In 1919, Grete Gross set up her own business as one of Hamburg's first commercial artists. She produced work for
Samurai Zigarette, the
Weberei Pausa and
Montblanc fountain pens. In 1919 and 1920, she exhibited her posters and packaging at the Leipzig
Grassi-Messe. She was also active in the Hamburg art scene and designed the posters for the
Kostümfeste Die Dämmerung der Zeitlosen and
Das Fest in Rot. Montblanc advertising manager On August 1, 1919, Gross took up a position at the
writing instrument manufacturer Montblanc (then:
Simplo Füllfedergesellschaft). There she created advertisements, window displays and packaging and is considered the creator of the
word mark, which has only been slightly modified to this day. Her style was characterized by stylized forms, dynamic layouts and bold typography. The activities she designed to systematically increase awareness of the brand are still impressive today. For example, she combined the depiction of oversized products with airplanes or automobiles, which were used as advertising media at trade fairs or vacation destinations. The commercial artist thus went conceptually beyond the previously known boundaries of her professional field, shaping the brand image and making a career: with the support of company co-owner Wilhelm Dziambor, she set up an in-house advertising department, headed it and became an
Prokuristin in 1925. This position, unusual for a woman at the time, made Gross famous as an advertising expert and enabled her to lead an upscale lifestyle. She traveled to the US in 1928 to speak at a symposium and in 1931 gave a newspaper interview in the series ''Hamburg's Creative Women
. In the same year, there is even documentation of a trip on the airship Graf Zeppelin''.
Gre-Gro master workshops and advertising consultancy At the end of 1934, Grete Gross left
Montblanc after a change of management. She founded her own advertising studio on Hamburg's
Jungfernstieg - the
Gre-Gro Meisterwerkstätten. Little is known about her work and clients there. In 1934, her participation in one of the first
NS Propaganda Fairs in
Bremen is documented: At the stand of the Hamburg Women's Chamber of Commerce, which she designed, the role of women in the Nazi state was addressed in the form of various stage sets, including on the subject of "retraining" - "The girl who has left school and the woman who is not in a profession are (...) assigned to the household". In another scene, the "Committee for Trade" is presented, which promotes "women's work in the clothing trade". The reporting journalist summarizes the statement of the stage sets as follows: The working woman was no longer "a competitor of the man, but at his side, be it as the life companion or at the workplace." At this point, Gross was already a member of the "National Socialist Reich Association of German Advertising Professionals (NSRDW)" founded in November 1933, membership of which became compulsory for people working in commercial art from 1938; no active political involvement in National Socialism is known to date. == References ==