Free Entourage / Progressive Architecture / 1965

This is part of a series of free rhetorical architectural entourage sets. These PNGs are sourced, cropped, and curated by Loupeblog. They are shared under the doctrine of Fair Use, especially given the amount and substantiality of the portion and the nil effect on the market value of any copyrighted work. The files range from 1.5 to 27 MB according to the size of the figure on the page. Please enjoy.

This entourage collection is sourced from advertisements in Progressive Architecture, all from the year 1965. The architectural advertisement is a wider subject, but we offer these cut-out people with only minimal context. As one browses old architectural journals, certain trends in the character of the ads reveal themselves. Take, for example, this midpoint year of the Mad Men decade. The PNGs below are categorized by Loupeblog’s own typologies with facsimiles.

Type 1: Normal Person Holding a Building Product Like They Never Would in Real Life

Building materials often rely on repetition to work properly: a brick wall, roof rafters, an acoustic ceiling. This can make it hard for the manufacturer to sell their product à la carte. Ads, then, sometimes present a material floating out of context, abstracted to pure form. This is done to highlight the singular properties of this brand of aluminum panel. If the product has a striking form, like a sink, this is easier to pull off (think “the bold look of Kohler”). If it’s a boring rectangle, some other element in the ad needs to provide the spice, hence the populous below with their unique Gold Bond acoustic ceiling panels.

Gold Bond Acoustic Products

Type 2: Person Stands Next to a Building Product Without Really Interacting

The same way that we architects populate our perspectives with people, so too do ads for building products. A person uses a sink. A person rides in an elevator. Sometimes, however, the model doesn’t quite connect; engagement is restricted to a glance. Take this gentleman’s confused glance of the Hugh Acton Wall Wardrobe.

Hugh Acton Wall Wardrobe

Type 3: Woman Walks Through a Door

The novice browser of old digitized architecture magazines will, yes, find many drawings and photos of incredible architecture. They will also find scores and scores of automatic door closer advertisements which feature female models walking through doors. I cannot stress how much ink is devote to this theme. Clearly, an automatic door closer is mostly dynamically advertised in print with a photograph of a person holding a door open. Having gotten that far, the Mad Men at LCN seem only to populate this world ajar with women: a gendered touch assuming the male gaze of the architect. Lest we think ourselves better than these ads, consider this 2018 Artnet report on stock photos with women next to art pieces at auction houses.

LCN Door Closers

Type 4: Weirdly Seductive Narrative Adjacent to a Building Product

I’m sorry, is she having an affair with the chauffer? And this is supposed to make me want to spec your plexiglass? Note, this is not mutually exclusive with Type 3.