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Orient 20,000 Tonners

Artist Percival Trompf (Australian, 1902 - 1964)

Maker Orient Line (1878 - 1966)

Printer Sydney Day Ltd

Date1930

Object number00005954

NamePoster

MediumColour lithograph on paper

DimensionsOverall: 1277 x 927 mm
Sight: 1001 x 757 mm
Sheet: 1048 x 804 mm

ClassificationsPosters and postcards

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionA travel poster promoting the Orient Line's fleet of '20,000 tonners', by Percy Trompf. The ships lined up in a row are ORAMA, ORONSAY, OTRANTO, ORFORD and ORONTES. HistoryThis travel poster promoting the Orient Line's fleet of 20,000 ton ships was designed in 1930 by Australian artist Percy Trompf. The sleek lines, bold colours and stylised hulls reflect the Modernist style adopted during this period by the Orient Line, in both its ship interiors and publicity material. In 1929 the Orient Line had launched ORONTES, the last of its fleet of five 20,000 ton ships on the UK-Australian route. That same year Victorian artist Percy Trompf had won the 30 pound prize in the Royal Arts Society's Empire competition in London for an Orient line poster. His design featured three bushman on horseback, promoting opportunites in the wide brown lands of the liners' destination. This sleeker more muscular poster of 1930 celebrates the scale and might of the Fleet at a time when both the UK and Australia were experiencing an economic downturn. During the 1930s the Orient Line embraced a Modernist style. Shipping posters commissioned by the Orient Line began to focus on the abstract presentation of the company name and use of block colour, rather than information about the facilities offered or ticket classes. This poster's bold composition reflects the shift away from pictorial compositions and traditional ship portrait imagery. Unlike earlier promotional posters, this does not hint at the exotic pleasures of travel abroad but alludes to the size, power and machine age-design of the Orient Line's new 20,000 ton fleet. During World War I most of the Orient Line ships were requisitioned as either armed merchant cruisers or troopships. Four ships were lost during the conflict. In the 1920s the company sought to replenish its tonnage and commissioned the construction of five sleek new turbine-driven ships: ORAMA, ORONSAY, OTRANTO, ORFORD and ORONTES were completed between 1924 and 1929. The magnificent 20,000 tonners were designed to carry over 1,200 migrants in modest third class accommodation and almost 600 first class passengers in opulent surroundings. By the mid-1930s the third class capacity on these ships was reduced and renamed tourist class. SignificanceThe poster is a rare example of a design produced by leading Australian poster artist, Percy Trompf. The image is representative of a new focus on bold geometric forms, abstraction and block colour.