Champion and Crista Vintage Drinks Advertising Poster, 1910

Champion’ en ‘Crista (1910–1925), issued by Imp. Bernard in 1910, presents two beverage brands in a sharply divided, vertically oriented composition. Champion and Crista stand side by side, each represented by an imposing bottle, emphatic lettering and an individual field of colour. Warm reds, oranges and yellows dominate, while touches of grey and deep blue distinguish the bottles and their labels. The result is less a conventional still life than a pair of concentrated brand portraits, designed to be understood almost instantaneously.

The poster belongs to a period in which commercial printing was becoming increasingly dependent upon strong visual identities. Rather than relying on extended explanation, advertisers used simplified layouts, memorable typography and intense colour to make a product recognisable at a glance. Here the repeated bottle format creates unity, but the two halves retain markedly different personalities: Champion appears weighty and formal, whereas Crista is given a brighter, more transparent presentation. Imp. Bernard’s design demonstrates how early twentieth-century advertising could combine descriptive product illustration with the emerging language of modern graphic communication.

A closer look

The left-hand section is anchored by Champion’s grey bottle, set against a dark ground that makes its silhouette particularly forceful. Above it, the name “CHAMPION” appears in large yellow serif capitals, its scale giving the word almost as much visual weight as the bottle itself. The red label below contains gold-toned lettering and a small central portrait, framed with enough intricacy to reward closer inspection. Highlights running along the bottle give its otherwise solid form the sheen and curvature of glass.

Crista occupies the brighter right-hand field. Its bottle appears clearer and more reflective, with a blue label bearing the brand name in white script. A circular medallion near the neck introduces another small point of detail, while the words “PUR GRAIN” sit above as a concise statement of the drink’s character. The cool blue and silvery-grey elements stand out crisply against the red background, creating a more sparkling effect than the sombre contrasts used for Champion.

Golden sheaves of wheat extend beside the bottles in both sections. Their fine, radiating stems soften the rigid verticals of the containers and connect the drinks visually with grain and distillation. Beneath each bottle, decorative lettering names the Distillerie du Val S’ Lambert and N. Thiry, establishing a shared producer beneath the competing brand identities. This repetition at the base helps bind the two halves together, while the differing labels, typefaces and backgrounds keep them immediately distinct.

Context and significance

Advertising posters of this period were required to communicate in busy public and commercial settings, and the directness of this design reflects that purpose. Product, name and ingredient motif are arranged in a strict hierarchy: the eye encounters the brand lettering first, then the bottle, and finally the smaller information below. The illusion of polished glass provides a degree of realism, but almost everything around it has been reduced to flat, decisive shapes and high contrasts.

The poster is especially engaging as a study in paired branding. Champion’s block capitals, dark setting and portrait label suggest solidity and authority; Crista’s flowing script, transparent bottle and vivid blue accents create a lighter visual register. Without disturbing the symmetry of the whole, Imp. Bernard gives each beverage a separate graphic character—a compact example of how colour, type and packaging were already being orchestrated into persuasive commercial identities by 1910.

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