I’ve frequently mentioned how much I love mid-20th-century commercial art, especially the work seen in automotive brochures. On this subject I believe I have been quite clear. But that doesn’t mean every example of the art gets a free pass; no, for the sake of important journalism, when I note a minor design choice that I feel is less than ideal, I call it out, even 63 years later.
That’s the kind of journalistic commitment and rigor you have come to expect here: unsolicited opinions about design choices that haven’t been relevant for decades, about advertising for a brand of commercial vehicles that have been gone for over half a century.
And that is why I’d like to talk about a design choice made in this 1963 Thames Freighter Range brochure.
Before I get into that, I want to be clear that the commercial artwork done in the brochure is impeccable. It’s top-notch work, brilliantly executed, showing real mastery of the medium. I mean, look at this rendering of tat van! Stunning.
Okay, but here’s my issue, one little but significant qualm with an otherwise wonderful page:
So, I get what is going on here; the artist wants to show the incredible versatility of the Thames platform, and how many types of commercial vehicles it can be transformed into. That’s all great. And I like the execution overall, too, especially the polygons that house the rendered vehicles, splayed out in an arc around the line drawing of the chassis.
It’s that line drawing of the chassis that is my issue, though. It’s certainly well-executed, but my issue is that I think a profile diagram would have been a lot better. The view used here – a high view from above, looking forward from the rear – just doesn’t read as a vehicle chassis from that vantage point, and I think that detracts a bit from the power of the illustration.
If there was a limited set of diagrammatic line art of the chassis to pick from, then I think perhaps they should have used this diagram of the chassis-windshield instead of that rear view:
I think any view that shows the side of the chassis and the wheels more prominently would have worked better. The side-ish view of the wheels are key; they are the visual anchors upon which the whole visual conception of vans are built, I think.
That said, I still have plenty of praise for the rest of this brochure; they way the faded-out seats and front windshield/fascia are shown on that chassis line art? Fantastic. Love it.
Also nicely done, in the secondary, rougher, two-color style of the brochure are these little images that highlight, cleverly, the various door options of the vans. It conveys all you need to see and know, wordlessly and efficiently.
That same style is also used for another sidebar illustration, one that feels weirdly moody. Those two guys are just standing there, paused in the middle of whatever the hell they were loading or unloading, looking at nothing in particular, just quietly taking a moment to reconsider every choice they’ve ever made in all their lives, and coming to some uncomfortable conclusions.
Less related to the art style and more just a question about these vans: what’s going on under the dash there, in that box-like thing with the electric motor on top? I think that must be the optional heater they mentioned, and the motor is likely for the blower fan. It’s just so pleasingly clunky! And easy to repair!
Honestly, I’d kind of like it if most dashboard components were as exposed as that! I hate taking apart dashes to get to motors hidden deeper than a sarcophagus in a tomb.
Scene: [Those two guys are just standing there, paused in the middle of whatever the hell they were loading or unloading, looking at nothing in particular, just quietly taking a moment to reconsider every choice they’ve ever made in all their lives, and coming to some uncomfortable conclusions.]
Vladimir: The gears of the Thames are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to turn somewhere else another stops.
Estragon: If only there was a reason those new amber tail lights had been approved by the General Office Department of Transportation, we’d be on the move again.
Vladimir: Yes, we are always here, not understanding why we are waiting for G.O.D.o.T.
Hi Jason! If you enjoy mid-20th-century automotive commercial art, you will love William H. Campbell’s work. The artwork he did between 1942 and 1948 for the Autocar truck company is superlative!
I’m looking forward to the year 2105 when JT’s descendants give a review of cocaine fueled Toyotathon on FyingCaropian.com.
I live in Phoenix so I really only need the chassis. I’ll drive it as is like a convertible that can’t convert into anything else.
I like these vans for their manœuvrability.
Shh, nobody tell him about the atrocity of the kerning in “PANEL VAN”
Yes! That hit me in the face like a wet kipper.
My issue with the page Jason calls out is that the variations gradually rotate clockwise, until the last milk float, which rotates back slightly.
Still, the amount of work that has gone into the illustrations and layout for the brochure, amazing.
Kerning is only available as part of a option package with the heater and body panels.
Maybe if they’d used the diagram you suggest they’d still be around. Missed opportunities.
Now you’re just messing with me. No WAY there’s only one bit merits the “kvetch” Tag.
At last, as a long-ago owner of a 1961 (I think) Thames Freighter (pickup version, like the orange one in the top illustration) I feel vindicated, or something. I bought mine from a co-worker in Denver and sold it a few years later to a guy who blew the engine trying to run it up to the Continental Divide on I-70.
Among its entertaining quirks:
The throttle linkage would frequently unwind itself and fall off of the carburetor. To continue driving I only had to lift the engine cover between the front seats and operate the carb directly.Instead of a horn button in the center of the steering wheel, it had a toggle switch on the dash; pushing it up made a higher tone, down a lower one. This was great for greeting friends on the street.It was the only vehicle I ever owned with three-on-the-tree transmission. It was slightly balky so learning it was a challenge.It was horribly noisy, owing to some failed gasket I could never find anyone willing to fix.
Okay, that last quirk wasn’t all that entertaining. The reason I knew subsequent owner blew the engine was that I had trusted him to return my license plates after he bought it for $400. He didn’t return them, so the cops called me to ask what I wanted to do with the carcass.
As another Thames Freighter owner (panel van like the topshot) I was pleased to see the chasis highlighted. Given it’s low power driving it was definitly slow car fast. For me the throttle had two positions, on and off. Cornering was a hoot. As long as a and narrow as a Beetle but as tall as a bus you’d think it would be sketchy but that frame was so stiff there was little body roll. The outboard wheel would regularly lift on tight turns but never felt like it was out of control. Good memories! Also many painful ones as I was broke and it broke a lot…
I loved sitting over the front wheels with a near-horizontal steering wheel, like a bus driver.
After finally visiting the USA this last christmas holiday I got to drive Denver to Moab and back along the 1-70 and witness first hand it’s sleety, icy, truck laden goodness (glad I rented an Outback).
How does this section of highway rate amongst American roads as it seemed kind of hectic and sketchy to this Australian.
Not for the faint-of-heart in winter, that’s for sure. Sometimes they require chains.
2 pensive guys:
“ we got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries.
we got to move these refrigerators, we gotta move those color TVs.
Listen here now that ain’t working. That’s the way you do it. You play the guitar on the MTV.
That ain’t working. That’s the way you do it.”
“Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free”
Quite!
Good call figuring out that they were so pensive because they were in dire straits
This is the sort of commentary that keeps me subscribed to this site.
Nah,that thing under the dash must surely be a Boiling Vessel, a.k.a. kettle, which you’ll also find in every single tank in the British Army.
Heavy consternation befalls those that traffic hashish and sea monkeys in identical containers.
Torch: Yes, looks like that is the heater under the dash. Here’s a youtube link to a restored one that was auctioned off a couple years ago, and the guy mentions the heater about 2:55 or so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYqO54wKGuA
So, anyone else notice that the ambulance is in a coffin-shaped polygon? Is that a veiled dig at the efficacy of the Thames van as an ambulance?
Just change CART MASTER to AMBULANCE DRIVER…
CART MASTER: Bring out your dead!
CUSTOMER: Here’s one.
CART MASTER: Nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
CART MASTER: What?
CUSTOMER: Nothing. Here’s your nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
CART MASTER: ‘Ere. He says he’s not dead!
CUSTOMER: Yes, he is.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not!
CART MASTER: He isn’t?
CUSTOMER: Well, he will be soon. He’s very ill.
DEAD PERSON: I’m getting better!
CUSTOMER: No, you’re not. You’ll be stone dead in a moment.
CART MASTER: Oh, I can’t take him like that. It’s against regulations.
DEAD PERSON: I don’t want to go on the cart!
CUSTOMER: Oh, don’t be such a baby.
CART MASTER: I can’t take him.
DEAD PERSON: I feel fine!
CUSTOMER: Well, do us a favor.
CART MASTER: I can’t.
CUSTOMER: Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won’t be long.
CART MASTER: No, I’ve got to go to the Robinsons’. They’ve lost nine today.
CUSTOMER: Well, when’s your next round?
CART MASTER: Thursday.
DEAD PERSON: I think I’ll go for a walk.
CUSTOMER: You’re not fooling anyone, you know. Look. Isn’t there something you can do?
DEAD PERSON: [singing] I feel happy. I feel happy.
[whop]
CUSTOMER: Ah, thanks very much.
CART MASTER: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
Suit guy, wistfully: My whole life is a mistake. I should have been a bricklayer like you.
Bricklayer guy in van, also wistfully: It’s not all you think it is, buddy. You’re better off than you think.
My mind immediately went to ‘How many more of these cheap speakers have we got to shift onto rubes today, boss?’
“All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall
All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall”
Guy 1: “Well, we did it. Cracked the vault. Got away with the loot. Of course, all of Scotland Yard is after us, and our photos are on the front of the London Times. And even the Daily Mail, for God’s sake!”
Guy 2: “How the FUDGE am I going to sell 750 kilograms of gold?”
… I never wanted to be a bricklayer. I always wanted to be A LUMBERJACK!
Leaping from tree to tree!!
Municipal bonds, Ted. I’m talking double-A rating
I like to think bricklayer guy is flirting with suit guy.
Another note is none of the variations shown are built from the chassis-cowl. At the top we have the basic cargo van and pickup, presumably both Ford factory jobs as is the passenger van at 4 o’clock. The ambulance above it was likely converted from a factory cargo van. The tanker, box truck and huckster body are all built on chassis with a full factory pickup cab.
Look at that handbrake handle on the steering column! Beautiful 🙂
So sixties. And practical. Notning like a sticky stick thing between the seats or on the floor, like in some simple VW or something…
I have sixties under dash handbrakes in the Porsche, Mercedes and Citroën: Love them.
In the VWs and the Figaro just the “normal” kind: So boring 😉
Handbrake and gear stick both on the column. The gear change was probably as vague as all get out, considering the ‘box was somewhere behind the driver’s left buttock.
Column shift manual is also very cool – and easy to drive with 🙂
While you’re at it, perform the Ritual of the Phoenix. Invoke Ra, ring a bell, and consume the Cake of Light infused with your own blood.
Sounds like the Cake of Darkness.
Only if it comes from Lucas.
Will my face explode, shrink, or melt?
Yes.
Are these lyrics to a Thee Oh Sees song?
In the mid to late 70s my school had two of these for school busses. Seats set longitude, could take a rugby team (probably illegally) on a trip across town.
What the brochure does not convey is the smell.
The “Simlicity its self. Swing up the hinged engine cowl between the seats….” meant the van rapidly filled with exhaust fumes, oil fumes, petrol fumes all off-set against the smell of hot dust and steam from the radiator.
Ok for the teacher driver, who could wind down the window, but it resulted in pretty gassed schoolboys, with the more sensitive of them struggling to hold in their lunch…
Do I like these art techniques? Bro, sure!
They’re also right for our butcher advert. Pam, filet!
Love it.
63 year old ad, could be a early 20’s artist that did these. Are you sure there is not some 84 year old still kicking around in retirement. He might be slightly upset if you show up with your ouija board and try to talk to him.
“oi I’m right here mate”
I would love a modern EREV or EV with that level of body style variety.
Ouija boards were invented in Baltimore in 1890
Username checks out.
The name “Ouija” is trademarked by Hasbro, Inc (the same company that has Transformers, G.I. Joe, Power Rangers, My Little Pony, and Play-Doh)
“…they were…denied a patent until the chief patent officer asked the board to spell out his name, which it allegedly did.”
The arrows bother me a lot more, they’re placed and pointed as haphazardly as if a middle schooler made them using PowerPoint, and the chevrons on their ends aren’t even all pointed in the same direction as the line.
Not every drafting template was easy to use correctly. You had to put some thought into it.
I’m more put off by the variant at 12 o’clock being the only one an acute angle, and all the variants save the one at 6 o’clock being connected, leaving the last floating there, shunned by the others. Could have been fixed by shifting 5 o’clock to the left, or by making 6 o’clock’s pentagon a hexagon.
Probably because they were drunk because “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere”