Via Allan Peters blog, the Target advertising reveal for Vancouver. Credits from the blog: Sr CD: Ruth Balbach; CD: Steve Chirhart; Sr. AD: Allan Peters; Sr. CW: Sage Rider; Illustrator: Lab Partners. 

When Target launched it’s first 200 stores in Canada, the brand needed to make a few friends. As the lead Art Director on the Canada social team, I came up with the idea to create vintage travel poster inspired artwork showing bullseye the dog traveling across the country. The posts were strategically leaked throughout the day starting with a tight crop and the post “Hi Neighbor! Bullseye is out on the open road helping celebrate our Canadian store openings. Keep checking in and see if you can spot where he is next”. This invited the audience to participate in a guessing game based on the landmarks revealed in the illustrations. At the end of the day the location was revealed with a message stating how excited Target was to be their new neighbor.

Has anyone photographed the Target - Skytrain wrap? Let me know if you spot it in person or via Twitter, Flickr, or Instagram.

The Shelly’s 4X Bakery Products ghost sign, recently restored by the Grandview Heritage Group. From their blog, Michael Kluckner writes:

Kudos all round for the completion of the project to restore the unique Shelly’s sign on the side of Via Tevere restaurant at Victoria and William. The owners of the restaurant paid the lion’s share of the costs; our Neighbourhood Small Grant will cover the balance of the materials costs, and we have money in our “celebration” budget (thank you, Hastings North Community Partners Group) for a proper interpretive sign, which will be unveiled at the neighbourhood party planned for June 23rd…

Artist Victoria Oginski led the team of 3 in the restoration, lending her technical skills to the stabilization of the painted surface, which was falling to bits two years after it was exposed to the weather during the removal of the 60-year-old stucco on the side of the old Victoria Drive Grocery …

She is also the best, fastest colour-matcher I’ve ever seen. I, Michael Kluckner, worked with Penny Street on the preparation and the painting. We finished up today by applying a coat of high-tech acrylic/epoxy sealer that will protect the surface from UV and any sort of graffiti that might happen along…

How old is the sign? Based on surviving examples of 4X advertisements that date from 1939 and the 1940s, we figure the sign’s design is at least as old as 1935…

I recommend checking out the entire blog post, as it is full of fascinating details that are definitely worth a read!

Hat’s off to everyone involved in the project! This particular sign has been one of the happiest reveals of a ghost sign ever uncovered in this town! Let’s hope there are still more exciting discoveries just waiting to be found!

Way to go Safeamp!

cascadiavancouver:

Also, this is happening on Saturday! Amazing lineup. All Ages! Get your shit together and come down! https://www.facebook.com/events/138192376353423/

Menus from days gone by, via the MoV. The Chilco Grill, the Lux Café, the Senator Grill, the Press Club, all circa 1948-1952, donated to the Museum of Vancouver by Mr. Sonny Farrington. About Sonny, from the items’ description:

Sonny Farrington b. 1923 in Flin Flon, Manitoba, moved to Vancouver in 1942 with his parents. The family lived at 11th Avenue and Yukon, and Sonny attended Edith Cavell Elementary School (where Pal’s Café was his favourite hang-out) and then King Edward High School. In 1945, Sonny’s mother got a job as a cook at Cunningham’s Grill in Union Market, and Sonny often stopped by there for a meal. Between ages 15 and 20, Sonny went to weekend Teen Town dances, and went out afterwards for something to eat. Many of these menus were obtained on such occasions. Many menus have thumbtack holes in them, where the donor displayed them on a wall or bulletin board…

Some vintage commercial artwork by George McLachlan, via his website. The first is a cover from a BCTel brochure cover titled “Communications”, believed to be from 1976. The acrylic painting shows a cluster of downtown skyscrapers, many of which were new modern additions to the city’s skyline.

The next illustration is a vintage pastel rendering of the Hyatt Odyssey Hotel in downtown Vancouver, which is now known as the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

And finally, a brochure for the grand opening of Woodward’s Food Floor at Arbutus Village, which is also flogging the Woodward’s credit card. This post prompted the submission of the last image from none other than Michael Kluckner, who still has his Woodward’s card! Woodward’s Arbutus Village Food Floor opened November 13, 1974; it is now a Safeway store.

Lots more to see in his archives, including this map which I had featured before, but was not able to completely attribute to him! Now updated!

Five Trips of Scenic Wonder Around Vancouver, a Home Gas pamphlet recently sold on ebay via seller canadianpacific77. The cover appears to be signed by “RAM”, but given this is a very early brochure, I have no other knowledge of his work. A fine pamphlet of one of Vancouver’s early home grown industries.

Union Steamships The Fjords Of British Columbia, a 1930’s brochure of the Steamship Catala, sister ship to the SS Cardena. This item was recently sold on ebay by seller canadianpacific77. The cover appears to be signed by H.E. White, but I’m sadly not familiar with their work.

The Catala had a long and storied history on the west coast. From sunshinecoastmuseum.ca

One of the best known steamers that plied the Sunshine Coast was the S.S. Catala. The 218-foot ship was launched in 1925 in Montrose, Scotland, and carried coastal freight and passengers from Vancouver to southeast Alaska. The name Catala derives from the Roman Catholic missionary Father Magin Catala who came to Santa Cruz de Nootka on Vancouver Island in 1793.

After the collapse of the Union Steamship Company, the Catala was sold in 1958 and used as a fish buying boat, as well as a hotel for the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. Apparently, it was one of three such ships used at the World’s Fair, but the only one to make a profit. By this point, the engines had been removed to make room for a theatre, so it lived out its retirement tied up on shores of Washington. According to the Seattle Times, there were some wild times for the ship ahead:

After the fair it was brought to Ocean Shores, where it was tied up at a causeway and used by charter fishermen. Something else fishy was going on, too.

There was gambling and “there were ladies of the evening available, so it was quite a deal,” said Beers.

In 1965, a storm caused the ship to list 30 degrees on the sand, and it could not be righted. Looted, abandoned, and set on fire, it was left to decay on the beach, until a curious explorer fell inside the ship and hurt her back. The State of Washington was sued, and as a result, the bulk of the ship was ordered to be cut up for scrap, with the remainder of the vessel buried in the sand.

Years later, the sands began to reveal the ship, and a curious passerby discovered oil inside the wreck. This resulted in a full scale environmental cleanup, with 131,000 litres of heavy fuel oil removed and recycled, along with more than 10 times that amount of oily water collected. The total project cost for removing the oil and restoring the beach was $6.5 million, and the cost of removing the remainder of the ship’s hull was $0.5 million. From the Washington State Department’s fact sheet:

Ecology funded the cleanup using the state’s Oil Spill Response Account, which comes from a tax on oil that passes through Washington marine terminals. The fund will only pay for cleaning up oil and contaminated sand and for ensuring the old hull is clean. Ecology will seek reimbursement from the federal government for part or all of the costs. The Legislature provided the Department of Natural Resources with funds to remove the hull.

TED2014 masthead, via TED.com. Coming next year.

Advert for Hume & Rumble Limited, electrical engineers, from page 7 of the Vancouver News-Herald, August 14, 1948. Ad copy states:

The Faith that Built Vancouver

“…mark my words Jim, this town’s gonna grow. In a few years you’ll need a horse and buggy to get from one end of Vancouver to the other. There’s gonna be thousands of people here…more streets…more stores…more homes. Yes, sir—there’s a great future right here and I aim to be part of it!”

Faith in its future built Vancouver from a collection of huts at the water’s edge to Canada’s third metropolis in two generations. The B.C. Electric Railway Co., Ltd has long been associated with this growth…played a major role. Hume & Rumble, Western Canada’s leading electrical contractors, have shared in this spirit for over 30 years…been closely connected with electrical installation work in many great B.C. Industries and enterprises. Latest of these, B.C. Electric’s new trolley coaches are an important milestone on the road of progress in British Columbia.

Dueck Chevrolet Oldsmobile Ltd ad graphic from the July 16, 1948 Vancouver News-Herald. Aside from the Bow Mac sign across the street and the Mercedes dealer that moved in next door, there are few clues to give away this part of town as a former automotive row. From oneownercollectorcar.com:

…this large dealership has branched out from its beginnings in 1926 to create several locations throughout the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, BC, Canada. As of 2012 there are three locations: Terminal Avenue in Vancouver, S.E. Marine in Vancouver, and one in Richmond, BC.

Dueck’s location on 1305 West Broadway named Dueck on Broadway Ltd was huge during the 1960s. At this time, most dealers were situated in this section of Broadway. All the dealers moved out and little remains to remind us that this was an ‘auto row’ at one time. A “Toys R Us” location was created in the remnants of the “Bow Mac” dealership on Broadway. The huge Bow Mac vertical sign was left standing with the new “Toys R Us” sign placed overtop of it. Otherwise no hint remains of the line of dealers that used to dominate this street…

Grouse Mountain Chair Lift ad, from the Hotel Vancouver’s Profile Magazine, August, 1967. This ad really ought to be in colour!

Beer ads from the Vancouver Daily Province, December 20, 1940. First, an ad for Coast Breweries of New Westminster, followed by an ad for Vancouver Breweries Ltd.

Note how similar the branding appear in these competing ads; Lucky Lager is the one beer that looks unlike all the rest with it’s distinctive cross label, and ironically, it’s the one brand that appears to have fared the best. Burton Ale and Old Country Ale could go head to head, while Britannia Beer and Pilsener Lager Beer would also be fairly matched. The brand UBC Bohemian seems an odd curiosity today, and 4x Cream Stout was over 10% alcohol!

Rainier Beer is a personal favourite of mine, and typographically, it competes well with Cascade. I’ve included a full colour Rainier Beer label here, brewed at the Westminster Brewery Ltd. in New Westminster, BC. It’s true Rainier was originally an American brand, but it was purchased by the Sick’s beer empire in 1935 after American prohibition, as described on the Rainier wikipedia page. It has changed hands a number of times since then, and brewing finally came to an end in 2003. The Rainier brand has since been revived and is now brewed under license, albeit south of the border.

I was contemplating why nearly all these brands have disappeared; I’m sure the consolidation of breweries and post-war advertising were factors, but I guess tastes also change. And it’s probably easier to introduce a new brand than it is to update an older one. The fact that Lucky Lager continues to be produced here in Canada is a small miracle, although I think it wouldn’t be out of the question for more of these lost brands to make a resurgence.

If you’d like to OD on some more vintage beer labels, check out this acquisition of 3,000 beer labels at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto. Oh, and be sure to sing along to this Labatt beer-drinking songbook from the 1930s!

Happy Christmas everyone, and once again, please drink responsibly!

If you haven’t already seen the new Steamworks Brewery bottle designs, allow me to present to you a tour de force of beer branding. Tim Pawsley already blogged about the design of the Steamworks Pilsner bottle when Steamworks launched their Pilsner and Pale Ale bottles 3 months ago. Tim commented that the design is the work of Brandever run by Bernie Hadley-Beauregard, who has also shaken up the wine label arena with successes for brands such as Blasted Church, Laughing Stock, and Tantalus. 

Since September of this year, Steamworks Brewery has continued to release more brews, including their Frambozen, Wheat Ale, Oatmeal Stout and Pumpkin Ale. Each one of these bottles are designed with whimsical references to the Gastown brewery, and a good dose of respect to the steampunk aesthetic.

And just a few days ago, they launched their Christmas special, a 9% alcohol Blitzen Pilsner. Rudolf wearing steampunk goggles crashes out of a snow globe (to astute viewers, resembles a certain Vancouver landmark!)

If I could ask for just one thing, it would be a subtle change to the Angel of Victory, who appears on the side of the bottle alongside the phrase “Return for Redemption”. While the angel is wearing goggles, she is missing her laurel wreath, just like the real monument in Vancouver. So a note to Walter Cosman and the Steamworks team; since you’ve already received a gold and bronze award at the 2012 Canadian Brewing Awards, perhaps it would be fitting to return the laurel wreath to the angel, as seen in the Montreal casting of the monument?

Once again, hats off to designer Bernie Hadley-Beauregard, Steamworks president Walter Cosman, and the entire brewery team; well done, everyone! And please enjoy your brews responsibly this Christmas. Stay tuned, tomorrow I shall post a few more historical beer ads & labels of yesteryear.

Vintage Shell decal from Vancouver, BC, via ebay. The seller road_trip_magnets has done a remarkable job compiling this series of travel decals from all across the USA, and just ONE from Canada! Even he doesn’t know how many they produced, but he’s found at least 65 of them so far. He is dating them from the 1920s, as one commemorates San Francisco’s Diamond Jubilee September 5-12, 1925; another celebrates the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, New Years Day, 1928.

Shell has a history of strong advertising campaigns, with many of their early posters seen as works of fine art today. The National Motor Museum in the UK has it’s own Shell Art Collection, and I wonder if this decal campaign was following in the footsteps of similar promotions overseas. Some of the leading artists that Shell used in the UK in the 1930s included John Armstrong, Ben Nicholson, Graham Sutherland, Tristram Hillier, Edward McKnight Kauffer and Charles Mozley. I’m not sure if we’ll ever learn who was responsible for these decals, but they’re all quite charming. It would be great if we could learn more about this series!

Dine in the Sky overlooking English Bay atop the Sylvia Hotel. This souvenir menu features an insert with the daily specials for September 19, 1953. Look at the back cover of the menu closely, and you’ll notice a small dark building just beyond the English Bay pier. This is actually supposed to be the Englesea Lodge, belittled to give prominence to the Sylvia, and perhaps to provide some foreshadowing. Thanks again to Neil for the menu!

Here’s a picture of the Sylvia and Englesea Lodge in 1913 from the Vancouver Archives; depicted again in 1959 via flickr, and once more in 1972. The Englesea Lodge was demolished in the 1980s after it suffered from a suspicious fire, as mentioned by Gordon Price here.