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LOST
The eye-captivating lure
permanently lost in most homes
By WALLY ROBINSON
on the dealer's shelf is
ALESMEN call it: "Self-Service." A breezy histo­
might call it "the great browse." Whatever its
Srian
name, a profouml revolution in shopping and selling
habits has radically altered our everyday marketing
experience. "Window shopping," thanks to high arts
of lush packaging and ingenious display, has gone on
a rampage out of that confined space to interrupt our
steps midway in what may have begun as the most
purposeful buying mission. If your normal. shopping
expedition should consume, say, twenty minutes, how
much extra time do you allow for dawdling among the
arresting colors and designs that fetch your eye from
every corner of the shop you visit? How much extra
cash do you take "in case I see something I like?"
We are talking about the post-war boom in fancy
dress for products together with imaginative exposure
for the catchy wrappings. Nowhere is this phenomenon
as completely and irretrievably decisive for sales
as it is in the recording business.
Show business acumen and the evolution of the LP,
which created a favorable size and shape for albums,
propelled the record companies far ahead of other industries
in the race to seize our post-war leisure time
and to direct some of it to blissful contemplation of
what they had to sell. Besides, unlike the static design
for frozen foods or cigarettes where uniform design
suggests a uniform product, each record release has its
own sensational packaging. You never know what
ART
ON
RECORD
COVERS
JULY 1958
The fine art approach in modern vein-represented
by Columbia's use of Ben Shahn's powerful line work
and by Angel's display of a fine Picasso still life.
BELA BARTOK
17