“Die Hochburg der Reklame” ad by Crawfords Reklame-Agentur

An advert for advertising; and one that links together three important names in the history of UK advertising as well as contemporary German design. It appears in the April 1928 issue of the noted German graphic design magazine Gebrauchsgrafik and was issued by the Berlin office of the noted London based advertising agency of W.S. Crawford. The company was founded by William Crawford in 1914 and for much of its existence was based in High Holborn; its later HQ building with a striking stainless steel facade survives close to Holborn Tube Station. During the 1920s and ’30s they maintained an office in Berlin and this speaks of the ready acceptance of continental practises and movements, such as the Bauhaus, on Crawford’s approach to business for their clients.

One of the names most associated with the company at this time, and for the next two decades, was that of Ashley Havinden who had joined as a trainee in 1922 and who by 1929 was artistic director. Interestingly, the lettering in this advert slightly echoes lettering designed by Havinden for the important client of Chrysler Cars and that was later issued by Monotype as a commercial typeface. It appears that here the German typeface Neuland, by Rudolf Koch and first issued in 1923, is used. Crawford’s were using the typeface in adverts from c.1927.

The advert itself is by Edward McKnight Kauffer who by this date was one of the most successful designers and artists at work in advertising. American born but since WW1 based in London, McKnight Kauffer’s early break had come with commissions for Frank Pick at the London Underground Group and he became one of the more influential ‘advertising artists’ in the 1920s and ’30s. This advert, in German, is very similar in style to a series of contemporary Crawford’s adverts in British advertising journals.

The main text, roughly translated, reads:

The Stronghold of Advertising. Hard. Crawford works hard in Berlin. Thinking. Planning. Drawing. Writing. Creating tirelessly. And chimneys smoke day and night. In the Ruhr area. In Upper Silesia. Sirens roar through the ports. Swing wheels churn. Hammers bang. And drills screech day and night. In the factories. Reconstruction! Reconstruction!! They all help. They all create. For Germany’s prosperity.

It is interesting to see this take on the period when Germany’s industries and its economy in genral, were desperately attempting to revitalise in the era of post-war calamity, reperations and political instability.

The main title is “The Stronghold of Advertising”. The graphics suggest industry, coke ovens or blast furnaces, against a background of towering chimneys in smoky shades of black and grey.