Cover design for Fashions of the Hour

Edgar Miller
1931
Offset lithograph from gouache painting
L 32, W 47 cm

Watercolor sketch for Fashions of the Hour

Edgar Miller
1930
Gouache on paper
L 32, W 24 cm

Miller was commissioned numerous times starting in the mid-1920s to do advertisement designs and catalogue covers for the Marshall Field's department store company, and several other major Loop retailers. In total, Miller created six covers for Fashions of the Hour, the Marshall Field & Company magazine. More than simply a catalogue, it was a truly innovative sales publication at the time, which included written articles and multi-page photo spreads, ushering in all the new fashion trends to the masses of Chicago and beyond. Of course, having the most cutting edge art for their magazine covers was paramount, and so the company sought out the top art designers of the era.

By his early thirties, Miller had already illustrated several covers for Marshall Field & Company's iconic print catalogue, and had become a sought-after graphic designer for all kinds of marketing and packaging projects for the store. Always an artist, Miller illustrated in his trademark freehand style, and the pieces he produced for the company often retain a handmade feel that many other graphic designers of the day were moving away from. Much like the magazine itself, Miller felt free to showcase a wide range of ever changing aesthetic trends: from storybook-like folk art to sophisticated modernist design, he maintained a quintessential Miller-esque style throughout.

This example depicts a seaside town and landscape, as viewed from an airplane whose wing juts up from the bottom of the page. It's always remarkable to see these early pieces of modern mass media as they incorporated a sense of the vast imagination of the era, the desire to see the world and the realization that with the advent of all forms of modern technology, the skies were the limit.

Miller's prolific range of work continued to crop up in a variety of design elements of major commercial outlets over the decades, much of which we are still discovering today. While Miller produced his last cover of the “Fashions of the Hour” for Marshall Fields in 1932, the magazine itself continued all the way until 1978, chronicling both fashion and art trends throughout the middle portion of the 20th century. In a similar way, Miller’s graphic work managed to both follow along and also transform many design trends of the modern era.