COMMERCIAL ART

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23107, 5 February 1937, Page 16

COMMERCIAL ART

FIRST SCHOOL IN LONDON BASED ON GERMAN IDEAS (From Our Own 1 Correspondent; <By Air Mail) LONDON, Jan. 13. The Reimann School dhd Studios, claimed to be the only institution of its kind in England for professional training in commercial art, has been opened in London. Its managing director is Mr. H. E. Reimann, son of the founder of the Reimann School in Berlin, which has established for itself an international reputation during the past 30 years. The school is an entirely British'concern, with the advantage' of the Reimanns’ experience, and its opening this week by Lord Hollenden, who is senior partner in a big industrial firm, was hailed as one of the most important things that have happened in the history of commercial art in England.

The Reimann organisation is to combine schools for display, commercial art, fashion and dressmaking, and photography. Diplomas are to be granted for outstanding ability, and scholarships are to be given annually. Lord Hollenden, in his inaugural address, emphasised the value of such a training to industry. The time had passed, he said, when artists and business people had not co-operated, and it was no longer fashionable for artists to feel that their art would be prostituted if it were devoted to the cause of trade. To-day, industry was seeking to put beauty into its products' and into advertisements, displays, and posters. Good publicity evoked a response from the natural sense of the beautiful. “ Some nations to whom Britain taught the methods of machine production have lately gone ahead of us in the design of commodities, and in their presentation for sale,” he said. “ Merchandise is being produced in some European countries, and in the IJnited States, which in its pleasing design, in its packaging and display, has passed the ordinary British ■ level. In some cases it is competing successfully with our British goods. We must learn the lesson that the buying public to-day is not so exclusively interested in quality as previous generations were. Attractiveness of design and get-up is a factor of increasing importance in deciding which of two competing articles shall find greater favour with the public. The British workman cannot be beaten—cannot be equalled —by any workman abroad; we must see that he is not thrown out of work because the foreign worker’s product is made more attractive through the collaboration of the designer.” “I feel I could not have chosen a better place anywhere in the world to-day to establish this school,” Mr Reimann said, in reply to Lbrd Hollenden. “I have no {doubt, at all that the real cultural centre of the world has, in the last few years, been gradually shifting to England. I have found British taste at a much higher level than is generally credited, and many British designers now enjoy a world-wide reputation. This school means the continuation and further realisation of the ideals and hard work of both my parents. It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be able to carry op their -work in England—in a country so well governed, with so free and fine a spirit, and among such friendly and appreciative people.” Mr Reimann’s appreciation of England is probably accentuated by the increasing difficulties with which the Reimann School has been confronted in Berlin. Art apparently has its own place in the Nazi regime, but that is not necessarily the place in which artists would prefer to see it. For instance, according to. one of his henchmen, Herr Hitler is declared to be the greatest artist that Germany has ever produced! .

New Zealanders interested in commercial art should certainly find something to hold their interest in the Reimann School when they visit London.