Matthew Wengert & Louise Martin-Chew
Posters for the Intelligence & Tourism Bureau – such as those by Percy Trompf, Noel Pascoe Lambert, and William Bustard – are exemplary printed objects, as are the exquisite addresses and invitations to state functions.
Lloyd Rees is now a nationally recognised artist. Early in his career he was briefly employed at the Printing Office (likely from 1913), and recalls the qualities of the printing he encountered: … while the work at the Printing Office was sometimes humdrum, much of it was interesting, particularly that connected with lithographic printing from the stone – the old and classical method. I can still recall the fascination these beautiful stones and the slow, thoughtful method of printing held for me. I also remember the cleaning of the stones under water, with dozens and dozens of marbles oscillating across their surfaces.[1]
While his employment was relatively short-lived, Rees wrote about the Printing Office’s importance in terms of his introduction to two other artists: Peter Templeton, who was senior artist in the Printing Office, and ‘de luxe edition’ senior bookbinder Walter Taylor.[2] Taylor encouraged Rees in ‘my early and experimental Brisbane drawings, which he would mount and frame, and the help and confidence he gave at times when they were badly needed’. Templeton introduced Rees to ‘Brisbane’s artistic circle’.[3]
Peter Templeton worked at the Printing Office for 13 years after studying with Godfrey Rivers and Martyn Roberts at the Brisbane Technical College (now QUT, Gardens Point). Posters he designed in the 1930s for the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau feature Brisbane, Dunk Island, and the Great Barrier Reef. He was a fine watercolourist, something of a Renaissance man who was also a musician and writer.
A poster from World War One designed by Sydney artist JS Watkins was produced for the Queensland Recruiting Commission in 1915. A heroic figure of a woman is central, text suggesting: ‘SEND A MAN TODAY TO FIGHT FOR YOU’, to avoid the fate of the women and children of European nations. References to classical sculpture in the stance of the figure and the drapery of the fabric are employed to reinforce its urgent message, as does the burning city behind and dead bodies of children at her feet.
Frank Jesson was principal artist and illustrator at the Printing Office from the 1930s to the early 1960s, producing (amongst many other items) the dust jacket for Sir Raphael Cilento and Clem Lack’s centenary publication Triumph in the Tropics: An Historical Sketch of Queensland, 1959.
Other works include the illuminated address presented to the visiting Duke of Gloucester in 1934, Christmas cards for Premier Forgan-Smith in 1936 and 1937, and a full colour poster map of Queensland resources circa 1950. Jesson was also a member of the Royal Queensland Art Society. Lithographer Jimmy Burrows designed a poster during World War Two (Fight Work and Pay). Under the words ‘HE’S NOT COMING HERE’, a soldier stands protectively over the silhouette of the Australian continent, back to the viewer, deflecting Japanese soldiers who emerge from the other side of the globe heading toward Australia, with the flag of the Japanese Imperial Army surrounding them. The heroic soldier figure is positioned with strength and presence, while the marauding soldiers are visually overwhelmed by the poster’s design elements.
Druce Williams began his 46-year career with the Printing Office in 1945, when he was aged 15. Williams won The Telegraph Victory Loan Poster Competition the same year. His first job at the Printing Office was printing photographs that were taken of the Pacific Islands during the war, all aerial shots of sites scheduled for bombing. Williams attributed the acquisition of his skills and artistry to the tutelage of his first supervisor, Jimmy Burrows: ‘Burrows was an expert on lithography and knew the type of grain required for the chalks… Everything got printed on the plates’.[4]
During Williams’ employment, he witnessed the messages of patriotism and recruitment that were integral to the Second World War, and also saw the rebuilding that characterised the late 1940s and 1950s. The rise of American influence on the globe followed, with Australia expanding its suburban lifestyle and increasingly consuming technology and machinery; television in 1956, labour-saving appliances, industry automation, and increasing use of plastics. Resorts and shopping centres followed, with increasing exterior and neon signage, the development on the Gold Coast, symptomatic of the increasing leisure in the lives of Australians. All of these elements are present in the Printing Office’s printed materials of the time with stylistic changes in step with international trends.
Pictured above: front covers of Queensland Government Tourist Bureau publications and front cover & inside page of Government Printing Office Type book from Queensland State Archives ITM1691956
The Government Printing Office Type Book (published 1941) showcases the numerous choices of typefaces available for the diverse requirements and tastes of the various customers, mostly but not exclusively the State’s own Departments. This obscure and rare book suggests the vast array of font designs and sizes that printing jobs could utilise up to that time. The dozens of types of type were grouped into three categories: Linotype, Monotype, and Foundry Type. While official information would typically use a limited range of fonts, chosen for clarity and legibility, there were some agencies that might want more distinctive and elaborate fonts because they could be more eye-catching or appealing. It’s interesting to note that the example of text selected to demonstrate the different styles of fonts was an excerpt of a First Nations creation story from The Lamington National Park: souvenir book, published by the Queensland Forest Service in 1938.
References:
[1] Rees, Lloyd, The Small Treasures of a Lifetime: Some early memories of Australian art and artists, Ure Smith Pty Led, 1969: 34-35.
[2] Rees, 1969: 34–36.
[3] Butel, 1985: 78. Artists included W.G. Grant, Gwendolyn Stanley (later Grant), Frank Payne, Vida Lahey, and Daphne Mayo.
[4] Williams, interview with the authors, 2019.