Hasta La Ideas

A series of posters inspired by those for the films of Jacques Tati are urging us to visit Western France for our holidays this year

The posters were illustrated by Paul Thurlby and art directed by Ruan Milborrow at mr.h for The French Tourist Board in the UK.

Each of the six posters highlights a different attraction of the region in a style which, MIlborrow says, references the spirit of Tati posters from the 60s.

The tourism sector is usually a pretty cliched and dull space when it comes to advertising – all girls in bikins, pitures of castles and ‘local cuisine’, so it’s great to see someone attempting a more visually interesting approach (although perhaps the type is a little incongruous?).

What’s also interesting is that this campaign is one of a growing number to use retro style illustration. Just this month we ran a post on a Hertz campaign from DDB that nodded toward Edward McKnight Kauffer

And Mother has been ploughing the retro furrow for some time for Stella Artois.

While CHI created these posters for Anchor butter recalling a time when ads were painted direct onto walls.

And not forgetting that the new series of Mad Men produced yet more examples of the ad industry plundering its own history, with retro stye ads running during the ad breaks on Sky Atlantic and Newsweek asking advertisers to run archive ads (see below) in a special issue dedicated to the show (covered by magCulture here).

Perhaps, as well as the obvious Mad Men connection, it’s a reflection of the fact that vintage ads are such popular items on blogs and Tumblrs – so visible and popular that it should be no surprise that their look and feel is seeping into the consciences of art directors.

Anyone spotted any more examples?

CR in Print

Thanks for visiting the CR website, but if you are not also reading CR in print you’re missing out. Our April issue has a cover by Neville Brody and a fantastic ten-page feature on Fuse, Brody’s publication that did so much to foster typographic experimentation in the 90s and beyond. We also have features on charity advertising and new Pentagram partner Marina Willer. Rick Poynor reviews the Electric Information Age and Adrian Shaughnessy meets the CEO of controversial crowdsourcing site 99designs. All this plus the most beautiful train tickets you ever saw and a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at Thunderbirds in our Monograph supplement

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