Flying Over Avalon 1940;Ruehl Heckman;14 1/4” x 10 ½ ”;A, P
I’ve always found the endeavors of those who work at night to be strangely special. Someone toiling in an office tower or studio after midnight comes to mind as someone with peculiar energy and range. Restaurants, hospitals, transport businesses and entertainments would seem to deploy a special kind of marine, somehow giving more of him or herself than 9-to-5-ers. Though I’ve felt this way since long before our dealings with vintage graphics, its energies have never, till now, become a part of our acquisition strategies. Therefore, this survey serves as not only a probe of quite unique historical renditions (aesthetic and reflective), but a new focus for searching out special graphic design.
We begin with the heavenly night flight over Catalina Island, a place that dares to cherish the night amidst a population of sun-worshippers. With the beach-front glittering as it does, the transport thrust here falls within the embrace of a business (even a vocation) of glamorous diversions.
LMS Bestway 1928;A.M. Cassandre;8 3/4″ x 11 1/2″;A,P, litho, pl.8
Paris 1928 Librairie des Arts Decoratifs
This small-format rendition of Cassandre’s brilliantly colored deco railway classic takes on an extra load of mystery in being cued up as a strictly nocturnal event. Someone’s night of work veering toward magic!
Lisa Duncan 1928;Paul Colin;11 1/2″ x 8 3/4″;A,P, litho, pl.50
Paris 1928 Librairie des Arts Decoratifs
Someone who’s never worked a day in her life, doing night work of indescribable value!
An Eye to the Future;Canadian Industry; Ault & Wiborg;12 1/2″ x 9 1/4″
I love the crooked little old telephone pole here. Not only an odd time of day; but somehow a different planet altogether—familiar, even charming: a world far away from normal human scale.
Le Colisee 1928;Lucien Boucher;12 1/4″x 9 5/8″;A,P
Somehow prefiguring the “Crying” moment at David Lynch’s Club Silencio in the film, Mulholland Drive.
Diana Park Alassio 1929;Filippo Romoli;39 1/2″x27 1/2″;B+,L
A night worker putting his back into the cause of fun and adventure.
Savarin 1913;Dolf Schmidt;28″ x 37 1/4″;B,L
After a show–another show, presented professionally!
Fortune October 1934;Antonio Petruccelli;13 3/4″ x 11″;A-,P; complete magazine
The toil factor in hard labor may seem to us a kind of nightmare. But if you’re taking on this much emotional as well as physical weight the workload may be tempered to a form of athletics with its camaraderie. This great design concentrates upon that possibility.
England c. 1960;Reyn Dirksen;39″ x 24″;A-, P
This fabulous Surrealist design by that round-the clock fireball, Reyn Dirksen, attends to the heavenly pay-off of the diligent workman for whom a short hop is a quantum leap!
Magic in the night!
