Today’s Poster. We are all familiar today with the organisation the United Nations. What’s less well known is the name dates back to the stage of World War Two when the Axis powers had united many of the rest of the world against them. From Wiki: “On New Year’s Day 1942, the Allied “Big Four”…
Tag: Ship
Plane Wallpaper
Another first today, original wallpaper Shared by Don Richardson on America in the 1940s Facebook group, this is a real insight to a really forgotten vernacular household style. Don stated: “We were repairing a water leak in our old house today and found this wallpaper way down deep!” The Statue of Liberty looks like a…
Ravilious’ Ark
Today a look at the art of official war artist Eric Ravilious. Having been researching his fascinating artist, I’ve found it very hard to know what to focus on, so here I’ve limited the post to one aspect of his war work, his watercolours of the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. First is…
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…
It’s an Air France World
Today’s Poster. When an airline ‘owned’ the world. Today we are used to a diversity of airlines and cheaper carriers, so it’s easy to forget where each nation basically had one, national flag carrier. Here it’s Air France, by Lucien Boucher. As you’d expect, this brings not just their routes (almost an afterthought) but their…
A Balbo of Flying Dutchmen
Yesterday I promised a mass of posters for today’s post, and here we are. Tracing the variety of Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (Royal Dutch Aviation Company – KLM) ‘Flying Dutchman’ themed posters. First is the set with updated aircraft types (all overlaying intentionally similar ‘Flying Dutchman’ ship artwork) as machines and routes improved in the…
Best of British
Holding records was a matter of pride in the inter war period, while today the human element and the understanding of how hard that extra reach is to do has gone. To hold four records at once was a greater achievement, even with the resources of one of the world’s leading industrial nations deployed. Here…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 