Vintage Poster Archives
India Imperial Airways 1936 | Mark Severin Flying Boat
India Imperial Airways 1936 | Mark Severin Flying Boat
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A purple flying boat touches down on Indian waters, its passengers transferring via small boats to the distant shore. Designed by Mark Severin for Imperial Airways in 1936, this poster advertised the empire route connecting London to India via the revolutionary Short S23 Empire flying boats.
Severin worked as art director at London advertising agency C.R. Casson and created distinctive promotional work for Imperial Airways during the 1930s. The composition shows the flying boat G-ADHL floating on tropical waters, with red-sailed junks anchored nearby and architectural forms rising from the golden coastline.
The poster depicts the romance of early commercial aviation when the journey to India took days rather than hours. Bold typography proclaims the destination in red capitals, while the Imperial Airways branding appears in deep purple below, rendered in the streamlined Art Deco style that defined 1930s travel advertising.
Reproduced as an archival print from Library of Congress sources, preserving the original lithographic colours and composition that made Imperial Airways posters definitive examples of aviation advertising art.
