Date: 1927
Size: 9.75 x 7.25 inches
Artist: Karl Schulpig
This Kölnische Zeitung ad by Karl Schulpig was first designed in 1924, then printed as a mini lithographic poster in 1927 in a book edited by Dr. Walter Schubert. Titled "Die Deutsche Werbe Graphik," it was published in Berlin by Francken and Lang. It is the only edition of this important study of a great era of German graphic design featuring posters, packaging, advertising, book illustrations, programs for theater, and sports. Illustrated mostly with tipped-in color plates of work by Bernhard, Hohlwein, Klinger, Preetorius, Gipkens, Kleukens, Cissarz, Pechstein and many others, this book and the illustrations contained within it are considered highly collectable and very, very rare.
Kölnische Zeitung was one of Germany's leading daily newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries, until the rise of National Socialism. The newspaper understood itself as democratic, bourgeois, and liberal in the sense of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.
Karl Schulpig (1884-1948) was a German commercial artist and painter. He mainly dealt with the development of corporate signage and the design of modern posters. Some of his logos are still used today or have influenced the modern redesigns derived from them. With his reduced visual style, he entered new territory in the 1920s. Instead of the often used seal-like and ornate signs and symbols, he designed memorable, almost iconic figurative marks for many companies. He is today considered one of the fathers of modern logo design.