PENNANT FACTORY
Homemade pennants inspired by designs of the past
The jobIn my previous post I made a banner resembling those produced by the Chicago Pennant Company (Chipenco) in the 1950s. I mentioned a second company responsible for making such amusing mascot-themed banners: Collegiate Manufacturing Company (CMC) of Ames, Iowa. In this post, I'll attempt to reproduce one of their banners. The two companies made similar products throughout the 1950s. Mascot banners were no exception. Both companies used the same dimensions: about 17" x 9". Both used flocked lettering and graphics. Whereas Chipenco called their flocking process "A Silvet Process," CMC branded such items as "Chromtone" pennants and banners. Whatever the term, each made their products using raised velvet-like lettering and graphics, which really made their colors pop. And, both companies developed similar artwork throughout the 1950s and 1960s; artwork that is as humorous today as was intended when these items were first sold. The biggest difference in the two companies' mascot banners concerned the design layout. When it came to CMC's designs, the formula for success was simple: arrange the mascots in a linear fashion, with each figure bearing a letter that would spell out the school's name, or initials thereof. My colleague at vintagecollegebanners.weebly.com dubbed these "lineup banners" and that's a great name for them. So I'll use it, too. Here's a sampling of lineup banners from CMC that illustrate their general look: More often than not, the mascot on the right-hand side would be shown doing something the others were not, e.g., thumbing his nose at someone. Another amusing feature you'll see concerns the presence of a liquor jug being held by one of the mascots. Look carefully: sometimes this mascot's eyes will appear wide open as compared to his neighbors, whose eyes will look more angry. Apparently, this mascot came ready to party! Much of CMC's mascot artwork was reportedly utilized with the permission of its owner, Angelus Pacific. Angelus Pacific was (and still is) a decal manufacturer located in Fullerton, California. Like CMC, they employed an art department that was responsible for designing the look of their products. One such artist was Arthur C. Evans. Art Evans is one of the most important contributors to the field of collegiate merchandising. Born in El Paso, Texas in 1910, Evans eventually moved to southern California where he attended Venice High School in Los Angeles, California. He went on to work as a deck hand on an oil tanker; then, a serviceman at a gas station. But his passion was drawing. He eventually landed a job as an illustrator at Angelus Pacific when the company first formed in 1932. There, his drawings were utilized on the company's famous Angelus Decal Transfers, a product that, thanks to his distinctive artwork, became a best seller at college bookstores throughout the nation for decades to come. For several decades Evans produced a cast of collegiate personalities known generally as his "Campus Characters." Some of Evans' characters were so popular, several colleges adopted them as their official mascot--and, still use them to this day. That list includes: University of California's bear; Oregon State's beaver; University of Minnesota's gopher; University of Southern California's trojan; and, perhaps most notably, Purdue's "Boilermaker Pete," just to name a few. Even though Angelus Pacific copyrighted Evans' Campus Characters, the decal company did allow certain other manufacturers in the college merchandise industry the privilege of using his work on their products. CMC was one such manufacturer. This permitted CMC to sell pennants and banners with some of Evans' mascots on them. And, not surprisingly, some of CMC's most notable mascot banners feature an Evans-drawn Campus Character. The above copyright protection notwithstanding, it was commonplace in the 1950s for felt novelty makers to rip off the artwork of their competitors, without the owner's permission or a license to do so. Not surprisingly, Evans' Campus Characters were routinely counterfeited by others in the rapidly growing college merchandise industry. Accordingly, you will find many mascot depictions associated with Evans' drawing board on the pennants and banners of other felt novelty manufacturers; most notably: Chipenco's. Of course, CMC had its own art department; and these folks undoubtedly developed their own mascot characters to complement those provided by Angelus Pacific. Here's some 1950s-era marketing of theirs showcasing over 100 mascots their costumers could select from for use on CMC-made products: I can't tell you with 100 percent certainty that Art Evans designed the pipe smoking bulldogs featured on CMC's mascot banner for Yale University; but, it sure looks that way. Regardless, it's a wonderful illustration; and whether or not he's responsible for it, Art Evans' contributions to the field of vintage pennants and banners cannot be overstated. His story needs to be told, and I'd be remiss if I failed to mention him in a piece about mascot banners. The designI don't love Yale University. I have nothing against it or any other Ivy League school; but I just don't have any connection to the university. I do, however, like the idea of a pipe smoking canine! Especially those wearing collegiate sweaters. And while I don't exactly have an affinity for bulldogs, I do love pugs. And pugs look a lot like bulldogs. So I began to wonder: could I reproduce CMC's Yale banner with pipe smoking pugs, rather than bulldogs? When I reproduce a pennant, I feel a lot better about the end product when I have some personal connection to the item's final design. So, the answer was: YES. Meet Rory, my pug.... ...Rory would serve as model (and inspiration) for my CMC-inspired banner. Like many of my prior designs, I first drew my pug on paper; then transferred the image on to linen four times, thereby creating four identical pug characters. This is a critical sequence because the key to CMC's design lies in the identical nature of each mascot. If one character is drawn slightly different from the next, it's very noticeable. Next I added a bit of color before cutting my grumble of pugs out. Here's how things progressed: As you can see, the resulting image is close to Evans' bulldog; but, the exposed teeth are omitted; and of course the coloring of the face and legs is more pug-like. I also added a curly tail--just so it was clear this wasn't a bulldog. Beyond that, it's essentially Evans' character. I told you this wasn't going to be a Yale banner. So I had to come up with something intelligent for the dogs' sweaters to spell out. That's when I realized "YALE" and "RORY" each contain four letters. So "RORY" it would be. Now that I knew what letters I would need, I needed a font. The Evans design apparently featured hand drawn letters. I wasn't about to draw my own letters; especially since I only had a template for 1/3 of my letters to copy from the original design (1 x "Y"; no "R" and no "O"). This is where good research comes in handy. Months ago a reader shared a 1951 sales catalogue from CMC with me. In it, CMC showcased the various fonts customers could select from for use in their custom pennants and banners. Wouldn't you know it they offered a font called "Full Block" that looked awfully collegiate; and, for good measure, they sampled it using an "R." It looked perfect. A quick internet search for this font produced the entire alphabet. So now I had a reference sample for all three letters: "R," "O," and "Y." I cut out my letters in blue felt and before long, I was practically done. The resultEach of the two mascot banner projects I've taken on produced interesting challenges. On one hand, the goal was to faithfully re-create something another artist once made. This requires meticulous concentration and thorough research. On the other hand, it's not a 100% copy of their work. I am altering the original design somewhat, adding my own touches here and there for my own personal reasons. The end result is, hopefully, something that's partially authentic in some ways; yet original in others. The goal was to create a new piece in the spirit of the original artist's style. To this end, I think I succeeded. At least my dog seemed to think so. For the most comprehensive online gallery of collegiate banners, including some featured in this post, visit: vintagecollegebanners.weebly.com . For more information on Collegiate Mfg. Co. of Ames, IA, see: https://pennantfever.weebly.com/blog/category/collegiate-mfg-co For more information on the Chicago Pennant Co. (Chipenco), see: pennantfever.weebly.com/blog/category/chicago-pennant-co . Note: All unquoted material on these pages is © 2019 K.R. Biebesheimer & Son. All rights reserved. Short excerpts may be used after written permission obtained and proper credit is given. ♦♦
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AuthorIn 2018 I started a separate website called Pennant Fever dedicated to 20th century felt novelty manufacturers. It focuses on these companies' history, products, etc. Eventually, my interest in these businesses inspired me to start making my own pennants. THIS site you're currently viewing, Pennant Factory, is where I'll showcase some of the felt projects I've taken on. Most are reproductions of real pennants once for sale to the public. I've done my best to re-create the originals as authentically as possible based upon surviving photos, known dimensions, etc. Others are my original work, intended to look like the styles of yesteryear. Some turned out better than others. See for yourself. Enjoy! -KRB Projects:
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