This was a wonderful exhibit I saw several weeks ago. If you get a chance check it out. It is located on the fourth floor gallery in the Chicago Cultural Center and runs until August 2, 2015.
Everybody wants love. And who doesn’t want to have good luck and success in life? Or to look their best? Quietly operating from Chicago’s South Side between the 1920s and 1980s, the Valmor Products Company offered all these things and more. Perfumes, hair pomades, incense, and a wide variety of other products came packaged in small bottles and tins with eye-catching labels affirming the mystical powers of the products within. Produced in small quantities and targeted to minority consumers, the distinctive graphic designs of Valmor’s products were nearly forgotten. But in a lucky circumstance of historical “lost and found”, the Chicago Cultural Center is displaying the first comprehensive exhibition of these remarkable works of graphic design. Tiny labels – some no bigger that a postage stamp – will be enlarged to poster-size using contemporary imaging technology. Also displayed will be vintage bottles, product containers and original artwork which in themselves embody complex stories of cultural history
