I wanted to step back for a moment and write a bit about what appeals to me about Fifties animation design in general. I often hear people refer to a cartoon as “Fifties-style” or “UPA-style.” There’s nothing wrong with that, and I’ve done it often myself, but these phrases have the tendency to imply that there is an easily definable style of design from the Fifties. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. During the Fifties, there were as many styles as there were designers, and the appeal of Fifties animation, at least for me, is not that cartoons looked a particular way, but rather, that they didn’t look a particular way.

The primary goal of Fifties designers was to break away from the design conventions of animated films of the 1930s and 1940s. Why copy the same old circular character construction formulas when there were thousands of interesting ways of representing characters? It wasn’t just character designers who were searching for different ways of doing things; there was relentless graphic exploration happening throughout the industry: animators thought of new ways of moving characters; directors figured out unique ways of telling stories; layout artists invented abstract ways of representing objects and showing space; background painters tried all types of different painting techniques and color schemes.

Here’s a visual example to illustrate what I’m talking about. Below are five designs of the sun from Fifties cartoons. Granted, this is a fairly minor example, as most of these suns appear on screen for only a short period of time and aren’t major characters. Brief though their appearances may be, none of the artists took the easy way out by designing a conventional looking sun. The greatest designers constantly strived to find new ways of doing things, whether it was designing something as simple as the sun or a much more involved project. The defining characteristic of Fifties design isn’t a particular look or style; it’s a mentality that refuses to settle for the obvious graphic solution.

designers: Saul Bass and Art Goodman
Sun by Bass

designer unknown, but either Bill Hurtz or Lew Keller
Sun from Our Mr. Sun

designer: Tom Oreb
Sun by Oreb

designer: Ward Kimball
Sun from Kimball

designer unknown (Playhouse Pictures)
Sun by Playhouse Pictures