Around the world with David Klein
a collection of great travel posters
Hallo!
I can't believe it's already the first Sunday of the month. The only good part of time going this fast is that I get to share another Attic with you, and it's the 23rd!
I’m particularly excited to be sharing this one with you because when I came across today’s featured artist I was constantly saying “oooh, nice” and “wow this one’s also so good” to myself (to be honest, I’d say this in Catalan so to be more accurate “oooh, preciós” and “uau, aquest també és molt bo”).
Today we are going to travel the world with a poster artist, we’ll also see a deer with a lovely colour palette, a super cute short based on a book series and a picture of good friends playing in 70s Badalona.
Sweeeet, let’s go!
✧An artist: David Klein✧
David Klein (February 23, 1918 – December 9, 2005) was an American artist, best known for his influential work in advertising and more specifically for his work on travel posters during the 50s and 60s.
Between approximately 1955–1965, Klein designed numerous of award-winning travel advertisement posters for mainly two companies: Howard Hughes and Trans World Airlines (TWA), producing lots of artwork of incredible quality.
I hope you’re feeling adventurous today because in this issue we are touring the world through Klein’s work. How cool is that? No need to answer: VERY COOL. Our mission today is to pick our favourite poster, and *spoiler* it’s not an easy task!
So please, fasten your seatbelts as we start our trip in Europe.
I know what you’re thinking: “what the heck, they are so good!” I’m having a lot of trouble finding a favourite! It’s ok, while we think about it, let’s continue our world trip in Africa and Asia.
So? Didn’t solve the problem, did it? I know, there are four more to consider now! Well, let’s fly to America…
…Okay, I’ll stop here.
I wanted to pick up just three or four pieces by Klein, but I failed terribly because they are all fantastic. Then I came up with this excuse of the quest of finding a favourite so I… could actually post all my favourites!
But if I had to pick just one, I think it would be this abstract portrait of New York. I mean, look at the color explosion and all those sparkles… I LOVE IT!
What about you, did you manage to pick a favourite?
✧An ad: London Transport✧
✧A short: Madeline✧
✧A picture: Badalona✧
I think I’ve already mentioned that I really like looking at antique portraits and especially candid pictures; a moment in the life captured and frozen forever. Always a plus when they are pictures of kids and animals. I like this one, just six friends having a fun time.
I finally went to a workshop about RISO printing! Since I discovered it some years ago, I have been printing in RISO every time I can.
In this workshop, Jumbo Press taught us the basics of risography printing and we put the knowledge into practice and went home with a print we printed during the workshop. I’m very happy with how it turned out and it was fantastic to be able to see how the whole process works. In short: I had a blast!
Oh, and we all ended up getting hungry just by looking at my design. I hope you had breakfast, otherwise sorry that you now crave some magdalenes…
I won't let this opportunity pass me by and tell you that it’s available for purchase here.
Sooo, I’ve been considering opening a different section here on Substack to write and share about other stuff that inspires me or find interesting even if it’s not related to art/mid-century.
It would be an occasional newsletter and it could feature behind the scenes, resources, other newsletters that I find interesting, music recs, other contemporary artists I admire, etc… Hey, I could write about the workshop at Jumbo Press, I took a bunch of pictures! Would that be interesting to you? Let me know!
Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful month and I’ll see you in the next issue!
✧The links✧
✦ David Klein TWA Travel Posters - Air and Space
✦ David Klein Posters Fly TWA to Hollywood, 1958 - RetroGrafik
✦ David Klein - Island Art Cards
✦ Vintage TWA Posters - Grain Edit
✦ Vintage Travel Posters - Potter Auctions
✦ Photographs Of Children Playing In Barcelona In The 1970s - Design You Trust
Great, as ever!
I didn't know Portugal was famous for mermaids at the time! :D