The UK based Retrograph collection of classic graphic design images is now available online
Spanning 100 years of retrospective publicity work dating from the mid eighteen hundreds to the middle of the twentieth century, all available from their direct download site.
Retrograph was first established some 25 years ago by Jilliana and Martin Breese and is a picture library that extensively specialises in publicity designs that have been created by commercial artists throughout the past one hundred and fifty years. It is a unique collection of designs that promote products, services, events and occasions and these images have been recorded photographically from the original prints, still retaining the qualities of the variety of printed methods that were used in their reproduction.
They say: The collection features some of the greatest and finest and most colourful examples of these artists’ work and the images also reflect all of the art movements that became popular throughout the 20th century.
Although the Retrograph collection was a most popular source of images for publishers, designers and other industries over the years the library ceased offering the work a few years ago when it became a standard for the images to be digitised for ease of access by clients wishing to obtain them. We at Retrograph have been working on the library images, digitising the collection over the past two years or more and so far there are around 2,500 available that are shown in 72 categories on our new website (www.retrograph.com). This is just a start to this important collection as there are still many thousands of images in the pipeline ready for digitisation that we are working on or preparing to work on.
We are producing new sections and uploading new images to our site on an ongoing basis and eventually we aim to have many more thousands of images for you to choose from on our website.’
• View the Retrograph listing on PAN