76 DECORATIVE 



in any New York library ! Since, I have talcen pains 

 to supply this need. 



A Combi- '^^^ Eagles Mere booklet cover shows 



nation ^ treatment including an available flower 



detail combined with a landscape view. 



The central photograph, which extended also on the 



back cover, was surrounded by the laurel flowers 



characteristic of the place, with good effect. 



In another and utterly different case, the customer 

 had a phrase in mind that served as a text for the cover 

 designs for two successive years, reproduced on page 

 77. A patient succession of efforts was necessary to 



"F k'ne" ^^' ^^^ "gli' effect from the facial ex- 



Reauired pression of the model, and an ingenious 

 bit of "faking" was required to secure 

 satisfactory results on the pile of vegetables in the 

 corner of the 1904 cover, as well as on the basket 

 crowning the" boy's head for 1905. The quick expo- 

 sures necessary in each case to secure the momentary 

 expression on the boy's face required a lens too far 

 "wide open" to obtain depth of definition on the 

 vegetables. Therefore these were separately photo- 

 graphed under the same conditions of light and to 

 precisely the same proportions, the design artist work- 

 ing them together and adding the background. 



. Here may be mentioned a point in 



C oice o jgsign that ought always to be consid- 

 ered. If these two schemes sliown in 

 the Holmes covers had been worked on white back- 

 grounds — the plain paper color — they would have lost 

 much of their effect. The gray or neutral background 

 tends to- direct attention strongly to the central idea 

 and to the lettering of a real advertising feature of the 

 design. It may almost be taken as a rule that if the area 

 of white paper surrounding a design doubles the area 

 of high-lights and middle tones within it, the effect will 

 be dissipated ; while if by a neutral background the high- 

 lights of the designs are emphasized, the eye will seek 

 them naturally and the effect will be intensified. Calling 

 to mind lantern-slides he has seen on the screen will 

 enable any reader to test this dictum for himself, and I 

 should be surprised to hear that any one considered a 



