We’ve been super mega busy again, just enough time for a quick blog post. The story of the town mouse and the country mouse is an old one (from around 650BC). Aesop’s fables pretty much covered all the animals out there in one way or another, using them as characters to deliver stories with simple truths at their heart. The story of the town mouse and the country mouse is no different.
Once again out friends at Yes to Homes (part of the National Housing Federation) commissioned us to create a range of posters which combined loosely the ‘story of the town mouse and the country mouse’, the style of the glorious travel posters for the early part of the 20th century (especially the stunning poster designs commissioned by LMS, GWR, LNER and British Railways) and a hard hitting contemporary message about the disproportionate cost of houses in the city and rural areas throughout the UK and more specifically in the south east and south west.
There’s something special about the travel posters from that era, especially the ones create in Britain by rail and shipping companies. Not only have the stood the test of time and remain beautiful pieces of art in their own right but they have continued to inspire and influence designers and artists ever since. Such is the power of their imagery, layout and typography that one look at one and you are instantly steeped in a very strong sense of time and place. These posters, like the great hippie acid drenched posters of 60’s America and the Lautrec era posters of the louche and hedonistic booze and artist riddled Paris are doorways into another world.
We had really great fun stretching our illustrative muscles on this project. Time was exceedingly tight but we think the end results look pretty darn fine considering. More importantly the client was exceedingly happy which is what really matters.