Consumer Product Graphics of the 1920sThe 1920s were a decade when the past and the future collided. The explosive growth of the radio, Jazz and baseball were hugely popular. In design, if the second decade of the 20th century was noted for significant changes in typography, the 1920s were a time of significant changes in the use of illustration. The influences of popular illustrators as diverse as Maxfield Parrish, Beatrix Potter, James Montgomery Flagg, and one of my favorites C. Coles Phillips.This decade was also a time when new package design themes were originated. In many cases these themes still have a profound influence on the conventions of contemporary design. This also seemed to be a time when interesting design precedents were being established. Some categories would become design leaders and others would become design followers. Labels for products where changing perfume bottles where taking on a new look they were certainly breaking new ground. The fragrance industry, until this decade, had been heavily influenced by designs that relied on historical references, were complex, organically modeled feminine forms, and still heavily influenced by the complex motifs of the late 19th century gilded age. These new 1920s brands offered a radical mix of simplified bottle shapes, and label typography. The notion of using simple black sans-serif typography on an unadorned white or gold label would not have occurred to a perfumer previously.Fruit Crate Art was also changing radically new printing techniques could inexpensively reproduce bold, full color illustration. There was an explosion of graphic icons, bold color, and dramatically simplified layouts and typography. These layouts often depended solely on the strength of the illustration for their communication. Cigar label art was also changing While this category benefitted from the same opportunities afforded by the new printing techniques, the marketers were far more conservative with their brand equity, preferring to continue with design themes from the previous two decades. Typography was still heavily influenced by the 19th century hand-drawn letterforms, with the use of art nouveau inspired textures and patterns. But the use of bright colorful illustration was truly a break from the past. Previously cigar labels, and many other types of label graphics, had used a limited palette of 2-3 line colors and the illustrations were often rendered, like old-master etchings, in a black line drawing style. While the graphic style might be intentionally traditional, these new cigar labels do explode with full color, tonal drawings.