Mad Men & the End of Illustration



One of the things that that struck me from the early days of Mad Men was that the agency's art department featured men sitting at drawing boards, illustrating things. Quaint, yes, but up to the mid-60s or so most ads were hand-drawn. Even Andy Warhol, king of mass-produced, impersonal art, was an advertising illustrator, and a damn good one at that. I was listening to Sinatra's 1965 LP "September of My Years," and noticed that the cover really captured the hand-drawn look of the time. I like how it keeps a rough, unfinished quality, like it's a study.

Comments

  1. Ditto for draftsmen, standing at a drawing board, T-square and compass flying. You can see it in the 1962 English film The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner.

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