About Us
The importance of Vintage Colors
Experience a journey through a transformative era in American art and culture between the 1930s through the early 1970s. Assembled by Karen Little, an artist born in 1944, she is an expert on vintage and mid-century culture, a period introduced by wars and ending in a free spirit where the old ways were almost completely abandoned.
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With migration increasing at the beginning of the 20th century and wars pressuring European populations, publishers struggled to share current news, but without rich imagery, they reported nowhere near the detail that they can today.
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During this era, offset lithography became increasingly popular. By 1920, grayscale photos started to become standard newspaper fare. Colored illustrations followed, but not photos. Printing presses during that period could not reproduce full range of tones.​
​Instead, what appeared to be solid colors, such as seen in the February 13, 1951, Look Magazine movie advertisement, are really the muted results of half-tone printing, a complex subject well described in the following links:
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Getty Library - Atlas_Halftone.pdf
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Wikipedia - Halftone
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By 1970, printing technology rapidly advanced to the point where almost true, full-colored photos could be published, leading to a glut of competing magazines, a list of which is posted online in the James A. Cannavino Library. ​
Because of high-quality colored imagery, magazines greatly influenced culture, politics, and fashion until they were beaten back by the emergent power of colored TV, and a few decades later, by the Internet and live streaming.
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The reign of vintage half-tone colors, those hazy greens, teals, golds, blues, pinks, oranges, and yellows, lasted for only 4 decades, 1920 through 1950. By the end of the 1960s, some of these half-tone shades transitioned to kitchen appliances and ceramic tiles, but were rarely seen in print again until nostalgia rekindled interest in them.
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This article may be reprinted with attributes to the author, Karen Little, the date, and the publication, OnlyVintageColors.com. Please let info@onlyVintaageColors.com know where and when.
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