Article from Commercial Art and Industry 102, December 1934
“They’ll never stand for that” and “It’s too modern” are, as George Plante aptly puts it, the restraintive thoughts which beset a commercial artist who tries to let himself go.”I find myself striving,” he says, to find an interesting line or shape in a design only to discover that it is not ‘ commercial.'”
Plante, who has not yet come of age, has had the privilege of studying under Professor Otto Arpke, in Berlin, as the result of a travelling scholarship gained at the Edinburgh College of Art. He has proved his ability to absorb German ideas by the Continental flavour noticeable in his work.
George Plante will have many sympathisers in his dislike of the mauling to which SO many designs are subjected. ” I wonder whether commercial art would not be of a higher standard,” he says, ” if the designs created by artists weren’t pulled around so much by Running the Gauntlet through printers, agents, clients and contact men?
“My thoughts are contemporary and have faith in the public. Sufficient to know that though they may not fully understand contemporary design, they will certainly pay more attention to a production of the artist’s mind and imagination rather than to dictated pot-boilers, a deplorable number of which are to be seen everywhere.”
The work of Continental artists holds a great fascination over him and he has a yearning desire to visit Paris and New York. But apart, however, from his absorption in designs for printed advertising, he has also a vital interest in all “Design in relation to the Problem” interior decoration in particular. One of his cherished desires is to design some decorative panels for a modern interior.
However, he is now firmly planted in the field of commercial designing, having established a connection with the Clement Dane Studio in London.
