Audio Erotica: the graphic design of rare vintage hi-fi brochures

Audio Erotica is a book exploring vintage hi-fi adverts authored by Jonny Trunk and printed by East London-based graphic design and publishing company, FUEL. Across 240 pages, the book contains rare and hard-to-find hi-fi ad’s spanning the high-end separates of the ’50s, the Dansette record players of the ’60s, the futuristic hi-fi’s of the ’70s, and the stack systems of the ’80s, from brands including Aiwa, Zenith, Braun, JVC Nivico, Nakamichi, Technics, Sony, and many, many more. All are “accompanied by questionable fashion decisions and acres of shag-pile carpet”, according to the book’s blurb.

Trunk has collected hi-fi brochures for some time, but his work collating the material found within Audio Erotica properly began three years ago, after he chanced across the sales brochure for a late 1960s Quad amplifier, and then a Phillips stereo one shortly after. “I thought they had the values I look for, and that FUEL often agree with: strong graphics, previously unpublished material (i.e. there isn’t an existing book on the subject) plus a decent dose of nostalgia,” Trunk tells DJ Mag. “I’ve always had this sort of thing hanging about in my office. It’s quite easy to find hi-fi brochures, but actually really hard to find those that were good enough to make the edit for the book.”

He says that there are a number of unwritten rules for the books he does with FUEL, including the graphics always being unexpected and inspiring. “We are looking for each brochure to work on more than one level, be that graphics, styling, comedy, concept etc,” he continues. “Over the course of the book, you see the development of the home hi-fi system. From the post war speakers — where you literally had to build your own cabinets and the platters where you made your own plinths — all the way to the shrinking of technology: mini-stacks, 8-tracks, cassettes and CDs. The book shows the methods employed to sell this equipment to geeky punters.”

Below, Trunk talks through some of the most significant images from Audio Erotica, as well as some of his favourite images, including the original advert for the Technics SP-10 MKII, a piece of technology that paved the way for DJ culture as we know it.