2014 calendars: part 5

This week's calendar post is focused on heavenly bodies - from the sun to the solar system and the stars in the sky.

First up is The Circular Calendar, a giant poster-sized calendar by German designer Sören Lachnit, which organizes the year in a clockwise fashion. The yellow form in the interior of the calendar represents the possible sun hours fifty degrees north of the equator, with weekdays, calendar weeks, moon phases, months, and enough space for daily notes represented. A very conceptually cool calendar for 2014.

(Via designboom)

Next up, a silkscreened Solar System calender from Forest & Waves. With its black and metallic gold foil ink, this heavenly calender features illustrations of the sun, the 8 planets (Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury - sorry Pluto) and their larger moons, dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris), and the Halley's Comet.

And finally, Heather Lins Home gives you a glow-in-the-dark, interactive Stitch the Stars Calender Kit. Each month features a screenprinted illustration of its corresponding Zodiac constellation, with embroidery thread and needle provided for you to connect the dots and watch each constellation glow.

if I had a million dollars

I would buy...{the pop culture edition}

One of Adam Rabalais' Goonies movie posters.

A Nadine Hurley brooch, from Dana Damki.

Double Bravo Designs' The Year You Were Born 2012 NYC letterpress card.

This thunder in our hearts tote, from fieldguided.

And Kelsy Garrity Riley's Lady Mary print.

Designer of the Month: Alphonse Mucha

Week 4: advertisements, the Exposition Universelle and the Slav Epic

Alphonse Mucha, Poster for 'Job' cigarette paper, 1896. Color lithograph. © Mucha Trust.

Advertising, and in particular, the artistic quality of advertising posters, was of extremely high importance within Paris during the 1890s, and Alphonse Mucha, who achieved fame during this time, was perfectly positioned to become one of the major artists creating these works.[1]As the Mucha Foundation explains:

By the 1890s posters had taken centre stage in the visual culture of the French capital. Thanks to the advancement of printing technology, the standard of colour lithography was improving and the material opulence of Belle Époque Paris provided talented artists with great opportunities to design advertising posters. The Paris hoardings had been the official posting places for advertising posters since the implementation of the Law on the Freedom of the Press in 1881; by then they had become ‘street galleries’, influencing the commercial success of both the advertisers and the artists designing the posters. In this competitive environment the artistic quality of the posters became increasingly important.[2]

In addition to art posters, Mucha's contract with the Imprimerie Champenois provided him with as much steady work - both artistic and commercial - as he desired, affording him not only fame, but financial security as well.[3] And like much of Mucha's work, many of these illustrations had numerous editions that were published in a variety of formats for both Parisian and international markets, giving them a life well beyond their intended purpose.[4]

Alphonse Mucha, Official Banquet of the Paris Exhibition 1900: design for the menu featuring a fashionable woman wearing a Mucha-style jewellery, 1900. Pencil, gouache and wash on grey paper. © Mucha Trust. 

Mucha's fame was further solidified with Paris' Exposition Universelle in 1900. As the first World's Fair of the new century, the Exposition Universelle was a celebration of the best that the world had to offer, with Art Nouveau front and center as the international style du jour. And as the master of Art Nouveau, Mucha was particularly well-represented at the fair through a wide variety of commissions. These included a poster for the Austrian pavilion, the decorations for the pavilion of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the selection of an exhibition of Austrian artifacts, and yet another major retrospective of his own work.[5]

Alphonse Mucha, 'The Slavic Epic' cycle No.1: The Slavs in Their Original Homeland, 1912. Egg tempera on canvas. © Mucha Trust.

It was the large-scale paintings that Mucha created for the Bosnia-Herzegovina pavilion, in particular, that would have a lasting impact on his life. Not only did these win the silver prize at the exhibition, Mucha was made a Knight of the Order of Franz Josef I for his contributions to the empire.[6] In addition to these accolades, these paintings, which had the effect of transforming the pavilion into a celebration of the history and the cultural diversity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, forced upon Mucha the life-changing decision.[7] In 1904, in order to raise funds for what would come to be his masterpiece, the Slav Epic (1911-1926), Mucha gave up Parisian life to go on a working tour of the United States.[8] While his trip did not go quite as expected, Mucha was to return to the U.S. five times over the next few years as part of his fundraising efforts, finally securing financing for the series in 1910 from the wealthy American Charles R. Crane.[9] A series of large-scale canvases (the largest measuring over 26 feet) depicting the history of the Slav people and civilization, Mucha would devote the entire latter half of his artistic career to the realization of these monumental works:

With the Slav Epic Mucha wished to unite all the Slavs through their common history and their mutual reverence for peace and learning and eventually to inspire them to work for humanity using their experience and virtue. In 1928, Mucha and Crane officially presented the complete series of the Slav Epic to the City of Prague as a gift to the nation, coinciding with the 10th Anniversary of its independence.[10]

[1] Mucha Foundation online, "Gallery: Advertising Posters," http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/themes/theme/advertising-posters/object/44, (accessed June 28, 2012).


[2] Ibid.


[3] Ibid.


[4] Ibid.


[5] Victor Arwas, Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), 15.


[6] Mucha Foundation online, "Timeline," http://www.muchafoundation.org/timeline/alphonse-mucha-timeline#!/timeline/alphonse-mucha-timeline/timeline_period/breakthrough-in-paris/event/mucha-is-well-represented-at-the-exposition-universelle, (accessed June 28, 2012).


[7] Victor Arwas, Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), 15.


[8] Ibid., 15.


[9] Ibid., 16.


[10] Mucha Foundation online, "Gallery: Slav Epic," http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/themes/theme/slav-epic, (accessed June 28, 2012).

Designer of the Month: Alphonse Mucha

Week 3: Le Plume, Salon des Cents and the Imprimerie Champenois

Alphonse Mucha, Poster for 'Salon des Cent Mucha Exhibition June 1897', 1897. Color lithograph. © Mucha Trust.

After his poster for Gismonda caused a fuss in 1894 and Sarah Bernhardt locked him down with a six year contract, Alphonse Mucha quickly became Paris' poster designer superstar. The editor of Le Plume, a monthly publication that championed the art and writing of the avant-garde, invited Mucha to contribute to the magazine and design of a poster for its art gallery, Salon des Cent.[1] According to the Mucha Foundation, the poster he designed (above) "depicts a woman with distinctly Slavonic features wearing a Moravian bonnet and a wreath of daisies. She holds up a panel with a heart encircled by three decorative garlands. Composed of daisies, thorns and fruits, this motif symbolizes the complexity of life."[2] This relationship led to a major exhibition at the Salon des Cent in 1897 that showcased 448 of Mucha's works - a tremendous figure - with the invitation for the associated private viewing reproducing this work.[3] So, how does one know that they've become a superstar? By the legends surrounding you, of course, with "some asserting he was a Hungarian or even Spanish and one particularly charming one claiming that Sarah Bernhardt had stolen him away from a gypsy camp."[4]

Alphonse Mucha, The Seasons (series), 1896. Color lithograph. © Mucha Trust.

It was during this time, in 1896, that Mucha signed a contract with the Imprimerie Champenois, one of the most important printers of the period, who would further help spread his reputation by inventing a new genre: decorative panels (‘panneaux décoratifs’).[5] Mucha ended up producing several sets of these decorative panels including the above work, The Seasons (1896), in addition to The Flowers (1898), The Arts (1898), The Times of the Day (1899), The Precious Stones (1900), and The Moon and the Stars (1902).[6]  In this way, by releasing Mucha's designs in multiple editions, the Imprimerie Champenois maximized their business while Mucha transformed his work into a novel art form that was both affordable and available to a wider public than ever before, bringing him even wider fame and recognition.[7]

Alphonse Mucha, Zodiac, 1896. Color lithograph. © Mucha Trust.

In response to the popularity of his posters, the Imprimerie Champenois introduced Mucha’s work not only on decorative panels, but calendars, postcards, theatre programs, and menus as well, licensing his designs and illustrations to companies and publications throughout Europe and North America and turning Mucha into a household name.[8] Before his designs for decorative panels, Mucha's first work for the Imprimerie Champenois was Zodiac (1896). Originally designed as an in-house calendar for the company, it would quickly attract wider attention, including that of Léon Deschamps, chief editor of La Plume, who was so taken by Zodiac that bought the rights to distribute it as the magazine's 1897 calendar.[9] From there, the work went on to become one of Mucha's most popular designs, with at least nine variants of the lithograph that are known, including the one above, which was printed without text to serve as a decorative panel.[10]



[1] Victor Arwas, Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), 14.

[2] Mucha Foundation online, "Gallery," http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/browse-works/object/88, (accessed June 21, 2012).

[3] Victor Arwas, Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), 14.

[4] Ibid., 14.

[5] Mucha Foundation online, "Gallery: Art Posters," http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/themes/theme/art-posters, (accessed June 21, 2012).


[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Victor Arwas, Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), 14.

[9] Much Foundation online, "Gallery," http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/browse-works/object/242, (accessed June 21, 2012).

[10] Ibid.

Designer of the Month: Alphonse Mucha

Week 2: Early career and Sarah Bernhardt

Alphonse Mucha, Poster for 'Cours Mucha' at the Académie Colarossi, 1892. © Mucha Trust.

Born in 1860 in Ivančice, a South Moravian town in the Eastern part of the Czech Republic, Alphonse Maria Mucha was a poor student, but showed an interest in art from a young age, devoting much of his spare time to drawing and designing stage sets.[1] After working in Vienna as a scene painter, Mucha studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich before joining the Académie Julian and then the Académie Colarossi in Paris.[2] After school, Mucha began working as a professional illustrator, securing commissions for everything from covers for magazines, lottery tickets, school manuels, and theatrical costumes and stage sets.[3] In addition to becoming known for his illustrations, Mucha also begins teaching during this time. In 1892, he begins giving drawing lessons in his studio, called "Cours Mucha," which proved so successful that he was later asked to teach at the Académie Colarossi.[4]

Alphonse Mucha, Poster for ’Gismonda’, 1894. Color lithograph. © Mucha Trust.

But it was 1894 that marks the start of Mucha's Art Nouveau period and subsequent fame. According to the legend, which was created by Mucha himself and elaborated over the years, he was alone at the offices of Lemercier, a well-known printer, over Christmas Day and St. Stephan's Day, proofing lithographs for a friend:

Just as he was completing the work, Monsieur de Brunoff, Lemercier's manager, rushed in and informed him that Sarah Bernhardt had just telephoned to say she needed a poster to be ready by New Year's Day. It was for Sardou's play Gismonda; attendances had been flagging and a boost was needed to revive it in the New Year. As it was a holiday period, all Lemercier's regular poster artists - including Georges de Feure and Fernand Gottlob - were away. Could Mucha do it? Mucha was willing to try...On the manager's return on December 30th the poster was printed and hanging up to dry. De Brunoff was horrified. He was certain Sarah would reject the poster and felt his own situation at risk, but there was no time left to change it...Mucha, thoroughly unnerved by De Brunoff, sank into depression in the Lemercier studio until roused by a telephone call summoning him to the theater. Feeling like a condemned man on his way to the scaffold, Mucha went, only to find Sarah entranced by her image in the poster. She loved the work, welcomed Mucha, and soon tied him into a contract with her to design not only posters, theater cards and programmes, but also costumes and stage sets - a collaboration that often extended to the whole production.[5] 

While this may have been a bit of a dramatic version of the events, the poster caused an immediate sensation.[6] Crowds of people gathered around them; collectors either tried to bribe or steal them.[7] The poster's design - the long narrow shape, subtle pastel colors, intricate, linear pattern, and the stillness of the near life-size figure - were startling in their novelty, and became the pattern for the additional six posters that Mucha would go on to produce for Bernhardt's productions: La Dame aux Camélias (1896), Lorenzaccio (1896), La Samaritaine (1897), Médée (1898), La Tosca (1898) and Hamlet (1899).[7]

Alphonse Mucha, Poster for 'Medée,' 1898. Color lithograph. © Mucha Trust.

[1] Mucha Foundation online, "Timeline," http://www.muchafoundation.org/timeline#, (accessed June 12, 2012).


[2] Ibid.


[3] Ibid.


[4] Ibid.


[5] Victor Arwas, Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), 10.


[6] Ibid., 11.


[7] Ibid., 11.


[8] Mucha Foundation online, "Gallery: Themes, Sarah Bernhardt," http://www.muchafoundation.org/gallery/themes/theme/sarah-bernhardt, (accessed June 12, 2012).

Designer of the Month: Alphonse Mucha

I have often had a hard time remembering names and dates. Images come to me easily; faces are only a problem so far as recalling the names of the people attached to them (which can prove to be difficult), and I've pretty much given up on all but a few really key dates in history ( among them are a few of the American history biggies, both World Wars - 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, respectively - and a few favorite World's Fairs, including Chicago in 1893 and 1936 in New York). So when I was trying to describe the work of Alphonse Mucha (1860-1839) to Patrick, it wasn't a surprise that I initially blanked on the name. Let's not get into the shameful fact that I have a degree in decorative arts and design history, and that this should have been a piece of cake for me. The salient feature about said designer that I could recall was the Art Nouveau movement. In fact, Mucha and Art Nouveau are inextricably linked in my mind, and for good reason.

Alphonse Mucha, half-length portrait, facing right,  c1906. Copyright by Geo. K. Lawrence Co., Chicago. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Mucha was one the most noted artists of the period, with his work tied to Art Nouveau to such an extent that the entire movement was at one time referred to as 'Style Mucha'.[1] Made famous by his poster design for Parisian actress Sarah Bernhardt, Mucha found success through his designs for her productions. This led to a commercial career designing advertising and art posters, helping to popularize the Art Nouveau style and allowing it to reach a wide, international audience. Although almost totally forgotten within a few years of his death, with the style he helped popularize considered outdated, Mucha's legacy was revived after the post-war years, with his work achieving a level of fame and recognition that would have been unimaginable during his lifetime.[2] And so, for the month of June, we'll take a look at the life and career of Czech painter and Art Nouveau master, Alphonse Mucha. I hope you'll join me.



[1] Victor Arwas, Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), 7.


[2] Ibid., 7.
 

Designer of the Month: Milton Glaser

Week 2: posters

Milton Glaser, Poster for Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits for Columbia Records, 1975. Courtesy of Milton Glaser, Inc.

Milton Glaser is, in so many ways, a New York designer. Born and raised in New York, Glaser graduated from the Cooper Union in 1951 before studying painting in Italy on a Fulbright Scholarship.[1] Once back in New York, Glaser became renowned for his diverse, eclectic and now-iconic body of work. He co-founded the revolutionary Pushpin Studios in 1954, which he helped direct for 20 years before establishing Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and then teaming up Walter Bernard in 1983 to create the publication design firm WBMG.[2] And not only has Glaser's career included the founding of graphic design firms, but he is also co-founder, along with Clay Felker, of New York Magazine, where Glaser was president and design director from 1968 until 1977.[3] Additionally, Glaser has been an active member of the design and education communities throughout his career. He's served as instructor and a Board Member at the School of Visual Arts since 1961, is on the Board of Directors at the Cooper Union, and has been affiliated with The International Design Conference in Aspen since 1972 and the American Institute of Graphic Arts.[4] But in between a history of starting design firms, founding newspapers and teaching, there has always been the work. Glaser is primarily known for his logos and identity programs (a topic we'll focus on later in the month), but it's his posters that truly first drew me to him as a graphic designer.

 Milton Glaser, Sony Tape Full Color Sound for Sony Records, 1979. Courtesy of Milton Glaser, Inc.

Glaser is responsible for the design and illustration of over 300 posters for clients in the areas of publishing, music, theater, film, institutional and civic enterprises, and commercial products and services.[5] While he's designed posters for nearly ever industry, music, in particular, has played a central role in his life, and it's a theme that can be seen throughout his poster design. The above Sony Records poster is not only for a record label, but its use of the score of Beethoven's 6th Symphony, which has been enhanced with watercolors to make it "the background to a pastoral intervention," is particularly well-executed and visually appealing in its design.[6] 

 Milton Glaser, New York Magazine, 1976. Courtesy of Milton Glaser, Inc.

Glaser believes that the role of the poster is to be effective in the purpose for which it has been designed, and that artistry plays a large role in this effectiveness. "Because of the poster's historical relationship to the world of painting, and by its physical size, the poster seems to offer more opportunities for the designer to do artistic or imaginative work than many of the other areas in which he may be working," Glaser said in an 1989 interview with Commercial Art Magazine.[7] But Glaser's poster designs, like all of his graphic work, have been as much about pushing the limits of his imagination as they've been about the sell. In particular, he's said that poster art is about breaking rules:

The earliest rule I remember about posters was that they were made for people on the run. Consequently, the ideal poster should be simple in form, reductive in content, and easily understood...In recent years, however, I've found myself modifying these beliefs in a variety of ways - partially from my desire to investigate alternative visual and philosophical possibilities, and also in an attempt to recognize the changes that have occurred in the last half-century regarding the public's ability to respond to ambiguity and complexity...At the moment such questions as 'what is real,' 'what is beautiful,' or 'what is socially responsible' can engage a designer's interest as much as the more traditional questions of effective communication.[8]

Milton Glaser, Only Words Until An Artist Uses Them for SVA, 1985. Courtesy of Milton Glaser, Inc.

One of Glaser's favorite ways to push boundaries has been to play shape and form, not only by breaking and changing the plane of the poster, but also through methods such as spacial and visual illusion. He explains that, "what convinces us that an object actually exists or did exist is one of the most complex questions in the visual arts. Although historically, painting has been the appropriate place to explore these ideas, they are equally interesting as subject for exploration in the graphic arts."[9] In the above SVA poster, Glaser asked the photographer to light the art so that the masking tape would be believably dimensional.[10] Indeed, it looks so convincingly like pieces of paper physically taped on to the poster that several times, while on display in the subway, Glaser was pleased to observe people actually attempting to lift the masking tape.[11] This particular piece not only shows a masterful use of illusion, but it's also an excellent example of the sense of playfulness and artistry inherent in Glaser's graphic design work.


[1] Milton Glaser, Inc., online, "Milton: History," http://www.miltonglaser.com/milton/c:history/#0, (accessed March 13, 2012).


[2] Milton Glaser, Inc., online, "Milton: Biography," http://www.miltonglaser.com/milton/c:biography/#2, (accessed March 13, 2012).


[3] Ibid.


[4] Ibid.


[5] Ibid.

[6] Milton Glaser, Inc., online, "Store: Posters," http://www.miltonglaser.com/store/c:posters/840/sony-tape-full-color-sound-1979, (accessed March 13, 2012).

[7] Milton Glaser, "The Role of the Poster: An interview with Commercial Art Magazine from 1989," from Art is Work, (Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2000), 13.


[8] Milton Glaser, "Breaking Rules," from Art is Work, (Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2000), 19.

[9] Milton Glaser, "Illusion and Reality," from Art is Work, (Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2000), 30.


[10] Milton Glaser, "Posters: Illusion," from Art is Work, (Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2000), 32.

[11] Ibid., 32.

Adam Rabalais - alternate posters

It's rare these days for me to come across a movie poster that I'd want hanging in my home, but Adam Rabalais' alternate poster designs are another story altogether - stripped-down, beautiful artwork that pays homage to some of the great films out there. These really look best in a large format, which you can see and purchase right here.

(Via you might find yourself)

social media propaganda

I know I've shared my love of propaganda posters before, but as long as graphic designers keep creating new, clever ones, I'll keep posting about them. These social media ones, from Aaron Wood, definitely fit the bill.

(Via Design Milk)

art for joplin

Moosylvania's wonderful, heartfelt posters are being sold as a unique fundraiser to benefit the relief efforts of tornado-stricken Joplin, Missouri. 100% of the Art for Joplin posters will be donated to the Southwest Missouri chapter of United Way, to help with the efforts to rebuild. Find out more and purchase prints in Moosylvania's shop.

(Via grain edit)

Fro Design Co - mario propaganda

Propaganda posters have a long and fascinating history that I'm not going to get into today, suffice it to say that they're one of those topics - along with World's Fairs, the Bauhaus and both the European and American Arts and Crafts Movements - that I know way too much about. So when someone like LA-based graphic artist/web designer Fro does as nice a job of combining propaganda posters and one of the greatest video games of all time to create Mario Propaganda, then you know that I'm going to be pretty darn thrilled about it. And yes, these bad boys are available to purchase.

(Via Public School)

Albert Exergian: tv posters

I like how these clever, modernist posters of popular shows, from Austrian designer Albert Exergian, do such a great job in clearly, simply expressing what each show is really all about: a paperclip for MacGyver, Dexter's blood slides, the red and white checkered tablecloth from an Italian restaurant for The Sopranos. These are some of my favorites, but you can view all of them at Blanka, where they're for sale, and on Exergian's website, where you can also see more of his work.

(Via The Observer's Very Short List)

Designer(s) of the Month: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald

Week 4: the Willow Tea Rooms

Merry Christmas! Before we begin today, I wanted to let you all know that I'm taking a little bit of a blogging break all next week to visit with family and relax a bit, so today is my last post until the new year. You can find me right back here on January 4th, and you'll see a new Designer of the Month on January 8th, but until then, have a very merry Christmas, a happy New Year, and I'll see you all in 2010!

Exterior sign for the Willow Tea Rooms. Courtesy of Undiscovered Scotland.

I wanted to end my month of Mackintosh and Macdonald with my favorite series of the couple's interiors: Miss Cranston's tea rooms, and in particular, the Willow Tea Rooms. But before we get to the designs themselves, it's important to look at who Miss Cranston was, as well as the the importance of the tea room during this time.

The Glasgow tea rooms of the late 19th century were a phenomena unique to the city, filling a particular gap in the market - the temperance movement was especially strong in Scotland, and department stores, hotels and catering establishments all addressed the needs of the leisured middle class - they offered a place for office workers and clerks to take light refreshment during the day and return to their desks still sober, in addition to providing a genteel environment for women to meet unchaperoned.[1] The first Glasgow tea room was opened in 1875 by Stuart Cranston, a tea dealer from a family of hotel keepers.[2] It was his sister and business rival, Catherine (Kate) Cranston, however, whose first tea room opened in 1878 at Argyle Street, and whose name would become synonymous for high-quality service and taste combined with an artistic sense of decor.[3]

Charles Rennie Mackintish, high-backed chair. For the Luncheon Room at the Argyle Street tea rooms, Glasgow 1898-9. Courtesy of the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Scotland.

Miss Cranston would turn out to be Mackintosh's most influential supporter, hiring him to design a series of tea room interiors between the years of 1896-1917.[4] Mackintosh's first commission, in 1896, under the direction of designer George Walton, was to stencil murals for Miss Cranston's Buchanan Street tea room, in addition to creating furniture (such as the above chair) and light fittings for the expanded and redeveloped Argyle Street tea room.[5] Miss Cranston first hired George Walton, a designer credited for introducing Arts and Crafts ideals to Glasgow, to carry out the decorations for her tea rooms, but his and Mackintosh's relationship seems to have been so contentious that by 1900, Walton had left for London, giving Mackintosh sole control of Miss Cranston's projects.[6] In 1900, Mackintosh designed the ladies’ White Luncheon Room for Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street tea rooms, creating both furniture and decoration in the space, while Macdonald included one of my favorite of her gesso works in this room, The May Queen (see below).[7]

Margaret Macdonald, The May Queen, 1900, gesso panel. For the Ingram Street tea room, Glasgow. Courtesy of allposters.com.

Shortly after the work on the Ingram Street tea room, Mackintosh was asked to design the rooms and accompanying furniture for Miss Cranston's Willow Tea Rooms, creating what is arguably the most famous of all the tea room interiors, the Room de Luxe. As the Design Museum of London explains:

The Willow tea rooms occupied a narrow site on Sauchiehall Street – old Scots for ‘alley of willows’, hence the use of willow for many of the decorative motifs used. Nothing escaped Mackintosh’s attention. He and Margaret designed everything from furniture and menus, to the waitresses’ uniforms. Within the four storey building, Mackintosh created a ladies’ tea room on the ground floor, with a general lunch room at the back and a tea gallery above it. On the first floor was a more exclusive ladies’ room with a men’s billiard and smoking room on the floor above. The most extravagant of the rooms was the Room de Luxe on the first floor. Overlooking the street, it had white walls with a frieze of coloured glass, mirrored glass and decorative leading, a gesso panel by Margaret Macdonald, splendid double doors with further leaded glass decoration and silver painted high-backed chairs and sofas upholstered in rich purple.[8]

Photograph of the Room de Luxe, the Willow Tea Rooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, 1903. Courtesy of the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Scotland.

Nothing like the Willow Tea Rooms had ever been seen in Glasgow before, and the opening in 1903 was accompanied by many people who came simply to admire the luxurious space.[9] As Elizabeth Wilhide describes the space in her essay about the Willow Tea Rooms, "The Room de Luxe on the first floor represents the most delicate and luxurious interior Mackintosh ever designed...The Room de Luxe must certainly rank as one of the most exquisitely artistic surroundings ever created for the refined ritual of taking tea."[10] To help explain this sense of opulence and refinement present in the Willow Tea Rooms, I've included a few images below of the interior, including such decorative elements as furniture, stained glass and art panels.

Willow Tea Rooms, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. Photograph Copyright 2005 Dave Souza. Courtesy of archiseek.com.

Charles Rennie Mackintish, doors to the Room de Luxe. For the Willow Tea Rooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. Courtesy of The Glasgow Story.

Margaret Macdonald, O Ye that Walk in Willowwood, 1903, gesso panel. From the Room de Luxe, Willow Tea Rooms. Courtesy of the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Scotland.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, lattice-back chair, 1904. For the Willow Tea Rooms. Courtesy of bonluxat.

After the Willow Tea Rooms, Mackintosh and Macdonald went on to do further work for Miss Cranston, including the menu card below by Margaret Macdonald, for Catherine Cranston's The White Cockade restaurant at the Glasgow International Exhibition, 1911.[11] After 1917, however, Miss Cranston lost interest in her tea-room empire when her husband, to whom she was devoted, died, but not before she had made her mark on the Glasgow tea-room business: "quite Kate Cranstonish" was the local term for anything refined, artistic and progressive.[12]

Margaret Macdonald, Menu card for Miss Cranston's 'White Cockade Restaurant,' 1911. Courtesy of the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Scotland.

So I hope you enjoyed December's Designer(s) of the Month. If you're interested in learning more about Mackintosh and Macdonald, I would highly recommend Elizabeth Wilhide's The Mackintosh Style: Design and Decor, for its lovely full-color and page images, in addition to its great writing, as well as David Brett's C. R. Mackintosh: The Poetics of Workmanship, for a look into the decorative elements of Mackintosh's designs, including a rare glimpse at many building and design details.


[1] Elizabeth Wilhide, "Mackintosh Interiors: Willow Tea Rooms," The Mackintosh Style: Design and Decor (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1995), 106.

[2] Ibid., 108.

[3] Ibid., 108.

[4] Charles Rennie Macintosh Society online, "Charles Rennie Mackintosh," http://www.crmsociety.com/crmackintosh.aspx (accessed December 22, 2009).

[5] Elizabeth Wilhide, "Mackintosh Interiors: Willow Tea Rooms," The Mackintosh Style: Design and Decor (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1995), 108.

[6] Ibid., 108.

[7] Ibid., 108.

[8] Design Museum online, "Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Architect + Furniture Designer (1868-1928)," http://designmuseum.org/design/charles-rennie-mackintosh (accessed December 22, 2009).

[9] Elizabeth Wilhide, "Mackintosh Interiors: Willow Tea Rooms," The Mackintosh Style: Design and Decor (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1995), 111.

[10] Ibid., 114.

[11] The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery online, "GLAHA 41845: Menu card for Miss Cranston's 'White Cockade Restaurant' 1911 (commercial printing)", http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch_Mackintosh/DetailedResults.fwx?SearchTerm=41845&reqMethod=Link&browseMode=on (accessed on December 22, 2009).

[12] Elizabeth Wilhide, "Mackintosh Interiors: Willow Tea Rooms," The Mackintosh Style: Design and Decor (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1995), 110.