'Airline Visual Identity 1945 - 1975' by Matthias C. Hühne

[all images courtesy of Callisto Publishers]

As if I weren't excited enough for the return of Mad Men in April, a new coffee table book is putting the focus on the glory days of airline advertising, a central theme for Don Draper and his cohorts. While Mad Men gives us just a small slice of the creative genius that went into branding an airline, Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975 by Matthias C. Hühne carefully curates the work of prestigious graphic designers and advertising luminaries.

The massive tome measures 12.2" x 16.1" and uses a total of seventeen different colors, five different types of varnishes, and two different methods of foil printing and embossing to reproduce the airlines' commercial art as accurately as possible.

With artwork by Ivan Chermayeff, Otl Aicher, Massimo Vignelli, Saul Bass and Mary Wells Lawrence, Airline Visual Identity 1945 – 1975 illustrates the shift from traditional methods of corporate design and advertising to comprehensive modern identity branding programs that generally took place in the 1960s. Case studies sit alongside the artwork, providing insight into the design and advertising methods of a once-glamorous industry, and the book includes chapters on each of the major airlines of the period.

Airline Visual Identity 1945 – 1975 comes out on April 1, which leaves you with a few days to flip through it (martini in hand) before Mad Men returns on the 5th. You can pre-order now on Amazon.