Switching from United Air Lines to American Airlines (one word, not two) we get to highlight another design legend from the Mad Men era in Massimo Vignelli. This designer who once remade the New York subway map fully bought into the minimalist modern movement of the times when he came up with a new corporate identity for American Airlines in 1967.
Once again in Helvetica, the new identity streamlined not only the typeface but the eagle as well going into the 70s. Previous versions of the eagle logo had more detail, and help us date the various posters we'll look at today. Between 1962 and 67 the bird has more realistic looking feathers and it's in a red circle. From 1945 to 62 there's a fully detailed bird with layers of feathers. Let's start with a poster featuring Vignelli's typeface:
I love it when Los Angeles travel posters use gold tones, like the city is constantly bathed in the light of sunset. The poster pays tribute to the Spanish past (a common theme in earlier Los Angeles travel posters was missions), but by using actors and ersatz buildings it ties into the Hollywood movie culture as well. The poster also manages to squeeze in the requisite palm trees. I absolutely love this poster, late 60s just before the more psychedelic 70s.
Here's an example from that 70s era. Abstract art has made its presence felt in the advertising world, and here the Hollywood Bowl, city hall, and foreground palm trees are being invaded by multicolored orbs. It's even got sunset happening concurrent with dark of night. It's far out, man.
That brief period in the 60s with the circle logo produced this watercolor gem with some abstract elements. The golden sun and palm trees are prominent in the top half of the poster, which features a busy urban scene (the name of that structure in the center escapes me). The bottom half has a lazy marina scene, which looks like Avalon Cove but certainly is meant to invoke all the lazy marinas around LA county.
Further back in that era between 1945-62 we have a scene overlooking Los Angeles with the hills in the background and foreground. Palm trees line the foreground hill and there appears to be a Hollywood premier happening down on the ground. Hollywood premiers used to be big tourist attractions, with grandstands set up along the street so fans can watch stars arrive. Common of earlier air line travel posters, there's a plane in the upper corner to reinforce the mode of transportation.
American began bringing passengers cross-country from New York to Los Angeles beginning with the introduction of the Douglas DC-3 in 1936. This advertisement for a new DC-6A cargo plane would date to 1947, with the copy claiming to get from New York to Los Angeles in nine and a half hours (there was a stop in Dallas/Fort-Worth). Imagine, suddenly you could send a package from New York in the morning and have it delivered in Los Angeles the following morning.
Our poster with the Hollywood premier likely comes from the post-war 50s when American grew to be the largest Airline in America (a title held until United merged with Capital). It's fun to see how the art evolved in advertising Los Angeles, but the tropes remained the same: movies, sunshine, and oceanside relaxation.
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