As the technological miracles of the 20th Century exploded- so did our imaginations. Where would all this science take us? Up, out and beyond our normal mundane lives to New Worlds where anything was possible! The vast and limitless horizon of outer space!

In a time before television and jet airplanes the technical label of astronaut had not been invented. The men and women that plied the sea-lanes of the cosmos were “Spacemen!”. Dashing pioneers and adventurers cut in the dime store novel image. Countless books, magazines and comics sang the futuristic folk-tales. Illustrations were as lush and lurid as a twelve year-olds fevered fantasies. It was a Universe filled with monsters clutching space maidens while square jawed heroes blasted away with ray-guns.

As long as you had your secret decoder ring and a spare summer afternoon any kid could strap in and hurtle to the Ice Palaces of Pluto, save the Earth from invasion and be home in time for supper.

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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.

Retro futuristic concept drawings for branded stores in the 1950s. I really dig the look and the color schemes. (Via)

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?

The weekend is around the corner and to inspire you here is artist Robert McCall’s vision of man exploring Mars, scanned from the October 1964 issue of Life Magazine. McCall did many illustrations for NASA in the 1960s as well the movie 2001 by Stanley Kubrick. Have a great weekend! (Via)