wider desire for knowledge, and the vital endeavour to bring about the brotherhoo
of man—we pause to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the invention of printing!

In the year of our Lord 1440 the first halting step was made in the introduc-
tion of printing with moveable types. Johann Gutenberg, struggling genius and
native son of the golden town of Mainz on the Rhine, had begun to realize his
dream. Trials were to follow—the annoyance of dealings with hard-headed,

making partners; despairing problems, hopeless experiments. In spite of a

dreaming inventor was to develop a technique which for almost five hundre LE LE

the world could not surpass. Little honour was accorded to Johann Guten L/

his contemporaries, later years bringing him poverty and loneliness. Others VY

the benefit of his toil. Yet, today, we hail Johann Gutenburg, founder of th

worthy art! ee See
His invention has made possible the abundance of printed material whic

floods modern life, the books, newspapers, magazines, and the highly-developed
commercial advertisement of our day.

Commercial art has had its place in all periods of history. The excavated
ruins of the buried city of Pompeii reveal to us the use of advertisements, traced
in clay, on the walls of its main thoroughfares—announcing gladiatorial sho
the presentation of plays.

During the same period, Rome published a daily gazette containing
notice and advertisements. Among the Greeks, a public crier proclaimed th

of the shopkeeper.
With the birth of the machine-age advertisement gained in orom
until today commercial art holds an important place beside the story of fine art. The

same artistic principles are applied to each,—rhythm, repetition, radiation, contin-
uity, opposition, balance, and movement. However, commercial art demands cer-
tain restrictions. The design has to fulfil a definite purpose; methods of reproduc-
tion place limitations on technique. . . .

Behind our practical class problems in the processes of commercial
ing run some such philosophizing. Thoughts such as these weave into a cont
fabric our otherwise unmeaningful labours. We have enjoyed our associati
a tradition. We sense the stimulation of sharing in a contemporary develo

ee i - . ee ee ~~