In the longest of my several careers I was an advertising copywriter and, later, creative director, working mostly on car accounts. At the time we depended on photography to show the cars, as is the case today. I wouldn't have even considered illustrations. Now, older and slightly wiser, I've learned to appreciate how art could add a sense of romance and adventure to our concepts of an automobile. I respect the work of those long-ago illustrators and if I were a creative director today I'd explore the use of art, especially with the magic of computer drawing programs. If nothing else, it would set the client's ads apart from today's look-alike and not very interesting print materials.

These thoughts came when I was perusing the National Automotive History Collection site at the Detroit Public Library and came upon some illustrations from a previous exhibit called Drawing Power: An Exhibit of Motor City Ad Art in the the Age of Muscle and Chrome. One significant illustration shows the work of Arthur Radebaugh, described by the Library thusly: "Radebaugh was an enigmatic and futuristic illustrator whose signature sweeping roads veer into semi-abstraction. The stylized backgrounds and luminous airbrush work on the cars lend the entire 1939 Luxury Liner brochure an air of things to come. This campaign garnered significant attention for the young Radebaugh, who continued illustrating commercial and syndicated work in Detroit until the mid 1960s." This lovely airbrush work is from the 1939 Dodge Luxury Liner brochure. True, the lines are exaggerated somewhat, but I doubt anyone was disappointed when they arrived in the showroom, for the streamlined forms of the new Dodge perfectly captured the mood of the times.