1869
An interesting year in history because 2 inventions appeared that would end up in one of the most productive advertising collaborations in history.
The first was color lithography. A massive bucket of rainbow-colored paint was splashed all over the world of both art and advertising.
Lithography was a chemical process that did away with... well... just about everything difficult about printing.
Colour lithography saw the light of day when Thomas Schotter Boys produced some architectural printwork in 1839, but nothing much happened after that until Jules Chéret started a printing company in Paris, in 1866. He wowed everyone with his colourful productions, using new techniques that allowed for an amazing array of shades.
Some point to his poster for Bal Valentino from 1869 as the birth of the modern poster.
Chéret focused on the illustration. The artwork. He relegated text to mere supplementary information. He launched upon the world a brave new medium.
Artists scrambled to be a part of it. Everyone wanted a piece of the creative action.
In 1869, something came along that would set the world alight. Two Englishmen, Reynolds & Mays, patented the Phantom prototype that replaced wooden spokes with thin, metal ones. Three years later, Smith & Starley produced the Ariel bicycle. It was not yet the classic diamond frame that Starley developed in 1885, with the production of the Safety Bicycle, but this "Ordinary" or "Penny Farthing" model sent shockwaves reverberating around the world. Welcome to the birth of a revolution.
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