Baker Library
Harvard Business School
Exhibit and Graphic Design: Proun Design, LLC
Exhibit Fabrication: WB Inc.
1865-1910
Before Mad Men and 3 martini lunches, there was the gilded age of advertising. "By the 1860s, the engines of the railroad industry had created a national network for manufacture and distribution of consumer goods, and, with it, the need for eye-catching, widespread advertising." Advances in printing technologies enabled the creative expression of a brand and opened a floodgate of competition for the consumer's favor. Collectable trade cards, almanacs, calendars, catalogs, and exquisitely printed posters are among the items from the Harvard Business School's Baker Library Historic Collections that are on display through May of 2014.
The design of the exhibits employs period advertising fonts and decorative typographic ornaments.
A sophisticated color palette complements the rich advertising graphics on display without clashing with the elegant surroundings of the Baker Library lobby.