Empire Buying Makes Busy Factories. Motor Manufacturing
Poster
1928 (published)
1928 (published)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The Empire Marketing Board (1928-1933) was established to promote the products of the British Empire within the United Kingdom. The products were chiefly foodstuffs, but they included some industrial commodities too. The EMB was a major patron of graphic designers and film-makers. The design and content of the posters was self-consciously superior to those of advertisements. The EMB commissioned many well-known artists, including Edward Mcknight Kauffer and Gerald Spencer Pryse. Artists were asked to re-submit work that failed to display sufficient technical accuracy or which lapsed into fantasy. Clive Gardiner's strikingly modernist design was issued as part of a series of posters stressing the economic interdependence of Britain and its overseas Empire.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Empire Buying Makes Busy Factories. Motor Manufacturing (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Colour lithograph |
| Brief description | One of a six part colour lithograph poster entitled 'Empire Buying Makes Busy Factories'. Designed by Clive Gardiner. Issued by the Empire Marketing Board. Great Britain. 1928. |
| Physical description | Landscape format colour lithograph poster featuring a Cubistic/semi-realist, semi-abstract design in predominantly reds, greys and ochre, of an industrial interior. In the foreground, three male figures (more or less equally spaced from left of centre to far right of the image) appear to be engaged in some manufacturing process. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Production type | Mass produced |
| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Gallery label | Man and machine
The Empire Marketing Board (EMB) commissioned this poster in the late 1920s to promote industrially-produced goods from countries that formed part of the British empire. The short-lived EMB was established in an effort to boost trade between Britain and the countries it had colonised to sustain the empire. Portraying the factory as an industrious place of work, this dramatic image champions the partnership between man and machine.
Poster celebrating automation
‘Motor Manufacturing’, 1928
Designed by Clive Gardiner
Issued by the Empire Marketing Board, UK
Colour lithograph
Given by the Empire Marketing Board
Museum no. E.443:1-1932
The object sits in the 'Automation and Labour' section of the Design 1900-Now gallery opened in June 2021.(2021) |
| Credit line | Given by the Empire Marketing Board |
| Production | One of a six part poster entitled 'Empire Buying Makes Busy Factories'. Reason For Production: Commission |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | The Empire Marketing Board (1928-1933) was established to promote the products of the British Empire within the United Kingdom. The products were chiefly foodstuffs, but they included some industrial commodities too. The EMB was a major patron of graphic designers and film-makers. The design and content of the posters was self-consciously superior to those of advertisements. The EMB commissioned many well-known artists, including Edward Mcknight Kauffer and Gerald Spencer Pryse. Artists were asked to re-submit work that failed to display sufficient technical accuracy or which lapsed into fantasy. Clive Gardiner's strikingly modernist design was issued as part of a series of posters stressing the economic interdependence of Britain and its overseas Empire. |
| Associated objects |
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| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.443:1-1932 |
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| Record created | March 8, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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