Graphic Design — ‘The Yellow Book’ — Aubrey Beardsley 1872–1898
‘The Yellow Book’ was the leading journal of the British in the 1890’s. It was first published in 1894 in London and was a quarterly literary periodical. It was highly associated with Aestheticism and Decadence. ‘The Yellow Book’ was published by two men called Elkin Matthews and John Lane, and at the time, it cost five shillings per copy. It was edited by Henry Harland and was published in 13 quarterly volumes. The magazine at the time, was completely different to anything being produced: it was daring and ambitious.
The magazine contained a range of creative pieces, and they weren’t just art. The magazine featured a wide range of literacy and artistic genres, such as poetry, short stories, essays, book illustrations, portraits, reproductions of paintings and drawings. ‘The Yellow Book’ was for diverse and “different” art: they wanted to steer away from the generic and popular style of magazines at that time.
‘The Yellow Book’ was also different to other magazines of its time as it had no advertisement in it at all. This was odd compared to the usual magazines that were circulating in the 90’s as they had advertisements in their magazines so they could help cover the cost of production. Having no adverts in ‘The Yellow Book’ was a risky move as the cost of the magazine was quite high: it was very book-like, as instead of the glossy or paper pages you would expect, it was clothbound. The cover was also completely yellow, which it would obviously become known for, but was also inspired by contemporary French novels at the time. The covers were designed and made by Aubrey Beardsley who was the art editor of the magazine.
Aubrey Beardsley was an Art Nouveau and Aestheticism designer and illustrator in the 1800’s. He was heavily influenced by traditional Japanese woodcut art, and used line-block printing to create his perfectly clean black and white prints. He was a fan of the grotesque, the decant and the erotic. His designs were made to shock. His work was so different from the usual Victorian style designs, and his Japanese influence created mythological style illustrations that seemed so surreal. His designs looked like the could have been made in this day and age, rather than from the 1800’s, I think they are timeless.
‘The Yellow Book’ covers were all in his different and unique style, and caught the publics eye with their weird designs. The bright yellow covers because somewhat of an icon or logo for the magazine. It was what they were known for, and was a huge contrast with the monochrome black and white designs of Aubrey Beardsley. The yellow works really well as a marketing factor as the public and easily distinguish the magazine from others at the time. It was completely different and easy to spot in a crowed space. The actual design of the girl on the cover is quite simple and nowhere near as grotesque as many of Beardsley’s designs. It just features a woman putting on makeup in front of a mirror, and I don’t particularly like the design. I personally would have preferred one of his usual style pieces as it’s what makes Beardsley such a different kind of designer. He stands out from the everyday designers through creating something with a shock factor, that disturbs people and gets them talking about him. I think it would have been more effective to use that style of design on the front cover of “The Yellow Book”.
This piece is called ‘The Climax’ and features ‘Salome’ having just kissed the severed head of John the Baptist. It is perfectly gruesome and grotesque, which is completely unique of Beardsley at the time. His illustrations had the shock factor, and many people thought of him as weird. This illustration was one of sixteen commissioned by Oscar Wilde for the publication of his play ‘Salome’.
Beardsley created these illustrations at the age of 21 and they soon became his most appreciated pieces of work.
This connection between Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley would soon turn out to be disastrous Oscar Wilde was arrested for homosexual conduct. At the time of his arrest he was he had a copy of ‘Aphrodite’ by Pierre Louys which was bound in yellow paper as it was a French novel. Unfortunately it was misreported that he was carrying ‘The Yellow Book’ in his hand at the time and a mob stormed the publishers office and broke the windows. This proved fateful for Aubrey Beardsley’s career in ‘The Yellow Book’ as people didn’t want Beardsley as Art Editor anymore, and John Lane came under pressure to dismiss Aubrey Beardsley. Eventually he did so in 1895 and continued to publish the magazine without Beardsley for two more years.
Beardsley decided to create his own rival magazine called ‘The Saroy’ from 1895 until 1896 but unfortunately died not long after of tuberculosis at the young age of 25. His influence carried on throughout the 20th century and inspired man people through Art Nouveau and Aestheticism, and even now graphic designers and artists are inspired by his unique and shocking work.
