Monday, February 27, 2012

Disney Catalog - Snow White Cover Art

Most of these images come from Dan-the-man-Alexander of Dizmentia. Back in May of last year, I asked Dan if he happened to have any old Disney Catalogs in his collection, particularly those that featured Snow White characters on the cover. When the online world started to come into focus for the Disney Store, the paper catalog with its whimsical artwork was discontinued. I was expecting to see maybe four or five from Dan. He found 16! I added a few more myself, and so here they all are--the Snow White covers.

Summer 1992. Princesses framed...



Fall 1993. An all Snow White cover in celebration of the theatrical re-release of the film that year...



Holiday 1993. Dopey does his best not to drop the ornaments...



Holiday 1994. Dopey's back along with a few Snow White gifts...



Fall 1995. Queenie quadruples the villains...



Early 1997. Snow White's 60th Anniversary...



Halloween 1999. The Queen in all her evilness...



Holiday 2000. Grumpy, Dopey and a train full of fun...



Fall 2001. Snow and the boys made the cover to commemorate the film's release on DVD...



Christmas 2001. Aurora and Cinderella help Snow White decorate a pink tree...



Holiday 2001. The Disney characters came out in force for this cover, but at first glance, it appeared that Snow White didn't make the cut. This was a special fold-out edition. When opened, she and the dwarfs are revealed.



In 2002, the Disney Catalog released lithograph prints from the artwork seen on the two Christmas covers above, "Magical Night" and "Royal Holiday"...



Fall Preview 2002. Snow with Aurora and Belle under a weeping willow...



Fall 2002. Belle, Cinderella and Snow White with their masquerade masks...



Halloween 2002. The Disney characters dress up for a night of treat-or-treating. Tinkerbell wears a Snow White mask; Snow White dons one of Maleficent. The others include Mickey as the Beast, Tigger as Pooh, Minnie as Marie, Donald as Jiminy, and one of the Dalmatian Puppies as Cruella...



Last-Minute Gift Guide, Holiday 2002. Snow White, the Prince and Dwarfs celebrate with the other Disney princesses around another pink tree...



Halloween 2003. Minnie Mouse as Snow White along with Lilo as Ariel, Tinkerbell as Cinderella and Marie as Aurora...



Christmas 2003. Wreath hanging with Snow, Aurora and Cinderella...



Winter 2003. More wreath hanging...



Spring Preview 2004. This is one of my favorites. Tea time in front of the castle with Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella...



Halloween 2004. The Old Witch and her Raven look on as the evil brew brings forth the villains Chernabog, Maleficent, Ursula, Jafar, Captain Hook, Scar, Cruella and Hades...



The hard copy catalog ceased operations in 2006. I'm glad to see the Disney Company saving trees by going paperless. Yet, I do miss the cover artwork that used to arrive in the mail all those years. Unfortunately, most of my copies somehow ended up in the recycle bin. So it's thanks to those like Dan Alexander Dizmentia that we still have a glimpse of what they once looked like.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this. This was back in the time where Disney still considered Snow White a KEY princess..... LOL

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  2. Those were all so beautifully done...though most of them probably weren't hand-drawn. :( Missing the old days of Disney movies.
    That's why I love Snow White so much.
    Thanks for posting!

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  3. Glad you liked them. The thanks really goes to Dan Alexander for sharing his catalog collection.

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  4. Love seeing these again. I think it was a mistake to go away from a paper catalog. I used to purchase so much from the Disney store because the catalog came to my house and it was convenient to just page through it. Now you have to choose to go to the website and search for what you want- paging through the website looking at every item would take forever. So I just don't even bother to go unless I know what I want. The art on these is so much fun too. Though it's done with more modern tools, it's still real illustration, as opposed to most of the advertising character art nowadays which is usually stock poses just arranged together, but not necessarily cohesively designed.

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  5. Eric-- I really enjoyed receiving the catalogs in the mail too. The cover artwork was always interesting, and it was definitely easier to leisurely page thru the hard copy version than to search the website.

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  6. Hi All,
    My name is Seen Robinson (http://seendesigns.net) and I was The Disney Catalog Designer and then Design Manager during from Sept. 2001 (my start date was 9/11, which was very strange. Although I had been freelancing for them on and off for 2 years). until Oct. 2005 (which was right when they decided to kill the catalog). I have pretty much every catalog from that era and even some from before. I loved working on the catalog and did a bunch of covers, and worked with some of the artists to finish the cover (I did a lot of Disney Logo work on the covers). By the way, all of the covers past Fall Preview 2002 where done by Philip Hom (we loved his artwork and working with him. (http://philliphom.com/). A big shoutout also goes to the Creative Director Scott Ferguson who was the vision for the covers.
    And finally, to Eric and anyone else interested (and this isn't just my biased opinion), The Disney Catalog and Disneyshopping.com (which has now reverted back to Disneystore.com) were working very symbiotically, and when they dropped the catalog, most of the people inside the trade where like, "are you nuts, that's gonna alienate all of your customer base who loves holding and shopping from a catalog". And they (and I) were right, business dropped off substantially (millions of dollars lost) and the customers went elsewhere or couldn't find what they wanted. (the guy who made that colossal mistake was moved to a different part of the company).
    I absolutely loved working on The Disney Catalog and with the people involved in making it. It was truely (pun intended) a magical time for all of us, and it was an incredibly sad day when they decided to kill it. Thanx for keeping the love of it alive.
    Feel free to let me know if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.
    Seen Robinson
    Sr. Art Director
    SeenDesigns.net

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  7. Wow! Thanks for the detailed info Seen! It's always extra significant to hear from those who were on the inside creating the artwork we admire. It's terrific to learn about your involvement with the catalog covers as well as that of Philip Hom and Scott Ferguson.

    If you're interested, I'd love to ask more questions which could take the form of a future blog post. Just let me know. My email can be found by clicking on the "complete profile" link above.

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  8. Hi did any of the catalogs have a page with a Toy Story Jessie comforter for sale?? If they did could you send me a picture please? My e-mail is hjpstarwars@yahoo.com

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    1. So sorry Heather. We don't have these catalogs in our possession. They belonged to a follower of the blog.

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