See travel posters that are vintage but futuristic from Steve Thomas

British travel advertising posters from the early twentieth century tend to be pretty easy to recognise, even for many of us who aren’t exactly art historians. Some of these posters have even developed a special fame of their own – like the ‘Skegness is SO bracing’ poster with “the Jolly Fisherman” created by illustrator John Hassall. But could you picture what such posters would have looked like if space travel was possible back in the early twentieth century?

Forget the beach – visit the planets instead!

We ask the above question because it is what graphic artist Steve Thomas asked himself before getting to work on various images that certainly look like vintage travel advertising posters, but… well, aren’t quite as vintage as they initially appear. Forget images of bikini-clad women at beach resorts; instead, you can expect to see supposed scenery from Mars, Pluto and Venus, and more large scale depictions of spacecraft beside the famously big planets Jupiter and Saturn.

No, you can’t actually jump into a spacecraft and visit…

Does looking at any of these posters make you more eager to go and visit these planets for yourself? If so, it’s a good sign, as the original vintage posters that inspired Steve Thomas were certainly made to encourage a yearning for travel. Sadly, you will have to wait until readily available and affordable space travel to the planets becomes a reality before you can even consider it. However, you can buy any of these intriguing posters from Steve Thomas right now. You can see all of them in the Studio Art section of the Generation Gallery website.