A classic from my archives, this 1986 poster is an excellent example of destination-focused marketing. Here, it's the London Underground (affectionately - and in this case, playfully - called the Tube), promoting the Tate Gallery. Fine White Line was the design wing of CDP, the agency that produced the fine Intercity campaign I posted earlier in this blog. This piece was voted one of the 20th century's top 100 posters by Campaign Magazine.

The summer of 2008 saw the highest gas prices in Canadian history

It's a bloody shampoo, it's not rocket science!

A truly classic UK campaign from the late 80s produced for Intercity Rail by (I believe) Collett Dickenson Pearce. Intelligent, articulate, persuasive. It will never seem dated. Apologies for the poor resolution however. My time machine has a screw missing.

A pretty cool, guerilla campaign to announce the launch of Google Transit for Vancouver's TransLink.

Agency: Grey Vancouver Canada
Creative Director: Craig Redmond
Art Directors: Leah Moy, Wayne Low
Writer: Mike Leger
Photographer: Hans Sipma

This dramatic, effective guerilla stunt makes it rather clear where you should park your car. By Chris Wareham for Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro Transit's "Drive Less" campaign. Via Behance.

This charming spot by Brooklyn director Keef, sees New Yorkers get creative in order to get around. A quirky, hooky soundtrack makes it light and likeable - my god, can you believe that? In transit advertising! The sign off is so simple. MTA. The easy way to get around. 

An entertaining take on the major hindu deities. Hindu calendar art meets Stan Lee. Nicely done, and defended by the designer - especially if you understand the simplistic, anti-plural, homogenizing viewpoint of Hindu fundamentalists (oh, the irony! - that this aberration should appear in a religion of 330 million gods). (the screensavers are nicer than the T-shirts.)

East Indian

This extremely irritating (to Indians) term was in common use in Canada and in North America as recently as 1996.
It has fallen into relative disuse but still pops up disconcertingly, from time to time in newspapers or government documents. Its connections to the East India Company's bloody sojourn in India and its direct descent from the world's greatest case of mistaken identity (Columbus declaring his discovery of the Indies) make it unpalatable to the Indian tongue.
Acceptable alternatives are Indo-Canadian or Canadian of Indian origin - if the person or persons described originated from India. The term South Asian is also acceptable though it does not denote Indians exclusively.


Article: Creative Commons License 2008 Gavin Barrett



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