Art in Philips advertising 1891-1941
Description
Lecture summary:
In 1891, Philips & Co was founded in Eindhoven to manufacture light bulbs. As the light bulb was not yet a consumer product at that time, advertising was also virtually non-existent. It was not until 1908 that the first Philips advertisements appeared in newspapers and magazines. Initially, advertising mainly used figures in traditional costume. As a means of advertising, this worked fine but it was not really artistic, of course. But from 1916 onwards, artists from Philips were occasionally commissioned to design a poster. There was little sign of any uniformity in advertising. This changed when ir Kalff joined Philips in 1925. He introduced art deco into advertising, standardised the word image PHILIPS and initiated the Philips logo. Kalff's arrival also saw the creation of an Artistic Propaganda department where more and more advertising designers found employment. As a result of the economic crisis, Philips had to lay off about 50% of its employees in the early 1930s. Advertising work was increasingly outsourced to advertising agencies. Occasionally, an artist was commissioned. At the end of the 1930s, the Artistic Propaganda department was transferred to the Eindhovensche Drukkerij, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Philips that also worked for third parties.
The lecture is interspersed with fine advertising and with a few short film clips.
Information about the speaker, Frans Wilbrink:
At the end of the 1970s, in the business economics department, he was introduced to examples of Philips advertising from the period before World War II by a sales manager. After some insistence, he was allowed to keep the advertising material (mainly leaflets). This was the beginning of a passion and a collecting frenzy that would eventually result in an unprecedentedly large and high-quality collection of Philips advertising. In the mid-1990s, he started publishing articles about his hobby (including for the Philips Koerier, Philips' staff magazine). A book was a logical next step. The first text version of his book 'Art in Philips advertising (1891-1941)' was ready in 1997. However, it was only eight years later that he managed to find a publisher ([Z]OO productions) for the book. In 2005, the year Frits Philips turned 100, the book was published. Simultaneously with the publication, an exhibition of Philips posters took place in Eindhoven, of course with many works from Wilbrink's collection. While collecting continued, he built a website showing the finest pieces from his collection, supplemented by biographies of the Philips advertising artists
Speaker(s)
Frans Wilbrink (* 1943) was employed by Philips in Eindhoven from 1959 to 2003. With a small interruption of four years in the business economics department (1976-1980), he always worked in automation (ICT). In the evenings, he obtained various diplomas. Finally, he graduated in business economics at Tilburg University in 1980.
Location
Mijnbouwstraat 120, 2628 RX Delft
Organiser
History of Technology
Histechnica
Name and contact details for information
Further information from Dr Paul van Woerkom (tel. 070 - 3070275 in the evening) or via the e-mail address below