BRANDED: Dan Reisinger: a graphic life of colourful design

This post focuses on the work of Dan Reisinger. Reisinger was born in 1934 in Serbia, but immigrated to Israel in 1949. He is famous for his work as a graphic artist that often expressed his political views associated with his Israeli nationality and experiences during the Holocaust when he was growing up. His EL AL series of posters which commenced in the late sixties and continued through the seventies, were radically different to the prevailing trend at the time. For reference, look at this pre-Reisinger EL AL 'London' ad. Simple and clear, but how would this stand out in the marketplace?

By contrast, Reisinger's poster for London introduced a new and playful approach, improvising on the visual theme of the El Al logo.

Graphic, simple, bold, block colour and instant cut-through versus the clutter of standardised photographic shots being used at the time. In fact in some ways this style was almost a harking-back to the original travel posters of the 40's and 50's, with their vivid used of illustration and colour.

Once Reisinger and El Al had struck the theme, the campaign was seemingly endless and spawned a number of different destinations. The typographic play could be on the L of the EL such as below ads for Amsterdam, Rome, Vienna or the USA:

Note the clever and suggestive use of colour in his work, each colour chosen carefully to represent the character of the destination - for example the metallic aluminium feel to the grey background of the USA poster reminiscent of the polished aluminium finish of the Greyhound long-distance coaches and the metalwork of Detroit's automobiles; likewise the orange backdrop to the Amsterdam poster reflecting the Dutch national colours.

His 'typographic rules' however were not set in stone. He could also play with the A from the EL AL. The rules were flexible and in service to the idea of the campaign - seemingly however best to bring life those particular destinations:

Sometimes he would work on both words EL and AL as per Istanbul - each time and each execution does not sacrifice the legibility of the logo, nor the impact and clarity of the destination's allure.

And sometimes he wouldn't even play with the logo at all:

What had been created was such a powerful and vivid CAMPAIGN IDEA that the audience could take part in the game, spot the next ad and wait to see what typographic plays, destinations and designs would appear next.

But in our mind, best of all was when Reisinger added some thematic messaging and copy to his work. As in the case of the launch of the Boeing 747 service 'Rainboeing the skies'. What a wonderful line and vivid imagery - although of course this is all coming from an era with less awareness or concern about envrionmental issues such as global warming. An image such as this today, would be impossibly naive, but then, like all art, it is a product of its times.

Reisinger continued to produce work and is still alive today. Some of his later offerings include this poster from 1986 and he even branched into environmental design with this Tambour Paint factory in Israel and packaging design: