Fancy Pants

The economic and social pressures that immediately followed the First World War brought with them a new mood for a rigorous and clean-cut look. Art Deco was an innovative design style popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Its sleek, streamlined forms conveyed elegance and sophistication.

Society in this post war period was a very segregated entity, classes of people were clearly outlined and as economies where at a high, the rich where rich and the poor were damned.

Travel was a luxury reserved for the upper class. These people, from what I gather, were the first definition of what is known today as the “snob”, Life to them was all about the material, cars, houses, clothes and holidays.



Graphic design played a huge roll in the travel industry during this period, with people using holidays and destinations as weapons of social classing, travel was a huge market now, full of the wealthiest consumers, therefore advertising had to be of the highest standard, encompassing all modern design styles.



I guess the wealthy people of this time really needed these kind of props to keep their mind focused on competition and success as opposed to the bleak reality of their shallow greed and hedonism.



I would love to have found some advertising for a local bus route, I have a sneaking suspicion that the design would have been a shade or two less elaborate.