Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

Mappin tells the history of graphic design in São Paulo from 1913 to 1939
They presented an organized display of the products available
at the store and their prices. They could be ordered by telephone
to be sent by mail. After choosing the product, it was possible to
buy it through the mail order service offered by the store.
There was clear refinement in the covers of those publications,
whose language was based on art nouveau style posters. There
were general catalogues, whose four-color covers printed in lithography
reproduced delicate drawings of elegantly dressed
ladies, always on the forefront standing out from the background.
For example, it is noteworthy the richness of details and
refinement of the model illustrated on the catalogue published
in 1930. In some editions, there were formally dressed gentlemen,
and others featured cars, symbols of power and status. The
background could be a color, a European landscape, or the building
of the store, faithfully reproduced, like in the 1925 catalogue,
features which made catalogues similar to those produced in
Europe at the time (see Figures 7,8 and 9).
Figure 7. Catalogue cover 1925. Museu Paulista da USP
Figure 8. Catalogue cover 1924. Museu Paulista da USP
Figure 9. Catalogue cover 1930. Museu
Paulista da USP
Catalogues were books with 60 pages or more, distributed in
sheets, fastened together by staples. Internal pages displayed
the merchandise for sale, with a brief explanation about the
product and its price. Differently from the cover, these pages
were printed in black by the typographic system. There were
detailed drawings, transformed in clichés to print the hundreds
of merchandise available, and prices and specifications were
typeset.
The colorful covers displayed on the foreground elegantly
dressed models, sinuous lines and large areas of flat colors.
Internal pages were monocolor. The insertion of Mappin Stores’
logotype in every page created unity in the graphic language
(see Figures 10 and 11).
Figure 10. Catalogue cover of 1934. Museu Paulista da USP
Figure 11. Internal pages of catalogue published in 1923. Museu Paulista da USP
It was not rare for daily newspapers to publish notes complimenting
the publications. In contrast, occasional catalogues,
like the ones for sales and Christmas, did not have the same features
as the regular catalogues. Sale flyers were printed in two
colors, black and a second color. They used lower quality paper
and books could be stapled together, or folded once or twice with
different sizes. The covers featured reproductions of the building’s
façade, from different angles each time, at sale times. The
other was color red, a simple and effective resource. Drawings
used halftone and the composition of figures was done creatively.
The types used were simple and direct, without serif. The
contrast was the strong point of the image (see Figure 12).
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 483