Will Bradley: His Graphic Art

Rating:
Summary: Wonder Graphics
Review: WILL BRADLEY said in his autobiographical notes that one of the biggest eye-openers for him was figuring out how much selling something was behind design and typography. As he worked his way from printer's devil to Hearst publications art supervisor, he drew on influences from American draftsmen, English Arts and Crafts leader William Morris, and Japanese art for his black and white mix of asymmetrical curves, patterns, and shapes. Trade journals followed his lead in favoring Caslon Roman and italic type with woodcut initials and ornaments and with the occasional Caslon Black. Clarence P. Hornung has edited a wonderful collection of 97 Bradley creations, such as the covers for the Columbia bicycles booklet and Stephen Crane's "War Is Kind" book; the designs of shaggy toys and Mary with Jesus from "Bradley: His Book"; the frontispiece to "Peter Poodle, Toymaker to the King"; hall and living room interiors for the "Ladies Home Journal"; and an illustration from the "Wonderbox Stories." Towards the end of his life the artist was enthusiastic about the growth of commercial silk-screen and offset printings and about typesetting by photography. He might feel the same way nowadays about the breakthroughs in Warrington Colescott and Arthur Hove's PROGRESSIVE PRINTMAKERS, Steven Heller and Karen Pomeroy's DESIGN LITERACY, Henry Steiner and Ken Haas' CROSS-CULTURAL DESIGN, or Willem Velthoven and Jorinde Seijdel's MULTIMEDIA GRAPHICS.