Pan Am: History, Design & Identity (Collector's Limited Edition)

Pan Am: History, Design & Identity takes a fresh look at the famous airline's cultural impact and triumphant brand.

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Why does Pan Am's blue globe retain its cult status although the airline went bankrupt long ago? This unprecedented analysis explores the history and strategies that created a truly triumphant brand.

Pan Am: History, Design & Identity is the captivating story of an airline company that refused to consider anything impossible and single-handedly revolutionized air travel. From modest beginnings in the late 1920's, Pan Am developed into the world's best known airline with astonishing speed. It’s rapid rise was accompanied by highly effective publicity campaigns which featured some of the best design and advertising in the industry. Many of these iconic designs have remained in our collective memory down to the present day.

The book takes the reader on a journey into the daring world of early air travel, follows the first crossings of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, investigates commercial aviation during World War II, and gives a feeling of the thrill of the jet age when a plane ticket started to become more affordable for the general public and mass tourism took off. A spellbinding visual storyline featuring more than 900 photos and illustrations supplements the meticulously researched text, allowing readers to retrace for themselves Pan Am's resourceful marketing and design initiatives. This volume is an inspired tribute to one of the most influential companies of the 20th century and a stunningly told cultural history of American modernism.

From internationally recognized design book publisher Callisto, this large format, 424-page book (measuring 12.2” x 16.1”) was produced and designed according to the highest standards, printed on top of the line 200g paper by acclaimed Italian manufacturer Fedrigoni. All images were reproduced and digitally restored true to the originals whenever possible. To enable the reader to enjoy them with the same intensity Pan Am’s customers did many years ago, the Premium Edition features additional varnishes and Pantone colors to simulate originals as closely as feasible.

This edition is limited to 999 copies and presented in a sumptuous clamshell case hand-crafted and designed in Berlin, Germany, with a cover made from blue acrylic glass reminiscent of the airline’s branding.

No expense has been spared to reproduce this critical part of American cultural history: Many museums and private collectors cooperated and Callisto Publisher’s production manager supervised the digitalization and recorded the properties of much of the original commercial art reproduced in this book, taking note of any special colours or other significant characteristics. The result is a book that presents all commercial art with unparalleled accuracy and vivacity.