The composition of this wonderful poster distills Lake Michigan sailing into pure geometric form, two triangular sails and a rising sun reduced to their most essential shapes, in the flat, reductive style of Swiss influenced modernist graphic design. Clean Helvetica type anchors the image with characteristic wit and confidence. This silkscreen is held in the permanent collections of both MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago.
John Massey created this poster in 1968 for the Container Corporation of America as part of the Chicago Cultural Communication Project, whose aim was to provide the city with a consistent series of brilliant and unusual posters calling attention to its many cultural and recreational facilities. Massey began working for CCA in 1957, eventually becoming the company's Director of Design and Advertising, and went on to form his own design firm, the Center for Advanced Research in Design. His work has been described as "precise, yet emotional. Geometric, yet spiritual. Mathematical, but still feeling." Inspired by a trip to Switzerland where he was struck by the variety of civic posters and banners in public spaces, Massey conceived what became America's first planned civic cultural communications program. A genuine piece of American graphic design history, and an obvious must for any Chicago collection.