The Swissair poster collection

It is with great pleasure that we are exhibiting, both in our gallery and on our internet site, this collection of 140 original posters, completed by an exceptional series of company model planes.

This page contains a large number of posters printed by the company Swissair. Those that are marked sold are not available for the moment. These photos come from our archives. We have made the choice to to present them online in order to complete our story and to offer our visitors an almost exhaustive vision of the posters commissioned by Swissair.

The company has always took care of its image, using a purist design and a 'Swiss International' graphic style.

It ordered the numerous posters that would accompany its expansion and which today have become icons and witnesses to the extraordinary development of aerial transport.

The Top of the Rock at the Rockfeller Center.

May we have your attention Please.

Please switch off your mobile phone.

For take off make sure that the back of your seat is in a fully upright position.

Fasten your seat belt.

Now relax in your seat.

Veritable national ambassadors, airline company posters became an excellent support for tourism.

During the whole of the century they accompanied aviation's evolution and were an important vector in the democratization of airline transport.

Aviation's economic activity, rapidly produced numerous high quality artistic posters. Rival companies employed the best artists, excellent printers and commissioned thousands of posters that still captivate us.

Advertising posters have been highly important in the promotion of the image of these companies. Destinations, speed, security, comfort, excellent service and the arts were the principal themes.

Large crowds were attracted by the meetings via magnificent posters. A curious and enthusiastic public applauded the 'flying madmen in their funny machines.'

Several 'International Gordon-Bennett races with hot air balloons', in Geneva and Zurich.

14 - 18

Swiss military aviation was created in 1913. The planes and their pilots were mobilized at the beginning of the war for reconnaissance missions.

Lausanne Airport

1910 saw the first plane landing in a field at La Blécherette near Lausanne. One year later the land was nominated 'airport' and the first 'aviation day' took place on June 1911. A postal service between Lausanne and Zurich was opened in 1919. Passengers followed the year after.

During the twenties regular direct lines liked Lausanne to the main European cities.

In 1930, to support its Airport, the city of Lausanne bought one AC-4 Aircraft, built by Alfred Comte, a Swiss constructor and future founder of the Swiss Air Lines Company.
In 1931, followed a second machine, the AC-11 (HB-KIM) visible on this poster.

Walter Mittelholzer >

It was under the impetus of the Office of Civil Aviation that Alphons Ehinger of Balair and Walter Mittelholzer would convince the shareholders to accept the merger of the two companies, the 17th and 26th of March 1931.

Walter Mittelholzer >

Balair

A Fokker-Grulich F-II, registered CH-152 in April 1926, is represented on this Niklaus Stoecklin poster, drawn in the same year. This plane had a cargo load of only 400kg.

A Fokker F-VII is illustrated here, on these posters for the company 'Transports Rapides Aériens,' or 'Travel by Air' in English.

This plane, registered CH-158 belonged to the Balair company but was represented under these two other names while flying over France and England.

It was registered in March 1928.

'Travel by air, Tickets for sale at the Luftverkehrs Union' (The Air Traffic Union).

Extremely rare Advertising cardboard by Otto Baumberger for the Swiss company Balair.

The Fokkers VIIa CH-159 was registered in March 1928 for the Balair Company and was included in the Swissair fleet in 1931.

A suitcase label from the same company represents a Fokker F.VIIb-3m which went into service for Balair in 1929.

It was triple motored with two pilot seats and could transport up to 10 passengers at a cruising speed of 180 km/h.

As we can see from this rare label, this company was also known as 'Swiss Air Traffic Co. Ltd'.

Planes belonging to these two companies were reused by Swissair since its foundation in 1931. They kept their old registration numbers in the new company, for example the CH-190 of Ad Astra.

As a result of this merger the new company had a fleet of 13 planes and a capacity to transport 86 passengers.

Its 10 pilots served 13 European cities: Geneva, Basel, Bern, Zurich, Lucern, Mannheim, Frankfurt, Cologne, Essen, Amsterdam, Stuttgart Leipzig and Berlin.

These two advertising signs on cardboard drawn by Carl Moos are extremely rare.

This Fokker flying over the Alps in an Art Deco sky was also printed in a travel size format (64 x 102cm).

During the first years of its existence, Swissair did not have a clear visual identity.

Even its name was uncertain, Swissair of course, but also 'Swiss Air Lines', 'Lignes Aériennes Swissair', Schweizeriche Luftverkehr 'Swissair', 'Air Traffic 'Swissair', or even, 'Swiss Air2', in two words.

Very often we find the name Swissair written in simple typography, sometimes slanting to one side. Other graphic designers tried more fanciful creations, but they would not come to much.

< Swissair design 1937

Swissair logo 1944 >

Nelly Diener, The first air hostess.

Since its foundation, Swissair privileged quality and reception.

In 1934 the company employed Nelly Diener as air hostess.

She was the first European air hostess and immediately became the mascot of the company, and took on the nickname, 'The angel of the skies'.
Unfortunately, Nelly Diener died the same year in a crash involving a Swissair Curtiss AT-32C Condor CH-170.

With 2 pilots and a stewardess the Douglas DC-2-115B transported 14 passengers at a cruising speed of 240km/h on the European network.

This much celebrated Herbert Matter poster in photo montage representing a DC-2 flying over the summit of the Bernina mountain was printed in several texts in both French and German.

Extremely rare version with the name Swissair printed in silk screen. The young company had only existed for 4 years.

This is a Douglas DC-3-216, registered HB-IRA.

Swissair bought it new for 527,000 Swiss Francs.

With 2 pilots and a navigator, 1 or 2 cabin personnel, it carried 21 passengers on the European network, at 280km/h.

For the first time, the Swissair logo appears on a suitcase label with its 'S' as a capital letter and the 'w' rounded in shape, the whole written in a form of italic script.

This label which depicts a DC-2 flying head on over the Alps in an intense yellow sky, dates from around 1936.

In 1937 this logo was painted on to the fuselage of the 'Swissair De Haviland Dragon Rapid D.H.89' then on the company's DC-3s.

As in this extremely rare poster drawn by T. Brunner or on this other for the Studio Sélection.

A magnificent poster by Hermann Eidenbenz printed in 1948 which represents the first Swissair DC-4 flying over the Swiss Alps.

On this poster by Bernard Reber, we can see the Swissair DC-4-HB-ILU, put into service in 1952, taking off from the Zurich Kloten airport.

On the 2nd of May 1947, the first DC-4 took off from Geneva for New York with 7 crew members and 28 guests, mostly officials and journalists.

The plane took off at night from Cointrin airport to the sound of the Swiss and American national anthems.

After the two stops in Ireland and Canada, the plane made a third unplanned stop in Washington due to bad weather. Unfortunately the plane could not take off again because the crew did not have the necessary 500 dollars to fill the tank with petrol. Finally the Swiss Embassy lent them the money and the plane could take off again.

This episode could be considered a premonition of the infamous 2nd of October 2001, the day of the Swissair 'Grounding.'

It was only after the passing of these events that the plane eventually landed in New York, two days late.

However, the return flight went without incident and the route Geneva - New York was open.

The transatlantic flight return ticket cost 3,400 Swiss Francs, or 242 paid working days according to the average Swiss salary of the time.

In 1947, with the aim of permitting the landing of DC-4s owned by Swissair and the American company TWA, the Geneva Cointrin airport inaugurated the first concrete landing strip in Switzerland.

This is the reason why the first Swissair flight to New York took off from Geneva.

As the Kloten airport in Zurich was not yet constructed, that of Geneva was the principle airport in Switzerland, with among others, its international customers from the UNO.

Swissair commissioned 10 or so baggage labels.

These small advertisements were coated with gum arabic so that they would stick on to the passenger's baggage.

A nice way to spread their logo and their brand.

Certain examples of these labels are extremely rare today.

He initially re-drew the typography of the name Swissair: capital letters, without serif and with the three ’S’s elongated.

In doing so he gave the impression of speed and created a dynamic which perfectly symbolized aerial flight.

He kept the red and the white, the colors of the Swiss flag already used by the company.
In some cases he added blue, the color of the sky.

This typography resolutely Modernist and immediately recognizable, would be associated with the company until 1981.

On the fuselage was the name SWISSAIR with its elongated ’S’ to symbolise speed.

This airplane is perfectly surrounded by a circle which symbolized the globe.

He kept the red and the white, both colors of the Swiss flag.

This logo became a reference and a good example of ‘Swiss typography’ and of the ‘Swiss International Style’ which is still studied today by graphic designers.

It especially confirmed Swissair’s willingness to give its image a stronger Swiss dimension, rooted in modernity and a greater graphic purity.

This logo was such a success that the company continued to use it in a simplified manner from the 1960’s.

The globe disappeared and even sometimes the name itself. The identification was so effective that the silhouette alone was sufficient to recognize that it was Swissair.

Several examples of this little model of the DC-6 have been mounted on to an older Swissair stand, with a glass ashtray tinted in black.

Later the same small model of the DC-6 was mounted on a more modern chrome stand.

< Travel Agency model 1/72 of HB-IBE, put in to service in July 1951.

The Swissair DC-6B HB-IBA >

The price became an important selling factor, such as is shown on the Elli Weider poster which points out that, ’Travelling by plane is accessible to everyone’, in the French version, and in the German, ‘More people travel today for less money.’

The Swissair network continued to grow.

A new style of poster appeared. Posters describing destinations. It stopped being about selling the latest model of plane, but instead about inciting the future passenger to dream of idyllic locations, either typical or exotic which were charged with the identity symbols depicted in the posters.
These evocations had to be easily understood by the public in order to arouse the enthusiasm to travel and go on holiday.

Hence, in the well-known series of brightly colored posters by Henry Ott, the airplane has completely disappeared.

The artist used a strong symbol for each destination. For example he chose the Promenade des Anglais for Nice, a dromedary for Cairo and the opera house La Scala for Milan.

The association is immediate and the message is clear.

Donald Brun’s joyous posters have become the national company’s classics.

Swissair’s DC-6 is greeted by a shepherd or a stork.

Posters often tried to show how safe air travel was and how much it merited the confidence of the public, by depicting smiling hostesses, a captain welcoming a small child on-board, or even how relaxed passengers were when boarding the aircraft.

Donald Brun was engaged several times by Swissair for his relaxed, playful style.
His posters, communicating joy and confidence, were highly prized by the company which wanted to reassure its customers.

In this poster by Carlo Vivarelli, a charming air hostess wishes passengers 'bon voyage', as they make their way towards a DC-6.

This superb photo-montage is highlighted by 2 typographies of 'Swissair ' in the form of a cross which structures the composition and subtly reminds us of the Swiss cross.

The artist has not yet used Rudolph Bergers's new typography and his new logo which was created at the end of 1951. The use of the color orange is surprising.

It seems that the codes of graphic design have not yet been fixed.

It was for these reasons, and because the photo represents a model of a DC-6 delivered in the same year, we esteem that, even if it is not dated exactly, this poster was created in 1951.

In 1956, Swissair received its first Convair Metropolitan CV-440-11, constructed by General Dynamics.

A bi-motor with propellers, it carried 44 passengers on the European network at a cruising speed of 410km/h and had only two pilots.

An occasion for Kurt Wirth to produce one of his masterpieces in the Swiss International poster style.

This poster was printed in two sizes (large Swiss size and travel size), in German, French and Italian, the 3 national languages.

2 superb Swissair travel agency models of the DC-7 HB-IBK

< in 1/72

in 1/50 >

The first Swissair DC-7C was delivered in November 1956. It carried 75 passengers, with 5 crew members in the cabin at a speed of 550 km/h.

Its speed and its long flight range (9000km) meant it was destined for the long transatlantic routes towards North and South America. It was the first plane to cross the North Atlantic as a regular flight route without stopping either way.

This superb poster by Kurt Wirth, in the pure Swiss International Style exists in the three national languages, French, German and Italian.

The company maintained a real company culture by encouraging sporting and cultural activities for its workers and their family, for example team sports >

< or even ballroom bingo such as in this poster of a DC-7 by Graf-Neuhaus.

Each worker was proud to work for 'Swissair' and to be part of its family. The workers were held in high esteem by the rest of the country.

In 1958 Swissair asked two famous artists from the Basel school (Donald Brun and Fritz Bühler), to create a series of posters of various destinations to promote its world network which was in full expansion thanks to its DC-7 Seven Seas.

On these posters by Fritz Bühler as in the series by Donald Brun, the plane is reduced to a small silhouette.

The plane was not the central motif of the message. It only served to remind us it was an airline company poster. They believed it was more important to seduce the public by presenting them with images of idyllic holidays.

< Advertising cardboard

The "Publicités sur les Lieux de Vente" (PLV) were small advertising cardboards displayed on the counters of travel agencies.

The first Douglas DC-8 was delivered to Swissair in April 1960.

The Swissair Douglas DC-8 HB-IDA transported 132 passengers at 885 km/h over the North Atlantic network with 4 professionals working in the cabin and up to 6 air hostesses.

Superb travel agency model of a Swissair Douglas DC-8 HB-IDA in 1/50,

example numbered No.1

Superb travel agency model in 1/50.

Swissair received 9 caravelles, but the registration HB-Elf was finally not allocated.

By a subtle photo montage, the Swissair poster by Max Schneider illustrates the jet's explosive acceleration, and celebrates the arrival of the DC-8 and the Caravelles.

Mercantile transport and transport of precious goods had always been an important part of Swissair’s business. Passenger transport helped to make flights more profitable.

Several posters were printed to help support this department.

A long haul courier plane, with the capacity to carry 100 passengers. This magnificent quadri-reactor had a record cruising speed of 895 km/h.

With the exception of Concorde, it is still to this day the fastest civil transport plane in history. In fact, today, planes fly at a lesser speed in order to economize fuel.

Two renowned posters by the photographer Manfred Bingler.

A view over the Mont Blanc as seen from the window of the Conorado 880.

The Conorado 990 as seen from above.

On this poster, the DC-9-81, registered HB-INC and delivered in February 1980, is flying over the Alps.

In this poetic poster, a heart, a sunrise, a starry sky and a rainbow are represented, alluding to biblical visions and universality.

In the second poster, an imaginary flight of birds in psychedelic colors suggests dreams of liberty.

The Swissair DC-10-30 HB-IHA, had three reactors with a thrusting power of 23,000 kg, and carried 237 passengers at a cruising speed of 885 km/h.

In the poster on the left, a Swissair DC-10-30 HB-IHB, delivered in February 1973, is flying over the Alps.

In the poster on the right, printed in 1983, a DC-10 painted with a brown line along its fuselage instead of red, is flying over the Dufour point.

In 1973 and again in 1982, Swissair made two posters which depicted all of the planes that had flown for the company since Balair and Ad Astra Aero.

Numerous Swiss adolescents have pinned these posters to the walls of their bedrooms and dreamed of becoming pilots.

This edition from 1981 has the new logo in the left white margin. >

Even if this new design never lost its class, it never really caught on, probably because they abandoned the red and white colors, the symbols of the Swiss flag and the national company.

In 1991 Swissair decided to drop the brown and black design.

Henceforth, a much bigger 'Swissair' in red appeared on the white fuselage and the company also returned to its historic colors.

OK as fresh as a Coke !

A brilliantly refreshing poster for the opening of the Zurich - Atlanta line. Coca-Cola's company seat is in this American city.
This poster was granted the Swiss Poster Award in 1987.

Manuel de vol du MD-11. >

< In this photo, the plane still has the brown and black line along the fuselage.

The MD-11 flight manuel. >

In 2000 and 2001, it seems the price was the most important thing.

Competition was strong.

The terrorist attacks of the 11th of September 2001 on the World Trade Center in New York plunged aerial transport into a crisis that was without precedent.