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I've been a fan of travel posters since I was a child in London travelling on the tube and absorbing the brilliant art around me. British 20th century poster design was driven by transport companies, beginning with the work of London Underground’s Frank Pick. He saw the potential of posters to persuade passengers to venture beyond the confines of their daily commute. Pick used artists of the highest calibre and gave them a free hand to create images of a wide range of destinations. When the London & North Eastern and the London Midland & Scottish railways were formed in 1923, and seeing the success of Pick’s strategy, an advertising race began between the two. During the 30s the images which dominated were the streamlined expresses racing for Scotland, created as both companies sought out the best artistic talent. Two artists stand out: Norman Wilkinson for the LMS and Fred Taylor for the LNER. Fred Taylor (1875-1963) studied at Goldsmith’s College where he won a gold medal for poster design. He worked for leading interior designers Waring & Gillow in the 30s before working on camouflage design during WW2. Alongside this, for many years he created posters for the LNER. His style is easy to understand: he takes a key image - a castle, a cathedral, a landscape feature - and renders it fairly accurately in a limited palette. His skies are often dramatic, but it is in the foreground that he lets himself go: vivid colours, strong brushstrokes, trees and foliage in abstract shapes. Brilliantly attractive, yet far from photographic, he covered many of the destinations on the LNER. I have a Fred Taylor poster of Durham on my wall and I look at it every day. (Text from The Romance of the Railway, Ian Scott Massie 2021) Here's a few classic Fred Taylor posters:   
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For many years I've been a fan of travel posters. I can date this back to my childhood - I'm the son of a London Transport engineer - so I spent many happy hours trundling around on the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines. There were great poster designs everywhere. Then, when I started screen printing I knew I wanted to capture the same feeling those poster designers went for. Fast forward to this year and I'm the image-creating part of Great British Travel Posters. There's already a good selection focusing on the North of England, Scotland and classic aeroplane designs and there's more to come. I'm really enjoying seeing older work in a different setting and also creating new work with a poster design in mind. One of the best things. from the customer's point of view, is that the posters are available in a range of sizes and come either unframed or with frames. You can see the current range here: GREAT BRITISH TRAVEL POSTERS   |