Series 14: Chermayeff MoMA

This New Zealand poster is a worthly representative of the iconic series designed by Chermayeff and Geismar that ended up in MoMA's permanent collections. Click here to see all of the posters from this series.
 
Year: 1971
Artist: Ivan Chermayeff & Tom Geismar
Medium: Offset lithograph
Dimension: 42 x 28
 
In 1970, Pan Am hired graphic design firm Chermayeff & Geismar to modernize Pan Am's corporate identity which was last updated in the 1950s during the transition to the jet age. Everything was simplified, and "Pan Am" finally and formally became the name to be used in public, not Pan American or Pan American World Airways. Chermayeff & Geismar also transitioned the logo font to Helvetica, away from the windswept font of years past.
 
In 1971 and 1972, Chermayeff art directed and produced an award winning series of posters featuring stunning landscape photographs. Chermayeff selected stock photographs from Magnum photographers. Six of the posters (Bali, France, Hawaii, Japan, Portugal and U.S.A) become part of the permanent collection the Museum of Modern Art. When they were displayed in 2008, MoMA described them by writing "cultural fantasies and ideals are projected through monumental imagery, presenting people and environments as distant objects of beauty. Rather than engaging with each country's everyday realities, the viewers of these images, potential travelers, remain aesthetic observers."
 
The 1971 posters are simply a photograph with the new Pan Am logo and country name. The 1972 posters transition the Pan Am logo to Pan Am's World. Fittingly, the 1972 Pan Am calendar was done the same distinctive style of these posters.