Perfumes in the USSR - great samples of good packaging

What makes you buy this or that perfume? Not only the smell as it is, but also a package. If you see the seductive, well-designed, interesting and attractive picture you'll probably want to try this perfume on. The package will make your bedroom table or bathroom shelf look great. Some packages are so beautiful that it's a real pity to throw them away after your perfume is run out. As for me, I remember the great perfume "Zen" made by Shiseido, and even greater cubicle form of its flask  I wasn't able to get rid of when no drop of the aromatic liquid remained inside...

Many people today are interested in vintage products, especially perfumes and make-up items. They have become rare, because they are no longer produced. With a perfume, it's sometimes impossible to find "that very" flask our Moms and Grannies used and even if it's stored somewhere in the antique shop or in your attic, the smell is not as it was to be. So, all what you can is only to enjoy the flask's appearance. And the design of perfumes' packages was great. Even in the USSR - this country, as you know, wasn't famous for its cosmetics and perfumes. Soviet women appreciated French and different other "foreign" perfumes. But the design of the Soviet products is stunning - just have a look!

"Rovesnitza"/'The Mate".

This perfume has a laconic, but a little bit art-deco form of the flask. Black-and-gray design of the package, with floral, also art-deco ornament and the romantic portrait of a girl in a medallion-shaped frame makes it a real rarity and a great purchase for all lovers of the antique romance. It's interesting to see the image of a "young beauty' on the package - it's not a sexy blonde chic, but a romantic, mysterious girl wearing the white blouse of the "belle epoch" period. 

"Dymok"/"Smoky"

Many Soviet perfumes came in sets packed in nice boxes with white silky filling inside. So, it made them a great present. "Mist" is a strange name for a perfume (especially when it comes on Russian, I associate the word "Dymok" with cigarette smoke), but the flask's design can be praised. A round shape is very convenient and nice-looking. This prolonged flask is a kind of prototype for pen-shaped perfume flasks which were very popular several years ago (and they still are, because it's very convenient to carry your favorite perfume along in your bag). 

"Chipre" Eau-De-Cologne

A classic Soviet men's perfume especially popular in the 1930s. It had a very "green", "woody" notes in its composition, so it was quite nice-smelling, if one can imagine. But due to mass production, the perfume grew worse and was associated with something cheap and non-pretencious. Here we see two flasks of Chipre. Design of the left one is more practical. It would soon become traditional for all other eau-de-colognes. Protruded "grind" on the flask's surface and the laconic label made in gold-white color combination are quite characteristic. The right flask is somehow more sophisticated and elegant. The form is smooth and the label was made with more designer's effort. Green and gold color combination is the recognizable elements of the Chipre brand. Notice, that the author of this photography appreciated this color scheme and encircled flasks by emerald green beads which color accentuates green coloring of the Chipre label. 

"Karpaty". Eau-de-Cologne

I really like wooden and "natural" motifs in the product and interior design so I really love this package.  It's a great design solution, minimalistic and simple, but also sophisticated and trendy. Just take a wooden texture, greatly designed letters reminding us of the engraving craft, and a stylized geometrical  silhouette of a pine-tree made in the golden color - and you'll get a great package for the perfume of the "natural" series. 

"May Be..." Perfume

This perfume with a "promising" name was actually made in Poland but exported to the USSR. I like this smooth pear-shaped flask with some sexy appeal in it (reminding the female figure), a round golden label and a minimalistic package with the wide contrast square in the middle. I think, the small size expressed some idea of sophistication and prestige. 

"To The Flight" Eau-de-Cologne

I really enjoyed both the flask and the package. These somehow psychedelic white-blue-black-gold circular shapes, crossed by the line of a airplane getting up are fantastic. The streamlined form of the flask is especially convenient and transmits the message of novelty and speed. Lettering is smooth and elegant. The new design expressing the rapidity and freshness is combined with the reminding that the perfume is somehow an elite product (golden ornaments and elegant cursive letters). 

"Real Persian Lilac" Perfume. Nouvelle Etoile, Moscow

It's the essence, a "pure lilac essence" and Nouvelle Etoile (Novaya Zarya) is a perfume and make-up monopolist in the Soviet Russia. Floral aromas were very popular among Soviet women, even the "pure" ones, like this lilac. Package designers made something glamorous, but elegant - this "Barbie" pink combined with golden letters and beige geometrical details is really smart. The form of this flask with "spiral" surface is great too. 

"Charming Naughty Girl"

Designers worked hard in order to express the image of a young coquette with all these ribbons, yellow-black dotted ornament and smooth flask. And they managed to do it! Lettering is also very interesting - some earliest prototype of Comic Sans MS. As you see, almost all Soviet perfumes have gilded elements on their packages. It's not an exception. This outstanding yellow color scheme combined with strikingly black dots and with this ribbon make it really attractive. 

"Bars" Eau-de-Cologne

The real perfume for real man - this can be said of it. Laconic details, black and white color scheme and masculine name are great for expressing the idea of manliness. 

So, as we see, packages and flasks are great but we can only guess what kind of perfumes they contained. And that's pity! But what to do - any smell is quite short-living. What remains from it is designer's ideas expressed in the perfumes' packages. 

New things are long-forgotten old things: "vintage" ads for social networks

I think many of you have already seen advertisements for Twitter, YouTube and Facebook made in the style of the 1950s - when ads were quite different from what we see nowadays. They got immediate response because they have blended the completely new phenomenon - Internet with all its features and facilities - and the good old manner of advertising. So, there are some of these ads:

Your films will last forever on YouTube. The champion address on Internet!

Twitter. The sublime, mighty community with just 140 letters!

Skype. The fabulous voice system able to put your family together. 

Facebook. Striking, miraculous social team-up!

You say, it's impossible to represent the new feature of our postmodernist era - social networks and messengers - as they would be 50 years ago? As we see now, it has proved to be not so difficult. Just do the next things:

1. Choose the yellowish "old newspaper" background.

2. Stylize lettering - you can even play with logos in order to make ads more "reliably vintage".

3. Add drawn images (not photos!) of pin-up girls wearing the 1960s clothes. If you draw a computer - make it look like in the fantastic movies of the 1950s - not as it is now.

4. Accompany your ad with a little bit pathetic slogan and with a long story describing advantages of the product. 

Finally, you'll get a vintage ad. 

But, I think, it'll work not in all cases. You need to be really talented and to know a lot about old advertising. Creators of these ads have been able to do that. 

Sometimes I really think whether our grannies would be glad to have Internet access and all these social networks or not. But, anyway, if it existed in those days and was advertised in this way, they would be devout users of all these facilities. 

Hand-made movie posters

Great cinemas with all novelties one can imagine haven't reached small towns and far-away city districts. In Russia, there are still a great number of small cinemas with very cheap tickets, screeching chairs and unheated halls where you can watch the movie which was on top-charts 2 or 3 years ago. Some of such cinemas are on the verge of extinction, since almost nobody visits them despite of their cheap prices - who wants to see the old movie having Internet to download it or a DVD to watch it at home? So, many of these small oldtimer cinemas have already closed their doors, having been turned into nightclubs or more modern cinemas, but a part of them still works, especially those located in far-away towns. The administration of such leisure facilities often has no money to renew their repertoire regularly and to cope with the speed new movies are shot, so they offer movies with great delays. And I must admit, it's very good if you wasn't able to see the movie when it was shown in a duplex, but still want to see it on the "big screen" of the cinema, not just on a small screen of your computer or TV set. Moreover, they often don't have opportunities to buy official movie posters, so they employ artists and painters which redraw images from photos or even invent something new.

Handmade movie posters painted by a decorator on large boards and displayed outside the cinema are well-known to many people lived in the USSR. Since there weren't any uniform "official" posters, presented by a film-maker, as it is now, an artist made any images he or she liked to.  Now things are not the same and every cinema displays "official" uniform posters, but small cinemas with old repertoire cling to the tradition to draw movie posters by their own means. Artists who create such "masterpieces" have different level of skill and talent - some are really good and others draw something only remotely reminding us of actual movie settings. But there is certainly something nostalgic to see these "homegrown", often awry posters displayed on the facades of old cinemas in the city suburbs or in small sleepy towns.

Here they are:

The Fast and the Furious

The Matrix Reloaded

Avatar

The Day Watch (Russian fantastic thriller movie made in 2004 upon the novel of fantastic writer Sergey Lukianenko of the same name). 

Ice Age

(O_0, this cinema has 3D! And if you look at this hand-made poster, you don't expect such technical advance present in this cinema...)

Anaconda 2

As we see, some of these posters are just redrawn from official posters, some are made by artists who have only remote understanding of what the movie is all about and others are made upon the artist's impression. So, the old craft of public decorator arts is still preserved on the local level. And who knows, may be, photos will be out of fashion and all posters as well as advertisements will be made by the hand of an unknown artist (as it was long ago). 

Anti-alcohol advertising campaign in the USSR

Alcoholism and drunkenness has always been one grave social problem among many others. Habit of drinking alcoholic beverages seems to be shared by most people of the European and American world. And quite often this habit becomes mortal, destroying a person's health, making her addictive and influencing on her social and family life. Governments and societies have long been struggling for the ideal of sobriety (with different degree of success). Different "dry laws" were introduced, only to make things worse, because as there weren't any alcoholic beverages legally sold "black market" of fake, "hand-made" and even poisonous booze immediately started to prosper, alongside with illegal import from abroad.

In the USSR, "dry law" was introduced by the General Secretary (then the President) Michael Gorbacheff as the means to encourage people work more instead of drinking vodka and to improve the nation's health and well-being (because alcoholism is also related with family and society problems, poorness and child abuse). The massive propaganda overwhelmed the country - the number of anti-alcohol publishings and social advertising campaigns were great, as well as some forcing measures, such as destroying of Crimean vineyards (some of the vine species grown in Crimea had been really unique and  would  never be restored) and involuntary sending people suffering from alcoholism to so-called Prevention Houses ("profilactories") where they were kept 24 hours a day without the right to leave it before the certain term. The net of so-called "vytrezvitely" ("Sobering Houses") was organized. And it still operates. So, a policeman had the right to arrest a drunken person on the street and to send her to the Sobering House for a night. It was thought that the perspective to spend a night under the arrest in a prison-like institution would be a good stimulus for someone not to drink to the degree it would be very noticeable (till they became unable to stand straight and to walk properly). And it made things worse that policemen often robbed an unlucky drunkard of his or her valuables. But sometimes this measure was beneficial, for in harsh and frosty Russian winters many people who'd drunk too much had the risk to fall asleep in the snow and never wake up (and this happened sometimes), and thus, policemen saved drunkards' lives in cold seasons.  Moreover, people with heavy drinking habits risked their working careers.

As it always happens with such measures, intentions had been good, but the reality turned to be more complicated, and, just like it had happened during American "dry law", people soon started to look for ways to illegally purchase alcohol. The old village craft of "samogon"-making (samogon - is the Russian native equivalent to whiskey and brandy) started to revive. People made homemade wine and beer, and often not for their own usage but for sale. Since nobody controlled the quality of these drinks, there was a danger to be poisoned or to get sick while drinking this alcohol. Real alcoholics turned their attention to alcohol-containing liquids, not intended for drinking by people, such as perfumes, eau-de-colognes, lotions, cleaning liquids etc. Some medicines (different herbal liquids) containing high percentage of alcohol were bought by alcoholics in drugstores. Of course, it made things worse and poisoning by this inappropriate "booze" was quite common (and sometimes lethal). And none of the strict governmental measure didn't solve the problem of drinking.

Of course, drinking and alcoholism are serious problems affecting social, working and private life of the person suffering from it and people around her. And, unlike drugs, alcoholic beverages are wide-spread and can be bought anywhere, they are relatively cheap (compared with heroine, for example). People become addictive to heavy doses of alcohol and develop a lot of diseases. Many divorces, child abuses and neglecting are indirectly caused by drinking habits of a parent or a marriage partner. Someone who's addictive to alcohol turns into an anti-social person who cannot do her work properly and spends all her money on drinks. Many severe crimes are committed under the alcohol influence - most notoriously, murders and assaults.  But, as we see, the complete ban on selling alcoholic beverages usually doesn't help. In Russia, this is aggravated by the fact that traditionally Russian people like to drink strong alcohol, for example, vodka or brandy, and they drink it in shots, so they can get drunk quite fast. The beer as the essential element of a party became popular among Russians only 20 years ago (before that it had been used as a hangover remedy or a refreshment beverage), and the wine was considered "the booze for women". So, the culture of drinking wine or beer during the meal is foreign for Russia, instead of it Russian people traditionally prefer to get drunk on rare occasions, but drinking then becomes really extreme.

I've chosen some well-known Russian posters which serve as a good illustration for Soviet anti-alcoholic campaign. They are good examples of Soviet poster graphics as well as of social advertising; at least, they warn against consequences of uncontrollable drinking quite well. Here they are:

Shame on you! 

He got drunk, was rude and broke a tiny tree -

He is shameful to look at people's faces now.

So, here we have the whole, well-painted (as usual with Soviet ads) story of a quite respectable man who's got drunk, misbehaved and damaged the public property (and caught by a policeman for his misdemeanor). Now he's overwhelmed with the feeling of shame. It seems that the main cause of his shame is not a fine but that he damaged the young tree which had been carefully planted  either by himself or by his neighbors or colleagues. The main message of this ad is that you should always think of consequences of your drunken behavior and it's better not to get drunk if you don't want to be destructive. 

Not a drop!

This ad warns against teenage drinking. A hand which, may be, is belonged to some kind of a superior guardian, prevents the schoolboy against tasting the alcohol. Many future alcoholics first get drunk in early age, so this ad contains a clear message: you'd better not even try! 

Let's hit!

It's an ad of the early Soviet era. Here the message is clearly visible: drinking habits of workers slow down industrial revolution. The red furious worker with the great hammer ("Cultural Revolution", as it's written on it) is destroying the huge bottle of alcohol. Factories and plants, electrical power stations are on the background, reminding us of the prosperous future - without such "vice of the past" as vodka-drinking. Below one can read a poem of the recognized Soviet poet Demian Bedniy whose verses were often quoted on different posters of Stalin era. 

In this tiny glass,

in the very this

The great plant

Can drown.

Let's expel drunkards from working masses!

This poster is also a vivid and emotional warning against drinking at the working place. The disgusting picture of the red-nosed drunkard pouring vodka to the glass and the vodka flooding a Soviet plant is very impressive. 

Dad, don't drink

Not only a career or a plant where the alcoholic works can be affected by his mortal habit, but also his family life, as we see from this poster. A dramatic choice of images grabs our attention. The hand with the raised vodka shot, belonging to the drunkard who is going to pour "just another one" inside and a desperate child with miserable expression trying to prevent his Dad from drinking. It's laconic but it's smart. 

For the health?

A quirky graphics is very impressive. Two glasses of wine standing side by side suddenly form a skull. It's a subtle picture, using methods of optical illusion and Surrealism painting. It quietly but rather cruelly reminds us of consequences of alcohol consuming. 

The rich internal content.

This is some king of hybrid between a social ad and a caricature. It mocks a man whose head is literally full of booze. Make notice that a man wears good clothes and bottles are quite expensive, such as cognacs and liqueurs. This ad also aims against people who like collecting rare beverages.

Alcohol

A loop of rope forming the letter O in the word "alcohol" is an impressive image. Black and white graphics only emphasizes the gravity and mortality of alcohol consumption problem. It also hints that the alcoholism not only kills the body - alcoholics tend to commit suicides, and, as far as Russia is concerned, the most popular way of alcohol suicides is hanging oneself. So, the main message of this ad: "The alcohol is mortal". 

Stop!

Last warning

Another metaphor in a good and impressive graphics - drinking is just another method for killing oneself. A drunkard is almost one foot in the abyss, but the hand of its guardian manages to save him on the very edge of it. Take notice to the small figures of the drunkard's desperate family.

And they still say that we are pigs...

This poster artist chose another tactics - instead of warning or frightening viewers he decided to mock drunkards and their inappropriate ("piggish") behavior. Two pretty pigs look down at a disgusting drunkard with his face in the dish, surrounded by half-eaten fish and his own vomit on the table - the unpleasant picture to look at. 

British ads for the USSR

It's surprising that these ads were created as early as at 1937. They promoted some products and services of the USSR for British tourists who would visit Moscow. These wonderful examples of advertising graphics and slogans are unique in some sense. So, USSR was the closed country secluded within the "iron curtain". There weren't a lot of tourists there, because it was very difficult to obtain a visa and to buy a ticket to Moscow. But in fact, before Stalin age, the new splendid country which was built according to Communist principles, was seen as a new Eldorado, as the place for social experimentation without any boundaries, as something which had nothing common with "rotting West"  where capitalism still ruled and everything seemed boring for young enthusiasts. So, some modernist architects, artists, writers and journalists came to visit "new Russia", the USSR, and many of them saw it as the place for their experiments and for free roaming of all, even the craziest ideas. Thus, Le Corbusier built several edifices and houses in Moscow according to his principles of severe minimalism, economy of space etc. The harsh and severe lines of Le Corbusier's buildings would be strange and awkward among, say, Gothic spires of Prague or Parisian architectural abundance. But in a new country with new beginnings, which had put the end to its past, such architecture seemed to be exactly what was needed. But these "roaring twenties" in the Soviet Russia is the subject of the separate post I'll write soon... Now, let's come back to 1937. This year is considered to be one of the darkest years in Russian history. If you ask a Russian about his or her associations with this year, they will probably think of Stalin's repressions, sufferings of many people who were sent to the labour camps and prisons upon fabricated accusations in being a spy of some foreign countries or in "damaging of the Socialist property" or in "being a foreign and ideologically alien element" (thus, people who were originated from former aristocracy, civil servants, officers or merchants, people having relatives living abroad, priests and other representatives of former "privileged classes" were in the group of risk; many of them, if they wanted to survive, had to conceal their former occupation and origins, not to say anything about their family and relatives). So, 1937 is "the terrible year", the year of terror. But if we have a look at these cheerful ads, we'll think that there is no country better than the USSR. Tasty food, refined entertainment, technical achievements, spacial streets of the rebuilt Moscow, good-looking girls - that were export items which were to attract wealthy British tourists. And they look appealing even today - if we look at these old-school ads.

Aeroflot still exists today, though it's a private company and there are a lot of its commercial rivals. But "Aeroflot" remains "classy". The graphics here is excellent. I like this combination of light blue, navy and mint green. 

Sturgeon is the Russian national fish, thus, the best "eatable" souvenir was to be the canned sturgeon. But you shouldn't forget about apples, pears and grapes - they were good too and a tourist would be pleased to eat such food. 

The USSR was a very huge country. So, it could offer a plenty of products, especially for foreign tourists. Crab meat was one of such products. You can use it for making a tasty salad with lemons, greenery and eggs - and the graphic image shows that. I like the fonts and designer solutions here, especially this picture of salad-making process painted into the letter "C".

Gastronom is the Russian version of the Western supermarket. In 1937 "Gastronom" was still a trademark, but then it became the common term for all stores of this type. The abundance shown on this picture had nothing to do with reality - as for 1970s-1980s, the product assortment was scarce and people had to queue for hours in order to buy something worth (often, when your turn came nothing was left). 

One of the Russian attractions is the Transsiberian Railway, which stretches out from Moscow to Vladivostok. The train trip along this railway route is a popular Russian excursion (the train trip will take a week). Therefore, the dining car is the special invention (and a very convenient too) for travelers. As we see, food on offer is very good: champagne, fruits, starters, and of course the famous tea in the special designed glass (with the iron holder; it's the collection subject). As for me, I've never eaten in dining cars while traveling by train (it seemed to be a quite expensive pleasure and sometimes assortment is rather scarce). But it should be convenient, especially if your journey lasts the whole week! 

TZUM (Central Moscow Universal Store) still exists today in the fabulous art deco building at the same address as mentioned in this ad, but now it looks just like another one Moscow shopping mall. However, it has retained its reputation as the best universal store in Moscow. When the USSR still existed, people from all over the country came to buy something special in the TZUM they couldn't find on sale in their places. Now you can buy here production of European fashion houses, and, of course, the big ZARA store is located in it. It is especially busy during seasonal sales, and only in this time it somehow looks like it used to be in the years when it was the main shopping mall of the Russian capital. 

Product advertising in the USSR

I really like cute, straightforward and thoroughly made Soviet ads. Though they are not really commercial, but they are very stylish, and they have been made before the Photoshop era. It means that all advertising illustrations were made be hand and by professional artists. Here are further examples of this nostalgic art:

The whole USSR writes by ink pen "Soyuz" named after L.B. Krasin

Very distinctive coloring reflects the sense of powerfulness and some serious approach to sales. And we also see a good example of fonts (I particularly like them in old ads). The giant ink pen with the brand name and the number appears on the background of the USSR map (only its European part, which is somehow strange). The map is blackened, perhaps by inks, which reflects the meaning of the slogan - that the whole USSR uses these pens for writing. This ad is certainly eye-catching.

Bitter liquors 

A very straightforward ad of alcoholic drinks. I think that such things as tobacco and alcohol should be advertised in this very way - just by showing bottles (or cigarette packs) and without some lifestyle shit, as we see in different ads (naked beauties, cowboys and so on). Here we see three good, solid, well-designed bottles of "bitter liquors" (which are vodka varieties). Even gin ("Dutch Gin" as it's called here) is represented. They are well-painted on the blue background with fine yellow wording (good fantasy font again!). 

Smoke flavored cigars

Yes, they made cigars in the USSR! (they made champagne and called it "Soviet Champagne", it's still popular in Russia). Here we see the attempt to make a lifestyle ad. Packs of cigars are laid against the optimistic and romantic tropical landscape made in ochre coloring. Tobacco leaves frame up products. Here we see good samples of product packaging as well as masterpieces of font design (three kinds of font are used here). Take notice of names of these brands: "Moscow", "Sever" (North), Soyuznye ("The Union's"). It's patriotic!

Drink "Guiness" for your health

I don't know whether they made dark beer in the USSR and called it Guiness as the name of the type (the same story as with "Soviet Champagne", which isn't champagne in the proper sense, just a sparkling wine) or they actually imported Guiness beer to the USSR. But the product name is written by Russian letters. As for the image, they are well-made as usual: two glasses of dark beer: full and empty and the fascinating framing are very eye-catching. 

Soviet advertising - some other amazing samples

Today I've found some other five beautiful examples of ads in the Soviet Russia. As I've said in my previous posts, they were made not for making people by the product of the certain brand (for there wasn't any real competition between manufacturers in the USSR), but for promoting of the certain product which just had been launched on market or of the certain lifestyle which wasn't possible without using of that product or service. Graphic artists and decorators invented a very distinctive and attractive style of those ads - they usually preferred to make illustrations, not just to take photographic images, for advertising.
So, there are further examples of Soviet ads I like:

Ministry of Light Manufacturing for the USSR

Headdresses of the Fall-Winter Assortment 

I like this ad for its straightforwardness and background, plus the color palette is also very nice. Here we have a very direct slogan - you can buy hats and caps for winter and fall made by then the sole manufacturer of accessories in the USSR. But the quality of painting and the whole composition of this ad make up the real work of art. Hats, from the classic white hat to the winter fur caps, are painted very natural, as they are. On the top of the picture we see the subtle background of the autumn's red maple leaves matching with the hat suitable for wearing at fall. Then the background turns into bluish palette and we see the snowy pine branches at the bottom, perfectly matching with the winter garb. The color of the font is also gradually changed from the top to the bottom of the ad - from mild orange to the cold blue color. It's the ad one would be pleased to look at - neither aggressive, nor gaudy, but a very artistic.  

I eat cookies by the factory "Red October", former Einem.

Don't buy it anywhere else except Mosselprom.

This is the vivid example of the constructivist graphic design. Such ads were produced by the "ROST window" movement, which made a lot of illustrations, caricatures, social propaganda posters which could be seen on Leningrad and Moscow streets during the times of the Civil War and NEP (New Economic Policy, the policy offered by the Soviet government as the transition between the "old" capitalist economy and the new Communist one). The works of this movement were aimed for propaganda and informing of the people about political situation and bringing new ideas to the masses. Then, while new companies were emerging encouraged by the NEP policy of the state (allowing the existence of private-owned companies and manufacturers which started to open in large scale in the 1920s), need in advertising services became acute. NAPmen (new "Soviet" businessmen) needed to attract new costumers and to promote their products and services. Thus, they commissioned leading graphic artists (such as Kruchenykh) and poets (such as Mayakovsky) to create ads for them. The state enterprises, such as Mosselprom, also used the services of advertisers. Here we have a pretty good example of such 1920s advertisement. Sharp geometric lines and primary colors, somehow angular fonts used for this ad were fashionable in these times, when Malevich was working over his famous "Squares". The product itself - cookies - is shown at the middle of the ad, in the red hexagonal frame. Cookies are flowing to the girl's mouth. The slogan is also very interesting. It's personal (here advertisers use "I", which is meant to indicate one's personal experience; such approach is very good for advertising and is still widely used). But it's very informative - we see the name of the factory producing these cookies and even its former name (in case someone would be confused with the rapid renaming and rebranding of the good old trademarks proved by time), then we see where you could buy it. 

Electric vacuum cleaner. Good and fast in cleaning carpets, clothes, furniture, walls and floors from the dust. 

Here is the ad of more or less modern taste. The effective domestic piece of electronics, a new invention which had just appeared on the market, is very effective in removing dust from carpets and other surfaces. The design of this vacuum cleaner (Dnepr) is the subject of the separate explanation, but let's look on this well-painted, vivid piece of the ad. Here we see the ad which promotes usage of the certain new invention (a vacuum cleaner) in households. A beautiful but covered with the thick layer of dust carpet is being cleaned by this miraculous gadget and it reveals its real color. The ads which show the effect of using something for the certain purpose are very effective. And here is one example of this. I'd like to add that the carpet (not just a floor or a sofa) was chosen for the better effect. At first, dusty carpets really look unattractive, even worse than dusty floors or walls. At second, carpets played the special role in Soviet interiors - they made floors warmer and, being attached to the wall, they helped for better sound-isolation and for keeping the room warm. And they played an aesthetic role too. 

Fifty million people buy the soap

"Bouquet of my Granny"

T-Zh-Moscow

15 kopecks per bar

Here is a very simple and informative ad, nevertheless, it's quite bright. Blue and red color combination perfectly attracts the viewer's eye; the slogan informs us that as much as 15 million customers give the preference to this sort of soap; that it's produced by the certain company; and that the price is only 15 kopecks. I like the way the soap itself is drawn: it has a very attractive package with a very vivid and interesting floral ornament, somehow reminding art deco ornaments, and the wording, made in old-Russian calligraphic lettering, is also beautiful. I think the trademark of this T-Zh company is also very cute and the name chosen by them for this soap is very accurate: it hints at a good floral perfume and at preserving old soap-making traditions ("my Granny had already preferred it") awakening some kind of nostalgic feeling and childhood memories.

Buy model shoes on the light porous soil.

A good example of the lifestyle ad. Here we see the brown shoes in the centre of the picture and the city night landscape with people strolling along the streets. May be, these shoes are not very attractive; but they are perfect for walking in the city and they enable you to walk for all the day (because their soil is light and porous). I think here the very smart approach is used - to advertise not only the product of design but the lifestyle (urban and somehow sophisticated, as we see from the landscape matching the shoes) too. This approach is widely used today, but, I think, in much more straightforward manner (like depicting people wearing the clothes of the certain brand and performing certain activities). 

DDR design - nostalgie

What do you think about design objects made in socialist countries, when they still existed on the world map? So, now we have such extinct countries as the DDR and the USSR, but products made by their factories and developed by their designers, can still be seen and looking at them provokes some nostalgic feelings...

Food packaging in the DDR - so, it's clear what kind of food it is (rather straightforward and direct approach)

Some will remember their childhood, some will be fascinated with the look of these products, which is not glossy and glamourous but full of proclamation of long-lasting quality (something you wouldn't throw away within a couple of months because it's out of fashion, defunct and cannot be repaired). As it can be seen, these things are made in order to satisfy the need of a person in good, long-lasting, effective products to be used in their homes.

Pay attention to the font - it's nice, isn't it?

So, some designs are rather straightforward and not very crafty and glossy. But I still cannot say out of blunt that they have no style, no form, that they are dull and boring. Probably, such interiors and products seemed to be boring and dull for the people who used them and dreamt of something more glamourous and fashionable, but now they seem to be really reliable, good and nice, opposite to glossy, streamlined and poshy things "made in China" and which will be defunct very soon after you've bought them (and  cannot be repaired).

 In those days, if someone used to buy a gadget or a piece of furniture, they'd expect that it would serve their needs for decades. Now it's not the same thing. We've got used to change our clothes, our interiors very often. There are a lot of reasons why everything has changed in a couple of decades - may be, it's the growth of consumerism to be blamed for that, may be, it's just the poor quality of things we buy now (mass-production when everything is made in Asia where labour is cheap), or some other reasons. Here are some photos of things you could buy in the DDR 30 years ago. I should add that in the USSR the DDR-made products were valued and people who traveled in East Berlin or other DDR cities used to buy their sets of kitchenware, clothes, toys (especially dolls), stationery because it's considered to be much more reliable that the same things of Soviet origin (and much more attractive too).


The principal difference between Soviet and Eastern German manufacturing was that DDR paid a great attention to the design of products they made. It was centralized; "people should develop their tastes through things they buy" - so, the packaging, product and graphic design were cherished by the government. Here are some examples:
Typical DDR interior  - minimalistic and modest, but functional - works good in small apartments:

Lamp - minimalist also, but stylish and colourful (I like this yellow!):