The Art & Style of Vintage House Paint Marketing brochures provide a window into the aesthetics of wartime and postwar America. Produced by companies like Glidden, Dutch Boy, PPG, Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, these brochures combined marketing with graphic artistry.
Glidden 1941
Glidden 1943
In recent years, vintage house paint advertising brochures have gained recognition not only as nostalgic design artifacts but as an art form in their own right. Once considered disposable marketing materials, these brochures are now prized for their aesthetic, technical sophistication, and cultural storytelling. Further, their revival reflects a broader reevaluation of commercial art—from something purely functional to something worthy of study.
Glidden 1943
Masterfully designed, many of these color charts were tri-folds, arranged to maximize space and guide the reader’s eye across text, imagery, and color swatches. Often hand-lettered or rendered in the period’s signature fonts, their typography and illustrations demonstrated a visual rhythm and hierarchy.
PPG 1949
Dutch Boy 1949
The era’s marketing emphasized harmony between modern living and personal taste. Color brochures often featured illustrations of immaculate homes, surrounded by the latest furnishing. Influenced by modernist illustration, this stylized commercial art combined realism with artistic exaggeration. These images sold not only paint but also an idealized vision of beauty and domestic tranquility.
Early 1950’s
Glidden 1953
Benjamin Moore 1953
1958 Sears Interior Color Chart
Benjamin Moore 1967
Sherwin Williams 1930
What makes the art and style of vintage house paint marketing so fascinating is its ability to merge art, commerce, and culture. These pieces were produced in an age when paint company design departments operated like miniature advertising agencies, employing illustrators, typographers, and color experts to craft cohesive campaigns. Transcending its commercial purpose, their work become a reflection of an era’s unique creativity.