The Art of Airline Safety Cards

Who among us has not taken our seat aboard an airplane, searched the small pocket in front of us for reading material and found ourselves engrossed, if only for a moment or two, in the odd, utilitarian illustrations and minimalist text of the airline safety card? For too many years we have taken it for granted. We have tossed it aside too quickly, failing to properly appreciate the sketch explaining how to use the oxygen mask or how to brace for a crash landing, so that we might search for an entertaining story in the in-flight magazine. But no longer. Finally, the airline safety card is getting its due. Eric Ericson and Johan Phil have put together a book, “Design for Impact: Fifty Years of Airline Safety Cards,” that honors the cards, in all their diverse forms, and their history in aviation. Joe Queenan liked the book. As he writes in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, in an article available online only to subscribers: “For too long, those of us who delight in the aesthetic purity and terseness of airline safety cards have awaited a treasure such as this. Now at long last we have our Baedeker, our Guide Michelin.” The book’s Web site is well worth a visit, if for no other reason that to admire its design.

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