EDWARD MCKNIGHT KAUFFER (1890-1954) WINTER SHELL. 1935.

30x45 inches.
Condition B+: restored losses, repaired tears and creases in margins.
The Shell advertising posters in the 1920s and 1930s consisted of hundreds of brilliant creations and designs. Unfortunately a book illustrating all of these wonderful images has never published. The only existing book reproduces a small handful of the images, and, regrettably, completely ignores the avant-garde and photographic designs that were part of the campaign. Here are two such examples. The first is a strict composition with a photograph of a cloudy winter landscape on the right, and the text on the left. To add to this dramatic image Kauffer places a heavy black stroke behind the red letters of the word "Shell," that break up the potential monotony of what could have been a too-perfectly symmetrical poster; it catches the eye and makes the poster function.