Speed Into Summer! Our 24th Annual Poster Exhibition

August 14th through Labor Day, 2017

Here's a sample of our 24th Annual Summer Poster Exhibition - from travel and transportation to fashion, design, music and the arts.

Come Visit our SoWa Gallery!

Joseph Feher, Southern California - United Air Lines, circa 1954

Domestic flight mileage in the US tripled in the four years after WWII. A major milestone in those years was the introduction of the DC-6 in 1947 by United Airlines, which inaugurated a non-stop transcontinental journey from the West Coast in a speedy 10 hours. 

United's pioneering ads helped make it the U.S. largest airline by 1960. Its first campaign in 1948 was quickly followed by an eight poster campaign by Joseph Feher featuring Mid-Century Modern graphics and focusing on new Western destinations.

This playful image, one of the rarest in the series, is for the Los Angeles area, a key destination. A panoramic view of the sunny coastline is the backdrop for a gigantic "sun goddess" attired in her two piece sun dress. 

A.M. Cassandre, Etoile du Nord, 1927 

A. M. Cassandre burst on the Paris scene in the mid-'20s and was soon recognized as the father of a new, Machine Age poster style. Strongly influenced by modern art, Cassandre's work shocked the public with its dynamic compositions, abstract geometry, new typographic styles, and tight interplay of word and image.

Unlike his predecessors who portrayed travel destinations, Cassandre focused on the transportation marvels of the Machine Age. This poster promoted the North Star, a premier luxury train, which combined service across five railroads (referred to around the poster's edges). Cassandre's design of stylized train tracks merging into the horizon crowned by a white star is one of the most compelling of the Art Deco period.

Generally considered the greatest poster artist of the 20th Century, Cassandre became the first poster artist to be honored with a one-man show at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1936. 

Artist Unknown, Out in Front (Mather Work Incentive), 1929

In 1923, Charles Mather's printing company began selling subscriptions to hundreds of companies for an annual poster series to motivate and inspire workers. 

Out in Front from 1929 is one of the best of the Mather Work Incentive posters. The goal of the series - to improve worker productivity and curb turnover during a time of economic expansion and plentiful jobs - is evident in the poster's celebration of speed and competitive drive. The boat is a Hickman C-Sled motorboat; the spirit is pure Roaring Twenties.