Once he finished college, he became a
typesetter at the local paper, earning $USD10 (or about $ in current dollars) per week. It was supposed to be his life's vocation.
Forms own agency Calkins stayed with Bates through 1902, when creative differences motivated him to go out on his own. He joined with Ralph Holden, who was in charge of new accounts at Bates, to found the
advertising agency "Calkins & Holden". They opened the agency with a capital investment of $USD2000 (or about $ in today's dollars). Holden brought in the clients and Calkins developed the ads. Calkins' agency pioneered the use of artwork in advertising. In 1905, he wrote what is considered the first textbook about contemporary advertising,
Modern Advertising. After visiting Europe, he became an advocate for
Modernism which he thought "offered the opportunity of expressing the inexpressible, of suggesting not so much a motor car as speed, not so much a gown as style, not so much a compact but beauty." Calkins wanted to make advertising akin to
fine art, and elevate
billboards into “the poor man’s picture gallery”. They developed displays, packaging, and complete ad campaigns. In 1920, he encouraged
Louis Pedlar to form the
Art Directors Club in New York. In 1921, to “dignify the field of business art in the eyes of artists” and communicate the message that “artistic excellence is vitally necessary to successful advertising,” Calkins organized the first juried exhibition of advertising art. The agency became very successful. Its clients including a roster of high-profile companies including
Beech-Nut,
Thomas A. Edison Industries,
H.J. Heinz,
Pierce-Arrow,
E. R. Squibb and
Ingersoll Watch. He worked with magazines like ''
McCall's, McClure's, The Saturday Evening Post and Woman's Home Companion''. The success of the agency stemmed largely from its emphasis on design. The agency attracted many outstanding individuals, including Walter Whitehead, Myron Perley, Jack Sheridan, René Clark,
Walter Dorwin Teague, and
Egmont Arens. The last two are among the founders of American
industrial design profession. The advertising campaign, based on a live model, using impressionistic techniques and a fictional character, was one of the first of its kind. Another important campaign Calkins worked on while with Bates was for the R&G Corset company. It became a series of ads on the back cover of the ''
Ladies' Home Journal'', starting in 1898. R&G had relied on the then-traditional method of "drummers" who curried local retailers with sales talk, display stands, posters, booklets and promotional items to encourage them to carry the company's products. In 1898, the company joined with many others in experimenting with marketing through the new periodical mass media. Bates persuaded the firm to devote almost its entire promotional budget to occasional, full-page, back-cover ads in ''Ladies' Home Journal
which cost the astronomical sum of $4000 (or about $ today). Calkins was given the assignment to create the ads, each costing many times his annual salary. The use of photography was just starting to become more prevalent in periodicals, and his ads led the way in their use in advertising, emphasizing art over text. R&G was rewarded with continually growing sales, and the number of dealers carrying their goods jumped from 6,000 to 10,000. Steven Heller in Advertising: the Mother of Graphic Design
in Graphic Design History'' described him as "arguably the single most important figure in early twentieth century graphic design." He has been called the "Dean of Advertising Men", as the man who created the contemporary advertising industry, and was inducted into the
Advertising Hall of Fame.
Promotes consumerism One of his theories featured in the book of the same name was that of “
consumer engineering,” or the artificial demand creation for a product using design and advertising. He described the situation in 1929 that the speed of production had “outstripped consumption”. His answer to this problem is not to slow production, for “that would be backward.” He instead suggested manufacturing demand for product through "artificial" or
planned obsolescence. Roy Sheldon and Egmont Arens, both in Calkins' employ, wrote the 1932 book,
Consumer Engineering: A New Technique for Prosperity (Harper & Row, NY). In Chapter Three, "Obsolescence: Threat or Opportunity?" they wrote: In other words, he said, "Why would you want last year’s hand bag when this year’s hand bag is so much more attractive?" He asked, "Does there seem to be a sad waste in this process? Not at all. Wearing things out does not produce prosperity. Buying things does." He pioneered the concept of the "soft sell," or impressionistic advertising, which stresses less immediate results, and focuses on building goodwill and creating a brand, relying more on the "creative process" to produce an advertising message. ==Retirement and death==