I’ve always seen this poster as a very English design, and I have stolen the headline from that quintessentially English novel ‘The Wind In The Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
In this passage from chapter two Toad is trying to persuade (or perhaps coerce) Ratty and Mole to join him in an adventure in his latest acquisition, a gipsy caravan. He stands proudly in the stable-yard at Toad Hall and declares, “Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that’s always changing!”
But he will soon be abandoning the caravan in a ditch, having just been driven off the road a blast of wind and a whirl of sound” by a speeding automobile, and by the end of the chapter Toad has “ordered a large and very expensive motor-car.”
I am presenting this poster as though it were a showroom advertisement, appealing to the romantic side of its potential buyer’s nature and inviting them to explore the scenic wonders of the Lake District, or the Highlands of Scotland in high summer.
In this 1928 Aston Martin International poster I have illustrated, in a very British style, a more gentle approach to motoring pleasure than that envisaged by Toad, but at the same time creating an image evoking the freedom of the open road, something very close to Mr Toad’s heart.
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