Shell Corner, London - advertising hoardings by Edward McKnight Kauffer, 1923
An interesting image as it shows the decorative hoardings surrounding "Shell Corner" in London during construction and the use the site hoardings were put to. The sweep of posters, frames and lettering was used to sell Shell 'Motor Spirit" or petrol (gasoline) and the company commissioned one of the best contemporary graphic designers and artists, Edward McKnight Kauffer, to design the scheme. It shows the refining of petrol and its uses.
McKnight Kauffer was at the time relatively early in his long and celebrated career having only a few years earlier received his first major commissions from Frank Pick at London's Underground, a major influence in the development of British graphic design, advertising and the industrial arts. Shell, from the 1920s and into the 1930s, were one of the other major companies to embrace high standards of design and advertising latterly under the control of Jack Beddington. Lovely as it is to see posters in "the real" I can only wonder what colours these hoardings used to catch the eye!
The hoardings also show the contractors for the building, the steelworks and the lifts - the latter being Waygood-Otis who were major suppliers of both lifts and escalators to London Underground. I'm sure the building was, or still is, 61 Aldwych at the corner of Kingsway now part of the LSE.
Shell Corner, London - advertising hoardings by Edward McKnight Kauffer, 1923
An interesting image as it shows the decorative hoardings surrounding "Shell Corner" in London during construction and the use the site hoardings were put to. The sweep of posters, frames and lettering was used to sell Shell 'Motor Spirit" or petrol (gasoline) and the company commissioned one of the best contemporary graphic designers and artists, Edward McKnight Kauffer, to design the scheme. It shows the refining of petrol and its uses.
McKnight Kauffer was at the time relatively early in his long and celebrated career having only a few years earlier received his first major commissions from Frank Pick at London's Underground, a major influence in the development of British graphic design, advertising and the industrial arts. Shell, from the 1920s and into the 1930s, were one of the other major companies to embrace high standards of design and advertising latterly under the control of Jack Beddington. Lovely as it is to see posters in "the real" I can only wonder what colours these hoardings used to catch the eye!
The hoardings also show the contractors for the building, the steelworks and the lifts - the latter being Waygood-Otis who were major suppliers of both lifts and escalators to London Underground. I'm sure the building was, or still is, 61 Aldwych at the corner of Kingsway now part of the LSE.