Hall of Fame in 1961, and retired in 1967.

Burnett followed Walter Lippmann's philosophy of creating an image around the product. Until his time, advertising centered on long text descriptions of the product, with detailed arguments as to why it was better than competing products. Burnett concentrated on style, creating icons as a symbol of the product. He stressed that the creator of an ad needed to somehow capture and reflect what he called the "inherent drama" of the product.

One of his most important uses of internal corporate symbols were the red apples placed on every receptionist's desk. Any visitor or employee was free to take one, and this is still the case. It stemmed from the opening day of Leo Burnett's agency, when the receptionist set out a bowl of apples to brighten up the place. When word got around that Leo Burnett was serving apples to his visitors, a newspaper columnist cracked, "It won't be long 'til Leo Burnett is selling apples on the street corner instead of giving them away." Though the columnist was only echoing the general feeling during the Depression, Burnett saw the apples as representing the spirit of caring and concern for employees and clients alike.

Another important internal symbol Leo Burnett created was an icon of a 'hand reaching for the stars', which he explained with the saying, "When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either".

A third symbol was the "black pencil", an Alpha 245 of the type commonly used by Burnett in his lifetime. To Burnett it symbolised a commitment to the warmth and humanity of ideas, and to the work of the people who create them.

His work feels quite modern and through looking at his work i see where certain trends within advertising began. Using characters to sell cereal and other products i like as it almost personifies the product which i like as it allows more ways of been creative with whats available.

David Ogilvy

David MacKenzie Ogilvy, CBE, (June 23, 1911–July 21, 1999), was a notable advertising executive. He has often been called "The Father of Advertising." In 1962, Time called him "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry." He was known for a career of expanding the bounds of both creativity and morality in advertising.

Ogilvy’s advertising mantra followed these four basic principles,

• Research: coming, as he did, from a background in research, he never underestimated its importance in advertising. In fact, in 1952, when he opened his own agency, he billed himself as research director.
• Professional discipline: "I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance." He codified knowledge into slide and film presentations he called Magic Lanterns. He also instituted several training programs for young advertising professionals.
• Creative brilliance: had a strong emphasis on the "BIG IDEA."
• Results for clients: "In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create."

I personally don't find his work all that inspiring except for the headers within them which make the adverts more interesting. Majority of the images within his ads i find a bit dull and not very engaging although they possibly were at the time.

Past Advertising

Much of today's advertising differs from adverts of the 1930s-1960s with different processes and style of delivery. Work from David Ogilvy, Abram Games, William Bernbach, Leo Burnett.

Imagist

With precise, forceful imagery and clear, sharp language we provide an individual and original response to each and every brief – achieved through rigorous research and engaging communication with our clients.We work for both independent organisations and large corporations across many sectors – including retail, property, government, aviation and the arts – creating and developing everything from brand identities, corporate literature and websites to advertising campaigns, signage and public art installations.We pride ourselves on boundless imagination, meticulous attention to detail and a personal interest that enhances the outcome of each collaboration.

Clients include:Arts&Business, Babel Label, Ballymore Group, Carrington Property Consultants, European Business Jets, FedEx, Forma Music, Future Realities, Futurecity, Grand Visual, HAT Projects, Kinetica Museum, Land Securities, Nokia, OneDeko, Old Spitalfields Market, Palo Alto, Sectorlight, TIGI, Wieden+Kennedy.

I like the FedEx stuff they've done with the nice simple type led design which i think works well in getting across the messages.