Fellow fans of Ultra Swank are well aware that we are revelers in a cultural period of technology supreme. Be it Hi-Fi or Hydrogen Bomb if it had push buttons and chrome it was an object of desire! Few artists captured this 'age of the machine' better than Boris Artzybasheff (1899-1965).

Immigrating from Russia to New York City in 1919, Artzybasheff's career included over 200 Time Magazine covers and illustrations for over fifty books. He was a sought after advertising illustrator with clients including many of the Fortune 500. Looking at his style it's not surprising that he was also an advisor to the Psychological Warfare Department of the U.S. during World War 2! Although he was capable of very realistic renderings, it was his surreal creations of machines as living creatures (a hidden vanity of technology) which endears him in the hearts of mid-century mavens of today.

His book As I See: The Fantastic World of Boris Artzybasheff is available to buy from Amazon for anyone who wants to dig deeper into Boris' fantasy world.

“Closer Than We Think!” shouts the headline. It looks like a comic and probably ran in the funnies section of the Sunday Chicago Tribune and it's affiliates. During the late 1950's and early 1960's artist Arthur Radebaugh forecast a soon to be techno-future of magical and fantastic innovation. As a regular feature in widespread newspaper syndication, his cartoon like “Closer Than We Think!” may have fired more imaginations of the Atomic Age than any other single print source.

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Found a whole bunch of really nice vintage American car advertisements from the 1950s and 1960s in the Ultra Swank Flickr Group. Wish Detroit still would do classic hand drawn illustrations like this today for their cars. Which is your favorite American mid century car and why?

Not that Ultra Swank condones being sexist, it just sometimes amazes me what kind of stuff advertising agencies were able to pull off around the 1950s. Here are some fine examples of American ads of the times that takes a punch at women only being good for being secretaries, housewives and objects of beauty. Even though the ads would never pass in a magazine today, they are still cute in a old fashioned way. Thankfully, men have evolved a little over the years. (Via)

I always found the Motorola TV ads from Taschen's book All-American Ads of the 60s very unique. They feel so retro but still very futuristic at the same time and I love the way they portray the future in such a optimistic and bright way that was only possible in the mid 20th century. The illustrations were drawn by Charles Schridde and the advertisements were often seen in Life Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post among other places in the early 1960s.

Sadly the first edition of the Taschen book is out of print and no longer available through their website. But you can surely get it through Amazon and other online shops. (Via) [Thanks Fhardyfan]