The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
A century of selling our love affair with air travel
In the early 20th century, flying was the exciting new means of travel, and posters had the ability to express speed, progress and the sheer glamour of flight. Their methods included drawn imagery, brochurestyle information, maps and charts, photography and photomontage. Sometimes the lure was a depiction of the destination itself, at other times a focus on the means of travel.
Posters chart the development from the early pioneering flights, through the sophisticated global network of Imperial Airways, and (after the Second World War) British Airways’ changing focus towards Europe and the evolving Commonwealth. They also reveal how commercial interests influenced publicity throughout the period, with shifting emphases on attracting airmail, freight and passengers. Promotion aimed at the latter shows how initial appeals to a social elite gradually broadened to include a wider audience as the jet age and mass travel advanced. Imagery stressing factors of style, comfort and reliability diversified also to underline those of price and economy.
The early years of British civil aviation coincided with important developments in poster design, with styles influenced by futurism, modernism, art deco and surrealism. Paul Jarvis illustrates his new account with posters drawn from the British Airways Heritage Collection, which has existed since the formation of BA. One of the country’s finest aviation collections, it was established to preserve the records and artefacts of BA’s predecessor companies BOAC, BEA, BSAA and the pre-war Imperial Airways, as well as BA.
Margaret Timmers was formerly senior curator of prints at the Victoria and Albert Museum British Airways: 100 Years of Aviation Posters (Amberley Publishing) is available for £16.99 plus p&p through Telegraph Books (0844 871 1514; books. telegraph. co.uk).