Style

This is one of my favourite post-War railway posters, produced by British Railways:


Designed by Abram Games, the distinctive colours of the blood and custard carriage form a delightful outline of the country, a pleasant "push-pull" mind game and a striking image.

It's an echo of the pre-War pinnacle achieved by several different railway companies. One of the greatest of the designers was France's Cassandre, whose Cubist and surrealist inspirations led to incredibly striking images:



Back in England, all the railway companies' headquarters put huge energy into developing their public relations, and the poster was their primary weapon.

So here's a selection of five from the Southern Railway (I could have picked any of them, but sticking with the posters of one company enables us to see the house style in action).


The Southern emphasised their speed and frequency -- particularly using their massive electrification programme to project an image of modernity and efficiency:


But pre-War society was very different from ours -- it's difficult to imagine railway companies today selling their services to people attending evening public lectures:


Not all the Southern's services were electrified -- but the same simple graphical style was used to sell the steam services. Here the "Atlantic Coast Express" is shown speeding behind a King Arthur class engine:


But it's the electric services that loaned themselves best to this graphical treatment.


They are works of art.