Resorts at Sea: July: A Tale of Two Brochures

As American steamship lines phased out their passenger operations in the late 1960s, foreign owned cruise lines were in the ascendant.

 

A couple months back, I was lucky to get an American President Lines brochure from 1968. To put things in context, within two years President Roosevelt would be sold to Chandris, and President Cleveland and President Wilson were laid up by 1973.

 

I was stunned at the quality of the brochure. Though fewer pages, the finish size (nine inches high, eight inches wide) is the same size as the Royal Viking Line’s Cruise Atlas (1974-76). At the time, Royal Viking was the epitome of luxury cruising. They picked up where Cunard’s Caronia (The Green Goddess) left off. Come to think of it, this Cruise Atlas may be one of the first brochures to have the entire fleet in it. Royal Viking Star entered service mid-1972, Royal Viking Sky almost a year later, and Royal Viking Sea in December 1973.

 

Forgive me; it’s been awhile since I analyzed media to help wrap up my BA in Communications, and yes, I saved my textbooks, but their current location escapes me …

 

The covers are very similar: Helicopter shot of a lone ship underway on a vast expanse of open sea.

Deck plans have the same attention to detail, showing the placement of all furnishings and fixtures. It wasn’t until newbuilds like Royal Caribbean’s Song of Norway when cabins were standardized, and you could get away with printing one picture of a sample cabin for each category. I never have figured out why every cabin in mid-century ships, especially those in the same price category, were all slightly different from each other. And personally, I like seeing people in a stateroom, as it helps give you a sense of scale.

 

 

Graphics were certainly different. APL was more traditional in their route maps, while Royal Viking’s world map is a cross between Op art and a Roy Lichtenstein comic book panel.

 

Brochures today are more slickly produced, and I'm noticing that production values increased about the mid-1970s. Established companies, like Cunard and Holland America were already there, but the new kids: Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, and Princess were playing catch up.

 

As I’ve been comparing these brochures, I’ve also been looking up items regarding the Argentina and Brasil of 1958 and wondering if they influenced design decisions leading to Holland America’s Noordam and Nieuw Amsterdam from the early 1980s. So that’ll be an upcoming post. And in the spirit of The Mystery of Michael Lantz, I’ll discuss Henry Dreyfuss and Raymond Loewy, and why they’re not interchangeable.