LOT poster history

(This text is an excerpt of the catalogue of an exhibition in the Poster Museum in Wilanów, Warsaw, presented on May 7-14, 2004 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of establishing PLL LOT.)

LOT Polish Airlines, one of the oldest airlines in the world, was established on January 1st, 1929, only twenty-five years after the first successful flight by the Wright brothers. LOT has come a long way since the times when it operated is first Junkers aircraft. It was able to carry but a few people, and to fly only some hundred passengers per year…. [...]

Advertising posters have been accompanying the operations of the Polish national carrier since its foundation, and in modern times. Posters have proved to be an effective tool, shaping the image of PLL LOT at home and abroad. Since its establishment, the company worked with leading Polish graphic artists – masters of persuasion to build confidence in LOT with symbolism. An aircraft, as any other pioneering invention, was arousing not only interest and admiration, but also various fears. Posters were used to reduce such fears, by emphasising new, comfortable and an efficient means of travelling to the most distant parts of the world.

One of the first advertising posters in Poland featured an aircraft. In 1924, Józef Mehoffer, one of the most renowned representatives of Art Nouveau school, created an admirable poster advertising Polish Airline Aero Lloyd that flew from Gdańsk, Lvov and Warsaw.

Five years later, a poster by Tadeusz Gronowski encouraged the public to “carry passengers, mail and cargo” by LOT Airlines. An elegant silhouette of Fokker is accompanied by three storks, which a symbol of safe flight under the skies.

Travelling with “birds of steel” of LOT was also advertised with works of other best known Polish artists such as Stefan Norblin, Stanisław Łuckiewicz, Jerzy Srokowski, Roman Cieślewicz, Maciej Hibner, Wiktor Górka, Janusz Stanny, Janusz Grabiański, Waldemar Świeży and Andrzej Pągowski. Some of them made use of Polish folk motives, emphasising unique qualities of the Polish national airline. However, Poles remember best a poster by Tadeusz Rumiński, featuring a young boy with arms extended to the side, ready for a “take off.”

LOT posters make up a fascinating, illustrated chronicle of the company. They tell stories about aircraft which used to fly and which fly now under PLL LOT colours and they promise comfort on board. For many years, posters were the basic advertising medium of the company, promoting not only LOT, but also Poland as a country full of tourist attractions. A series of photographs entitled “LOT invites you to Poland” also became quite famous.

Without doubt, LOT is a record-breaking Polish company with respect to the number of posters, as in the course of its 75 years’ history it issued almost two hundred of them. Most of them are presented at the exhibition in the Poster Museum.

Jerzy Brukwicki, Paweł Klimiuk