The most common sizes of window cards—advertisements placed in store windows by courtesy of the merchants—are quarter-sheets (11 × 14 inches) and half-sheets (14 × 22 inches), the unit of which is the standard sheet of cardboard (about 22 × 28 inches).
Posters in their most attractive form are designed in pleasing combinations of decorative illustration, lettering and harmonious coloring. The printer with type alone cannot give the picture element, but he can give color and lettering.
What a poster authority has said of the pictorial poster can to some extent be said of the typographic poster: “The poster should be simple, clever, attractive, perhaps sparkling, spontaneous, appropriate, sometimes humorous, but in good taste, and should tell the story at a glance. It should not be elaborate in detail or labored; the designer should know where to stop. The coloring should be brilliant, yet simple; when many colors are used most of them are wasted, as the eye does not see them all. As detail in a poster is lost at a distance, it is unnecessary. The best posters have no background and not much lettering, as small lettering cannot be seen across the street, which is the test.”
It is assumed that the typographic poster is viewed at closer range, as in its smaller sizes it is usually hung in stores and offices or posted in convenient locations that permit of easy reading; yet the printer who sets the work, as well as the man who writes the copy, should keep before him the manner in which the poster, car card or window card is to be used. A person sitting on the opposite side of the car should be able to read the car card, and the person passing a store window should find it possible to obtain the principal points of information from the window card. On store cards, such as used during special sales, the price should be prominently displayed.
A lettered arrangement that has suggestion ]
A few words of copy and strong contrasts ]
A typographic style unique among insurance advertising in cars ]
Simplicity that is worthy of adaptation ]
EXAMPLE 366 (Insert).—The possibilities of typographic effects in poster printing are to be seen in this example, arranged by Frederic W. Goudy. Forum Title, designed by him, was selected as the type-face. In order to obtain the larger sizes, the type was set in a smaller size, a clear proof pulled and a photo-engraving made. This poster measures up to the qualities outlined by the poster authority previously quoted. It is “spontaneous, appropriate, simple, clever, attractive.”
