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London Transport posters
Susan Strong once wrote that 'A poster aims to seduce, to exhort, to sell, to educate, to consume, to appeal.' All this is true, but a poster also reflects in the language of graphics the taste and 'image' which its client demands of it. And it is within this orbit that a poster flourishes or withers as Art. The London Transport poster is a perpetual inducement to move physically, a visual celebration of the delights to be gained by transportation. Its seeming indulgencies in the odd and anecdotal, in the historical and romantic, which produced some of its finest images, are deceptively gentle instances of a hard sell. London Transport's advertising policy has been and still is based on a belief to the powers of evocative enticement...
Let us hope that London Transport continues in the future to give expression to its polite Rule of Taste, a microcosm in graphics of English ideals and aspirations.
from the Introduction
Let us hope that London Transport continues in the future to give expression to its polite Rule of Taste, a microcosm in graphics of English ideals and aspirations.
from the Introduction
80 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 1976
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January 1, 2016
In his erudite introduction Roy Strong states, 'The London Transport Executive... still presides over a powerful means of stimulating public taste and awareness. Whether we like it or not, once we start on a bus or tube journey we are captives.' He makes the point because Frank Pick, the one-time London Transport vice-chairman, had realised that the travelling public needed to be exposed to advertising through the pictorial work of such artists as McKnight Kauffer, Rex Whistler and David Gentleman.
Pick thus commissioned them to produce stylish posters as 'evocative enticement' to take the public's eye. The iconography of these posters was deeply patriotic using such subjects as the beefeater and the guardsman, the cockney and the bargee, the lover and the child and these were often set within an idealised view of the past and present in town and country.
Pick was fortunate that, even though he was forming a trend, he was working in the so-called golden age of the poster and this collection of 88 colourful posters shows how the poster tradition developed within London Transport. Not only that, Pick was always ready to experiment and to take on new and upcoming artists. Very early he detected the American Edward McKnight Kauffer's gifts as a poster specialist and he commissioned David Sutherland long before the critics hailed him as one of the great painters of our time. He also utilised the talents of such as Laura Knight, Frank Brangwyn and the lesser known, but equally talented, Fred Taylor, EA Cox, Clive Gardiner and Edward Wadsworth. All these artists, and many more, are represented in this powerful evocation of the London Transport poster through the ages.
The earliest in the collection date to 1908 and 1909 and depict such as a superb 'Winter's Discontent Made Glorious' an Underground Railway poster which depicts a sultry countryside scene as the Overground/Underground train starts to enter a tunnel and a multi-illustrated poster advertising 'Circular Routes' and 'Cheap Fairs' that was published for the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition at the White City. These are typically Edwardian in their production, as is one of my favourites, 'Winter Sales' of 1913, which has a delightful illustration of ladies crowding around a department store. It also has a list of Underground stations with the stores that each station services (Knightsbridge: Harrod's, Harvey Nichols, Tudor Bros., Wooland's; Victoria: Gorringe's; et al) plus, imagine such a thing today, an unacknowledged two verse poem promoting the delight of the sales. Unfortunately all these early works are 'Artist unknown'.
By the 1920s the styles have changed from the earlier hard-edged productions to more impressionistic views extolling the virtues of 'The Open Road - Fresh Air and Sunshine' and 'Tour London's Country by General Coach'. Once again a number of the posters have verse accompanying the illustration with even the poets Robert Browning, Samuel Rogers and William Cowper appearing as copy writers! Imagine today's travellers stopping to read such verse on an advertising poster - there is little chance of that amidst the hustle and bustle of the 21st century!
There was even a series of instructional posters with the one illustrated telling the public 'The Right Way to Get Off' with a lady leaving a tram, ably assisted by the helpful conductor and one could be enticed to visit Kew Gardens, a colourful depiction of 'The Palm House' with the additional wording 'But see it for Yourself by Underground to Kew Gardens Station'.
Another innovation that would not survive today is the so-called 'pair poster'. This was a two-part poster (London Transport's standard 40 x 25 inch format for each part) with an illustration accompanied by an extensive amount of text. One pair concerns 'London's Fairs' by William Roberts RA with the illustration a strikingly unconventional treatment of what was then (1951) a familiar London scene and the adjacent text extolling the virtues of the English fairground in great detail and then, in smaller type, 'Some Fairs in and Around London' with complete details of how to get there by bus, coach or Underground train. Victoria Park is even present, somewhere I used to visit in my courting days with my late wife who was an East End girl - 'By train to Bethnal Green, thence bus, 8, 60, 106 etc etc' - yes, I remember it well but we were hard up so we walked from Bethnal Green!
Artists such as Mable Lucie Atwell, Hans Unger, Harry Stevens, Abram Games and many more adorn the pages of a book that is a visual delight and also presents an overview of how London Transport posters developed and were produced over the years. It does highlight what a shame it is that, generally, the art of the poster has more or less disappeared with the advent of modern technology. But we do have such books as this to look back on and enjoy the artwork.
Pick thus commissioned them to produce stylish posters as 'evocative enticement' to take the public's eye. The iconography of these posters was deeply patriotic using such subjects as the beefeater and the guardsman, the cockney and the bargee, the lover and the child and these were often set within an idealised view of the past and present in town and country.
Pick was fortunate that, even though he was forming a trend, he was working in the so-called golden age of the poster and this collection of 88 colourful posters shows how the poster tradition developed within London Transport. Not only that, Pick was always ready to experiment and to take on new and upcoming artists. Very early he detected the American Edward McKnight Kauffer's gifts as a poster specialist and he commissioned David Sutherland long before the critics hailed him as one of the great painters of our time. He also utilised the talents of such as Laura Knight, Frank Brangwyn and the lesser known, but equally talented, Fred Taylor, EA Cox, Clive Gardiner and Edward Wadsworth. All these artists, and many more, are represented in this powerful evocation of the London Transport poster through the ages.
The earliest in the collection date to 1908 and 1909 and depict such as a superb 'Winter's Discontent Made Glorious' an Underground Railway poster which depicts a sultry countryside scene as the Overground/Underground train starts to enter a tunnel and a multi-illustrated poster advertising 'Circular Routes' and 'Cheap Fairs' that was published for the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition at the White City. These are typically Edwardian in their production, as is one of my favourites, 'Winter Sales' of 1913, which has a delightful illustration of ladies crowding around a department store. It also has a list of Underground stations with the stores that each station services (Knightsbridge: Harrod's, Harvey Nichols, Tudor Bros., Wooland's; Victoria: Gorringe's; et al) plus, imagine such a thing today, an unacknowledged two verse poem promoting the delight of the sales. Unfortunately all these early works are 'Artist unknown'.
By the 1920s the styles have changed from the earlier hard-edged productions to more impressionistic views extolling the virtues of 'The Open Road - Fresh Air and Sunshine' and 'Tour London's Country by General Coach'. Once again a number of the posters have verse accompanying the illustration with even the poets Robert Browning, Samuel Rogers and William Cowper appearing as copy writers! Imagine today's travellers stopping to read such verse on an advertising poster - there is little chance of that amidst the hustle and bustle of the 21st century!
There was even a series of instructional posters with the one illustrated telling the public 'The Right Way to Get Off' with a lady leaving a tram, ably assisted by the helpful conductor and one could be enticed to visit Kew Gardens, a colourful depiction of 'The Palm House' with the additional wording 'But see it for Yourself by Underground to Kew Gardens Station'.
Another innovation that would not survive today is the so-called 'pair poster'. This was a two-part poster (London Transport's standard 40 x 25 inch format for each part) with an illustration accompanied by an extensive amount of text. One pair concerns 'London's Fairs' by William Roberts RA with the illustration a strikingly unconventional treatment of what was then (1951) a familiar London scene and the adjacent text extolling the virtues of the English fairground in great detail and then, in smaller type, 'Some Fairs in and Around London' with complete details of how to get there by bus, coach or Underground train. Victoria Park is even present, somewhere I used to visit in my courting days with my late wife who was an East End girl - 'By train to Bethnal Green, thence bus, 8, 60, 106 etc etc' - yes, I remember it well but we were hard up so we walked from Bethnal Green!
Artists such as Mable Lucie Atwell, Hans Unger, Harry Stevens, Abram Games and many more adorn the pages of a book that is a visual delight and also presents an overview of how London Transport posters developed and were produced over the years. It does highlight what a shame it is that, generally, the art of the poster has more or less disappeared with the advent of modern technology. But we do have such books as this to look back on and enjoy the artwork.
Displaying 1 of 1 review