Sunday 23 May 2010

German food advertising illustrations from the 1980's

I'm giving it all away now. The source of my unhealthy interest in food advertisements and packaging, especially idealised pastoral landscapes: my mother's Burda Moden magazines from the 1970's and 80's. (If you don't know Burda, it's a super German magazine full of sewing patterns for women and children, recipes, craft and home decorating ideas. Martha's got nothin' on Aenne Burda: for a start, Aenne's empire has been keeping thrifty Europeans crafty since 1950.) Above: Landliebe quark advertisement illustration, 1988.
Above and below: Unox soup illustration and advertisement detail, 1983. The picture above is one of my favourites ever.

Above: detail of a Bayern advertisement, 1980. My brother and I each had a set of Bayern panorama cards which were part of the same series of illustrations. I would love to know where they are, or if anyone out there has any! They were very dear to me.

Above: Dutch cheese symbol illustration, 1980.

Above: Bressot dairy advertisement, part of a series of village character illustrations, 1983.

Above: Schneekoppe muesli advertisement , 1983.

Above: Alpine salt advertisement detail. You turn the page and see the actual packaging. But imagine if packages really were this lovely, and even better, this anonymous? Wouldn't supermarkets (and our food cupboards) be beautiful?

Above: OK, not quite a food advertisement but pretty cute: kitchen notepads from Carina magazine, the sadly long defunct teen offshoot of Burda. In 1981 that magazine was gorgeous.
ABOUT AENNE BURDA: "A symbol of the German [post-war] economic miracle" according to Wikipedia, Aenne Burda (who actually lived from 1909 - 2005) was a remarkable woman: reading the article she seems more Oprah than Martha, given her combination of power, broad interests and philanthropric bent.
Thanks Aenne, you had a huge impact on the lives of many women around the world who love to make things, including mine!

No comments: