Advertisement illustrations in home journals and magazines reflect the family life of a suburban home and all of its necessary products. The fictive characters and scenarios pictured within these advertisements offer a perspective on how we view each other and ourselves in the context of American lifestyle. The repeated imagery of men, women and children pictured in home magazine advertisements has created archetypes over the past century. These archetypes have remained over the years to represent an underlying cul- tural pressure about whom we should be and what we should purchase in order for us, as Americans, to be perceived as successful.

Within writing and illustrating the world of Ballpark Frank, I found influence and inspiration in mid-century magazine advertisements. The color palette, typographical treatment and page designs were heavily influence by my survey of mid-century advertisements. The kitschy quality of these old advertisements and their irrelevance to contemporary cultural ideals leads to further explore the differences and similarities between today’s advertisements and advertisements of the past.

Winner of the 2014 Illustration Department Award