Meet an artist from Air-India International who designed their Travel Posters in the 1950s

This week I met Nargis Wadia (nee Khambata) who worked in the Air-India International Art Studio during the 1950s. She graciously invited Vivek and me to her lovely Sea Face home, and regaled us with memories of her stint with Air-India International.

Having completed art school, and after a brief stint with Shilpa, an ad agency who did a lot of early work for Air-india International, Nargis joined Air-India International directly, and got to work with persons like Bobby Kooka, Jal Cowasji, Shetye etc; legends who created the Air-India magic.

Nargis designed several travel posters for the airline, and I will post images of those here, once I get to take some high quality photographs.

She has also carefully preserved some examples of her work and has kindly permitted me to post images of these. These include hand painted work-in-progress examples, Printers Proofs etc. of scarves that were gifted as promotion items, menu cards, wine lists etc. Nargis spent 3-4 years at Air-India International before relocating to London to build her career in Advertising.

Here are some examples of her work. On the top left, we have a hand painted design for a scarf. On the top center we have a printers proof of the menu card design which has the artists name signed just below the right hand of the woman. On the top right is another hand painted design of a Poster design. This poster was used to promote the new Slumberettes introduced in the Lockheed Super Constellations acquired by the airline in 1954.

I have added here a link to my Dropbox account for you to enjoy all the lovely items she has preserved.

Post Script: Very nice article appear in Conde Nast Traveler Magazine on May 11, 2018 about Nargis Wadia and her stint in Air-India. Click here to know more.