- It was natural that as the Arts and Crafts movement
evolved, there would be variations.
William Henry Bradley took the conventions
of the movement, embracing the handmade
and organic forms, and modified them
to fit an American advertising economy.
Over his long career, Bradley became
one of America's most influential poster artists,
printers, and designers.
Bradley was born in Boston in 1868.
After his father died, he was forced
to leave school and work as a printer's assistant at 11.
Bradley was a compulsive worker.
He was a qualified journeyman printer by 13
and became a foreman at 15.
As soon as he was old enough,
he moved to Chicago, hoping to find work
as a freelance designer for printers.
At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago,
he was exposed to William Morris' work
with the Crafts movement.
The controversial illustrator Aubrey Beardsley
also inspired him.
Bradley integrated Morris' ideals
with Beardsley's more stylized approach.
1890s were a golden age for posters,
and Bradley was soon in demand.
Unlike Morris' rejection of the industrial,
Bradley embraced new printing technologies
and mass production of his work.
Japanese art had been studied
in American art schools for decades.
But Bradley understood the power of the form
and adopted it into his work.
He organized minimal, flat, colored surfaces asymmetrically,
focusing on the two-dimensional nature of the image.
Bradley liberally rolled multiple influences into his work:
William Morris, Aubrey Beardsley, French poster art,
Colonial Revival American design,
and Mission Revival styles.
Somehow, they all worked together,
creating a clear vision.
Many critics of the time considered his work
to surpass European masters like Morris and Beardsley,
quoting, "eliminating the utter insanity,
"he made a reputation as a designer,
"bringing some good out of a mess of evil."
Unfortunately, Bradley may have been a remarkable artist,
but he lacked business skills.
He established his own press, the Wayside Press,
intending to create work for clients
and a monograph of his own work.
But his need to control every aspect of the company,
from design to production, led to a nervous breakdown
in January of 1897.
After recuperating, he returned to Wayside
and focused mainly on book and pamphlet work.
By 1898, he sold Wayside Press
to the University Press in Cambridge
and accepted a position there.
In 1904, Bradley had moved on to become a consultant
for the American Type Founders.
While there, he created The American Chap Book.
His experience designing and art directing The Chap Book
gave him a strong interest in typography and layout.
In 1916, Bradley began working with the Hearst Organization,
the largest publishing company in the United States.
At Hearst, Bradley worked as an art director
and assistant director for Hearst's film division.
In 1954, he was awarded the AIJ medal
and worked as a designer, illustrator, and artist
until his death at age 94.
Bradley's style is often included in the canon
of Art Nouveau, an offshoot from
the Arts and Crafts movement.
He took the rigid, organic realism of Morris
and gave it a looser and more fluid form.
By adding a bolder color palette, the work
became more appealing to a broader public.
In some ways, this rescued the Arts and Crafts ideals,
and at the same time, evolved the movement
towards mass productions.