Nord Express
Another, earlier, example of Cassandre’s work is the “Nord Express” poster (1927), which again uses extreme angles for effect. There is more use of cool colours and geometric shapes in this lithograph, however there seems to be more of an image of movement with the telegraph lines and the train heading towards the dramatic vanishing point on the right.
Again, the viewpoint allows the train to be distorted to the point that the wheels have become ellipses, and the illusion of movement is suggested using the directional thin white lines at wheel level.
The poster is, for the majority done in cool, mechanical colours- apart from sections of text which are merging with the image itself, that have a contrasting red colour. This effectively focuses our eye back to the advertised service. Below the wheels of the steam train, there is a selection of place names which the train will visit, in thin, black, almost handwritten capital letters, which look as though they are also flowing towards the bottom, right hand corner. All of the shapes are crisp and clear, apart from the steam coming from the engine, which gradually flows out naturally.
I feel that this is another successful design as it captures the speed and agility of the train, and promotes technology in an attractive way. I think this was a deliberate attempt, as this was how Cassandre perceived technology and machines to be, and these were one of his strong influences.