Tom Purvis & Commercial Art

Tom Purvis

Tom Purvis was born in Bristol in June 1888 and was the son of sailor and marine artist, who was professionally known as T G Purvis. He studied at Camberwell School of Art and for six years he worked at the advertising firm of Mather and Crowther before he took the decision to become a freelance designer. During his time as a freelance designer, he developed a bold style, where the shapes were two-dimensional large blocks of bright colour, that didn’t have much detail in them. He then took a break from freelance designing to fight in the First World War in the Artists Rifles regiment, which was raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit.

Purvis worked for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) from 1923 to 1945, where he was allowed considerable freedom in his designs. During his time at LNER, he produced over 100 posters, which worked out at about 5 or 6 pet year or one every two months. He had a very high status within LNER’s advertising department, as he was one of the major designers involved in the most recognisable LNER style – bold and graphic. His posters for the LNER didn’t include methods of transport, but instead he focused on portraying the resorts and holiday destinations that the trains travelled to ad the leisure pursuits that could be enjoyed there. Many of his posters portrayed women in bathing costumes with bare arms and legs, which was unheard of and very risky in 1930’s Britain. When painting these scenes, Purvis used warm colours to give it a Mediterranean feel, even though these were only British eastern coastlines. This also emphasised that the east coast was the ‘drier’ side of Britain and the top place to visit the seaside. As well as creating individual posters, Purvis also designed two sets of six poster or the LNER that could either be displayed separately, or joined together to create a single overall image. Purvis also designed some posters for the Gentlemans’ outfitters Austin Reed and also for the 1932 British Industries Fair. In 1930 he joined a group called the Society of Industrial Artists, which put pressure on the industry to improve standards of training for graphic designers and to provide a wider range of employment for them. 

Tom Purvis is somebody who I take influence from as I really like Purvis’ work as it shows a lot, just through a few simple coloured shapes - how so much can be displayed through so little I’m really fond of how he shows scenes at the seaside, focusing on the amount of people there or showing how much fun they’re having. 

Commercial Art

Art that is created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising, has the name commercial art. This term has become increasingly older over the years, as new contemporary terms such as advertising art and graphic design are being used instead, even though graphic design is thought of to be more digital based than hand made. Commercial art was traditionally things like designing books, product branding and advertising of those products, creating signs and posters and other displays that promote sales or services. To be a commercial artist, the artist needs to have the ability to mix together information and knowledge of fine arts, visualisation and different media, as communication is the most important part of this field. They also need skills in free-hand drawing, painting and experience using graphic design and editing software, with a basic knowledge of the principles of advertising. The artists work in a variety of situations, doing many different things in the world of art such as illustration and animation when computers came around.  The work the artists create is usually made for mass exposure, production and distribution, as it was a main way for businesses to promote their products and services.