Moderne

The period after the Second World War ended was particularly strange in Britain: there was a sense of an opportunity to build a new, better future, one that was modern rather than old.


The graphics of the period beautifully capture this fascination with the modern (although, it's true, they built on a heritage stretching back to the Southern Railway's electrics):


Being a train geek, obviously I've picked out a bunch of posters and booklets from the railway to illustrate this point.


They usually emphasise the same things: speed, cleanliness, modernity...


No foul steam smoke here, all clean diesel (sic) and electric power.


The experiments with new liveries were also about trying to capture this mood:


This final pair of images for me sums things up perfectly -- a booklet explaining the benefits of the West Coast electrification project:


But let's look close-up at the audacious choice of cover illustration:


Graphically brilliant. I love the ephemera of that period.