The Philippines, Crossroads of the Orient: Philippine Air Lines, Route of the Orient Star, issued by Walther-Boland Associates in 1930, presents the archipelago as the centre of an expanding aerial network. A green map of the islands occupies the heart of the vertical composition, surrounded by white aircraft, radiating route lines and distant place names. Set against a deep maroon ground, these sharply simplified elements create a striking cartographic theatre in which geography and modern transport become almost inseparable.

The poster belongs to an interwar culture fascinated by the possibilities of aviation. Air travel offered advertisers a new visual language of speed, reach and international connection, while the travel poster condensed those ideas into immediately legible symbols: the aeroplane, the globe and the route map. Here, the phrase “Crossroads of the Orient” uses the promotional vocabulary of its period to cast the Philippines simultaneously as a destination and a strategic gateway within Asia. “Route of the Orient Star” adds a more romantic note, turning a transport service into the promise of a far-reaching journey.

A closer look

The composition is organised around the irregular chain of the Philippine islands, rendered in cool green and marked with small geographical names. Fine white lines extend outwards from this central map towards aircraft and destination labels, among them “China”, “Hong Kong” and “U.S.A.” Rather than describing conventional pictorial space, these lines build a diagram of connectivity. The islands remain visually anchored while the aeroplanes point in several directions, lending the otherwise flat design a continuous sense of movement.

Typography provides a second structure. Across the upper portion, “CROSSROADS OF THE ORIENT” introduces the poster’s central proposition, while the emphatic words “THE PHILIPPINES” command the field below in contrasting white and yellow. At the foot, the name “Philippine Air Lines” is given substantial weight, accompanied by “ROUTE OF THE Orient-Star”. Changes in scale, colour and lettering establish a clear sequence: destination first, airline second, evocative slogan last.

A small globe near the lower centre broadens the scale from archipelago to world. Its curved route and miniature aircraft repeat, in condensed form, the larger design above. Throughout, bright white silhouettes stand out crisply from the warm maroon background, while the green land mass supplies a cooler counterpoint. There is little conventional shading; instead, flat colour, clean contours and shallow space give the poster its streamlined graphic force.

Context and significance

Produced during a period when commercial imagery increasingly associated machinery with aspiration, the design makes aviation comprehensible through familiar geographic forms. The aeroplanes are not presented as isolated technological marvels but as parts of an ordered system: every line leads somewhere, and every label enlarges the imagined field of travel. This union of map and advertisement is especially effective because it allows the Philippines to function as both a real group of islands and the symbolic hub of the composition.

The Art Deco character lies in the poster’s disciplined geometry, assertive lettering and preference for strong colour blocks over descriptive detail. Yet the map retains enough intricacy to reward closer attention, creating tension between streamlined modernity and geographic specificity. The result captures a particular moment in travel culture, when air routes were beginning to alter perceptions of distance and when a poster could recast an archipelago as the dynamic centre of an interconnected world.

Choosing the right size and finish

Artwork can feel intimate at smaller sizes and dramatically more architectural at larger ones. Use the room preview, model image and size guide to see how the proportions and scale will work in your space.

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The model in the listing images is holding the 24x36in (60x90cm) version of this art print.

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This artwork is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The work is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present an art print without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas art and explore the differences between my different finishes.