Keep 'Em Rolling! (Air Power) | 1941

Keep 'Em Rolling! (Air Power), 1941, by Leo Lionni

This striking wartime poster employs bold photomontage techniques to connect American industrial production with military might. The left portion features a black and white photograph of an aircraft worker intently focused on assembling or maintaining an engine component against a blue background. On the right, the red and white stripes of the American flag serve as the backdrop for a formation of four P-40 Warhawk fighter planes, arranged diagonally to suggest movement and power. The aircraft, clearly marked with the U.S. Army Air Forces star insignia, appear to be flying in formation across the stripes of the flag. The poster's powerful slogan "KEEP 'EM ROLLING!" appears in large tan letters at the bottom, with the attribution to the "Division of Information, Office for Emergency Management" in smaller text below.

This poster was commissioned by the U.S. government in 1941 as part of a series of four "Keep 'Em Rolling!" designs, all following the same visual structure but showcasing different military equipment and industrial workers. Created several months before America's official entry into World War II, these posters were designed to inspire industrial production in support of the Lend-Lease Act, passed in March 1941, which allowed the United States to supply Allied nations with war materials. The P-40 Warhawk fighters depicted were among the first American combat aircraft sent to Britain, China, and the Soviet Union under this programme. This particular design visually connects aircraft manufacturing with military air power, communicating to American factory workers how their labour directly supported the Allied war effort abroad even before the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The poster series exemplifies the government's strategy to build public support for military production during this pivotal period when the United States was transitioning from neutrality to becoming the "Arsenal of Democracy."

Leo Lionni (1910-1999) was an internationally recognised artist who brought European modernist design principles to American graphic arts. Born in Amsterdam to an Italian Jewish father and a Belgian mother, Lionni grew up in Italy before emigrating to the United States in 1939 to escape the rise of fascism in Europe. Shortly after arriving in America, he secured a position at the N.W. Ayer advertising agency in Philadelphia, where his innovative design approach quickly earned him recognition. Lionni, along with designers Herbert Matter, Lester Beall, and Milton Ackoff, was instrumental in advancing photographic poster illustration in America, incorporating the clean asymmetry of Bauhaus design into mainstream visual culture. Following his wartime propaganda work, Lionni became the art director for Fortune magazine from 1948 to 1960, where he further developed his distinctive visual style. While celebrated for his advertising and propaganda designs, Lionni achieved perhaps his greatest fame later in life as an award-winning children's book author and illustrator. Beginning with "Little Blue and Little Yellow" in 1959, he created more than 40 books that often explored themes of identity and community through simple yet profound visual storytelling.