Today’s Poster is an advertisement for a propeller manufacturer, but clearly there’s an unusual thing for a commercial poster going on here! It’s for Garuda Propeller GMBH, ‘Der Ueberwinder’, which seems to translate as the overcomer’. From here, Bob Gardner says: “Garuda Propellerbau GmbH – 42-43 Naumburgerstrasse, Neukölln, Berlin. The company was probably formed in…
Month: September 2019
Boat, Anchor 2
Today’s Poster, another post World War Two example from the French Aeronautique Navale following yesterday’s post. Here you can see how a different artist or designer can take what is evidently the same brief and develop a distinctly different design, again to use the naval aviation hardware as a recruitment tool. James Kightly, Vintage Aero…
Boat, Anchor
Today’s Poster, a post World War Two example from the French Aeronautique Navale. As well as one of the inimitable French flying boats (here a Bréguet 731) an indistinct aircraft carrier and other aircraft, we have the classic ‘fouled anchor’ over the roundel of French naval aviation. Tomorrow, another poster from the same era, with…
Goats in Clouds
Today’s image; one of the classics – both for the joke, and for the always great effort by the inimitable Gary Larson of The Far Side. ‘Rock stuffed clouds’ are one of aviation’s least good things, and goats are just a cherry on the top of an indigestible desert of a metaphor over extended. As…
Bigger Bombs, Yet
It was vital to the British war effort mid war to be able to show how Britain – primarily through Bomber Command – was hitting back at Germany, in return for the very evident damaged being done to the UK. Graphic bombs was one answer, but only in a peculiarly limited way. Here the illustrated…
Wing Way
Today’s Poster. Ronald Clayton Skate (Aust., 1913-1990). Wing Your Way With ANA c1950s. Colour process lithograph, signed in image upper right, 96 x 61.7cm. Stains, repaired tears, minor perforations. Linen-backed. Text continues “Australia’s most experienced airline.” Held in NLA. Australian National Airways (ANA) ran from 1936 to 1957 until its merger with Ansett. . Item…
Sussex’s Sonia Imprint
Today a strange story. Firstly a bizarre imprint ‘artwork’ created in a violent accident. Then a design process by my friend and colleague, professional artist Ronne Olsthoorn, to explain the imprint. On 26 July 1945, the British cruiser HMS Sussex was attacked by two Japanese bomber aircraft acting as kamikaze suicide weapons. One bounced off…
Min Scout
Today’s we have a brochure cover that would’ve seemed modern, contemporary when new, but is clearly a product of its time too, with the fonts – the late seventies. It reflects the start of a revolution in aviation, the ultralight. Over to Fiona Shanahan who suggested the story: “Then it was known as a…
Bombers, Symbols, Stamps
Today we look at two aspects of the early wartime home front propaganda of total war from the USA. The poster features the trope of a threat from the air represented by a shadow over children. This one is unusual in that the shadow isn’t an aircraft, as explored by Dr Brett Holman with his…
Dare to Rare
Today we dive right into the pulp. Sticking strictly to the ‘Dare-Devil Aces’ magazine of the inter to World War Two period, we still have more than enough awesome to play with. Starting with the Japanese ATTACK on New York, being defended by the US Navy (fair enough) but also a handsome assist by the…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 