Harlow's
Original title: Harlow's
Date: 1966 ; New York City , United States in terms of modern geography
Art form: Painting
Dimensions: 148.6 X 104.2 cm (58.5 X 41.02 in)
This poster was created by Jerry W. McDaniel promoting the first disco in New York, in fact the first disco in the world. The Harlow’s disco was Jerry’s hangout. Mr. McDaniel designed the whole visual promotion for the Harlow’s discotheque. ///
“In this poster Jerry W. McDaniel relies mostly on line which he uses with a sophisticated, light touch. Combined with the line is an equally good sense of pattern employed for emphasis and visual excitement. This style won him over two hundred citations and awards from shows at the New York Art Directors’ Club, Graphics Annual, AIGA.” (Society of Illustrators Annual Book, 1968) The Harlow’s poster captures the essence of New York’s first disco. The poster is in the inimitable style of the 1960s displaying the flair for the groovy and the dramatic. ///
The real estate mogul Arnold Stein, the founder and owner of Harlow’s insisted on a “steak house-type” font on the poster. Harlow’s started as a steak house. The laws of New York in those days did not allow entertainment without serving food. The Western-style typography on the Harlow’s poster had an enormous influence on European advertising and editorial design. The poster was accepted into the International Illustrators’ Annual 1968. When the poster was published you could hardly walk anywhere in New York without seeing it: in store windows, on buildings, as well as on cruise ships and ferryboats in the Bengal Bay of India. It got 30 minutes exposure on the 6 O’clock CBS news in relationship to the dismantling of the old New York Metropolitan Opera House (nicknamed “The Yellow Brick Brewery”). The dressing style of the dancing girls in this poster had a big influence on the fashion of those times. ///
The Harlow’s poster appeared in a display at a major exhibition on Art Nouveau Revival at the well-known Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France, 20 October 2009 – 4 February 2010) on a page of the September 6, 1968 issue of Life Magazine. The Harlow’s poster was also featured in the Life Magazine double-spread cover in an issue about the explosion of posters everywhere. ///
McDaniel created a second Harlow’s poster, smaller and reproduced on goldenrod paper. The art on this second Harlow's poster is different than on the black& white poster. This yellow poster mixes geographic, cultural, and historical elements (flamenco guitar players, and dip flapper girls). It has the same Western-style typography as the black and white Harlow’s poster. ///
Both posters are in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. [3"> The black & white poster was also published in an Illustrators Annual of the Society of Illustrators, New York City.
