An advertisement from The Aeroplane, 1932, by Bristol Aircraft. (Notice the logotype, discussed earlier here, bottom centre.) A neat design, the monochrome printing leads to an unanswered query – which nine countries? Some of the flags are identifiable – several are confused as they are all arranged vertically, not horizontally – and only readable with…
Category: Magazines
Unsteady KLM
Today’s Poster is a strange, muddled and badly dated effort from KLM. Not all period advertising has a long term appeal, and the casual sexism of the poster hasn’t aged well. Moreover it’s not even very clear what they’re trying to advertise? Fly with us because our stewardesses might be harder working? It’s perhaps of…
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…
Magazine Fuel
Today, two covers from the Air BP trade journal, thanks to my artist colleague Ian Bott, who said in 2016: “Picked these up at Duxford yesterday: beautifully-designed, inventive and effortlessly-cool BP in-house trade magazines from, I assume, the 1960s. Those must have been the days for a graphic designer.” As well as the straight ‘art’…
Wemendum
Today’s posters follow yesterday’s poster about building the aircraft – here it’s about missing parts. Delays in manufacture were a major issue during the Second World War, and while a huge number of aircraft (among other weapons and equipment) were recycled, there were delays and issues there too. So here we have two Allied powers…
Moth Alight
A 1933 cartoon from Punch by Leslie Illingworth. The text reads: ‘Man with a particular grievance. “Oh, it’s only you, is it? I thought it was one of those confounded motor-cycles kicking up a row again.”‘ I should, at this point say that if you don’t find this funny, it’s not your fault – earlier…
Green-Blue Night
Today’s art is an oil painting that would pass perfectly well as a piece of fine art in a chiaroscuro style. Actually it’s a piece for a magazine published in 1924 by the one-eyed artist Stockton Mulford – a biography of him here. Despite the beautiful colour, it was printed in monochrome, as shown here….
Quiet, Allison
Today’s advert from a 1955 Saturday Evening Post by Everett McNear. While no one loves the comfort of modern airliners, it’s easy to forget how noisy they used to be, and that an engine manufacturer could find it worthwhile to advertise in a mainstream magazine to extol the vurtues of their new, quieter engines on…
Not quite the nick of time
Today’s cover is from a 1961 Punch, by the redoubtable transport cartoonist Russell Brockbank. Like ‘Back to the old Drawing Board’ we featured from the equally remarkable Peter Arno of the New Yorker, this is another, albeit simpler example of a great visual joke, though here wordless. Another layer that’s easy for a viewer today…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 