The Austin Company - ACTION!

Today, Phil Are GO! is proud to bring you yet another decogasm from the 1930s in the form of this ad for The Austin Company, builders of commercial properties in the golden era of  Rich Uncle Pennybags, the Monopoly guy. We found the picture in Fortune Magazine. Pity that Austin was a little premature with their optimism about the economy at the time. The Great Depression would still be depressing us till nineteen forty-something.

Pow. Get an eyefull of that uber-deco building. My dear picture, art thou deco? Let me count the ways. Airbrush? Check. Melodramatic, harsh light source? Check. Clean, geometric lines? Check. Radiused corners? Check. Giant, bold text? Oh, you better believe that's a big check! If you want to duplicate the text in header of this ad, just grab yourself some Stymie Black and start typing.

Well doesn't that beat all? The Austin Company are still around, although I have to say their design team is a little mediocre these days. Their site looks about as ordinary as you can get. Come on guys. You're supposed to be a design company for buildings. You might consider letting your web site reflect a tiny shred of the panache you had back in '36. Just a thought.

In the rendering in today's ad, you can tell that it started with a photograph of a sky, which was then sprayed over with a darker gray to make the white building pop. It's the decoist's love of stark contrast that often leads to the use of dark skies with bright foreground elements. Stormy weatherrrr...

Anyway, your rude finger thinks you should right click this little beauty into your hard drive's private real estate holdings. It's right. Get ready to right click in three, two, one.... You're welcome.

Click for big.