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Introduction

During the 1920s and 1930s the Underground Group’s posters reached a peak of stylistic quality. In 1927 the art critic of The Times claimed, ‘there can be no doubt at all that the credit for the earliest consistent use of good posters of any kind belongs to the Underground’.  

By 1933, when London Transport was formed as a unified entity, the company was regarded as a leading patron of the arts. London Transport’s Chief Executive, Frank Pick, who had first started this progressive approach to pictorial posters in 1908, continued to oversee a huge array of commissions. These were rich in quantity and quality, with over 40 posters commissioned a year by a wide range of designers, from the famous and established to the new and unknown. 

Style

Pick’s theory behind commissioning was that posters could ‘move from the most literal representation to the wildest impression so long as the subject remained clear’. He knew that traditional posters would reassure the public, but he also recognised that public taste could be extended by exposure to the unfamiliar, the adventurous and even the shocking. This Clive Gardiner poster used a Cubist style to depict a famous London attraction.

The styles often most associated with the golden age of poster design are striking, bold, geometric and abstract. Many artists drew inspiration from avant-garde art movements such as Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism. Their use of such styles introduced elements of modern art to a much wider public than would be possible for a contemporary gallery. This had the added benefit of associating this sense of modern style with London Transport, part of a wider cohesive corporate identity that also grew from the Johnston typeface, roundel symbol and stylish station architecture seen on the network. 

Designers

Pick commissioned a range of respected designers of the day. These included established and prolific poster designers like Fred Taylor, Walter Spradbery and Austin Cooper, as well as internationally known fine artists, such as CRW Nevinson, Laura Knight, Edward Wadsworth, Paul Nash and Man Ray.  

Pick was not afraid to experiment with undiscovered talent either, with relative newcomer Edward McKnight Kauffer becoming his greatest discovery. Fellow artist Paul Nash described Kauffer, in 1935, as being ‘Responsible above anyone else for the change in attitude towards commercial art in this country’. Kauffer’s style took in the influence of multiple art movements and translated them into distinctive, yet varied posters that combined bold modernism with a clear message. His posters had a major influence on British and international graphic design. He produced over 100 posters for the Underground and London Transport. 

Women designers were commissioned extensively, with over a quarter of all Underground publicity designed by women by 1930. While this was some way short of equality, it was a higher proportion than employed by other British companies or government agencies at the time. The most prolific was Dora Batty, who produced over 40 designs between 1921 and 1938. This 1926 example is typical of the elegance of her work, depicting a strong, independent woman in an Art Deco influenced style. Laura Knight, an established fine artist and the first woman Royal Academician in 1936, created seven posters for the Underground between 1921 and 1957.  

An established patron of the arts

In the 1920s and 1930s, designing a poster for the Underground and London Transport became an honour among both great and aspiring artists. In the interwar years more artists and designers produced posters for them than for any other single company or organisation. Many major designers made their name and reputation through this association, bringing their work to an audience of millions on the capital’s transport network. But as the Second World War loomed, London Transport’s poster commissioning was to face wartime challenges and the need for a different focus for its messaging.  

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