Get me a ticket for an aeroplane...

March 19, 2003 6:44 AM

Graphic Design from the 1920s and 1930s in Travel Ephemera . Amazing collection of posters, road maps, steamship and airline timetables, (more timetables here), post cards, luggage labels (more labels here and here), brochures and more. Seeing this stuff makes me wish I had been born seventy-five years earlier (and with an obscene amount of money.) (Warning: the site is seriously painful to look at, but the content's good. Link via Coudal.)
posted by Vidiot (10 comments total)

(yes, I know, it's a double post. It's been more than a year, however, and the content is good. Plus I'd rather think of travel than war.)
posted by Vidiot at 6:45 AM on March 19, 2003

Great stuff, although you have to take it in bits lest the retinas start bleeding. Man. Blue on yellow? Hello?

On the other hand, vintagelabels.org is quite pretty, but their no-right-click thing makes me want to grab it all with screenshots, just to spite em.

Seeing this stuff makes me wish I had been born seventy-five years earlier (and with an obscene amount of money.)

Amen.
posted by gottabefunky at 7:11 AM on March 19, 2003

I love this poster. I've just been re-reading Paul Fussel's Abroad, one of my very favourite books, so this is just *groan* the ticket.

Damn, I wish Spoon posted more regularly.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:12 AM on March 19, 2003

Not to take away from the link here, or the effort put into any of these sites, but what in jebus's name is the point of scanning hundreds of airline timetable covers without showing what's inside?
posted by PrinceValium at 9:21 AM on March 19, 2003

Vidiot - this is a fantastic excuse for a double post - I LOVE this kind of stuff, and hadn't seen it the first time round. I'd link to favorites within, but there are too many to choose! Much obliged, kind vidiot, much obliged.
posted by jonson at 9:33 AM on March 19, 2003

Why are there no photographs in these brochures? There are many that appear to use camera sensibilities and there are no photos. They are vivid and stimulating as art and boring after the the first page. Boring and time consuming viewing. Carry on.
posted by xtian at 11:09 AM on March 19, 2003

We all know that photography is really just a craft, xtian. Remember, it is never too late to join the hobby-horse!
posted by kaibutsu at 12:03 PM on March 19, 2003

(the images from Typograpfia, the Czech Printer's Technical Journal are awesome.)
posted by kaibutsu at 12:06 PM on March 19, 2003

This is just uninteresting is all i'm saying. I find more interest in
matchboxes.
posted by xtian at 1:04 PM on March 19, 2003

Man did these designers ever have some style and class.

Oh, and PrinceValium, there are a couple of scans from the inside covers.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:14 PM on March 19, 2003