Electricité de France parts de production 1953

This strikingly modernist 1953 poster by renowned graphic artist Paul Colin highlights Électricité de France (EDF) and its initiative, Parts de Production, reflecting the optimism and forward-looking spirit of post-war industrial growth in France.

With his iconic style of clean lines, bold colors, and geometric abstraction, Colin presents a striking visual metaphor for electricity as innovation and progress. Against a deep, electric-blue background—symbolic of both power and modernity—two stylized hands confidently hold aloft luminous symbols of electric lighting: a fluorescent tube and a traditional incandescent bulb. The minimalist rendering of these familiar objects emphasizes EDF’s critical role in illuminating and energizing French society.

Commissioned by EDF, the national electric utility established in 1946, this poster was part of a broader campaign designed to engage public awareness and investment in national infrastructure and energy development. Colin’s imagery perfectly captures the excitement of industrial modernization in post-war France, positioning electricity as essential to daily life and national prosperity.

Paul Colin (1892–1985), famed for his iconic jazz-age and theatrical posters, here demonstrates a mastery of corporate and industrial graphic design. His confident use of form and color serves not only aesthetic purposes but effectively conveys messages of technological advancement and public participation.

Today, this original poster remains an evocative example of mid-20th-century French graphic design, testifying to an era of visionary optimism, industrial expansion, and artistic innovation.

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Economy - Energy - France

Good condition, traces of creases