These colorful graphics are guaranteed to trigger wanderlust: Airline posters from the 50s and 60s. Their design represents the beginning of the jet age. We show the most beautiful posters.
Those were the days: 50 years ago, the vertical poster was one of the most common forms of advertising, light boxes at bus stops and color TV spots didn’t exist yet, banner advertising on the Internet and annoying pop-ups on screens were beyond imagination.
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Even air travel was something exclusive at the end of the 1950s and only reserved for a minority. The ticket prices were fixed and not subject to any daily fluctuations.
Marketing was still a foreign concept back then. But airlines were already drawing attention to themselves with elaborately designed posters, advertising certain flight destinations with graphics designed by famous artists and designers such as Victor Vaserely, Raymond Loewy and Otl Aicher.
A comprehensive illustrated book documents the boom years of civil aviation: “Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975” examines the appearance of 13 leading airlines in an era when the airplane was on the threshold of mass transportation.
The spectrum ranges from PanAm to Lufthansa and Air France to the Russian Aeroflot, from the reproduction of ticket covers to magazine ads to large posters intended to lure potential passengers to travel agencies.
When printing the at Callisto For the published book, an extremely high level of effort was expended with 17 special colours, five types of varnish and two different foil printing techniques.
You can also click through the following photo series:
– Legendary German Airlines: The almost forgotten airline Atlantis
– Dream trip Canadian Pacific: Cross the continent on rails
– Went bankrupt 30 years ago: Pan Am – the most iconic airline in the world