Railways Studios: How a Government Design Studio Helped Build New Zealand

A definitive illustrated history of the graphic work of the railways studios.

By Peter Alsop, Neill Atkinson, Katherine Milburn and Richard Wolfe

Publication: November 2020
Pages: 376
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-9951338-3-9

RRP: $70

Buy Railways Studios:

On the 100th anniversary of its creation, this book celebrates Railways Studios – the design studio of the New Zealand Railways – and its role in helping build and connect New Zealand. It’s a surprising story: a government agency that produced advertising for any-and-all clients, and dominated outdoor advertising for over 65 years (1920–1987).

The Studios’ advertisements ranged from posters to painted billboards and brochures, and they decorated every city and town, creating a gallery of the street.

Whatever the promotion – from rail travel and tourism to enlistment in the army, clothing and health promotion – the Studios played a role. Thousands of its designs influenced public attitudes, shaping how New Zealanders saw themselves.

This definitive history of railways advertising is a time capsule of New Zealand life and examines the art of Railways Studios, detailing its formative place in New Zealand design and art history.

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Review highlights

New Zealand Arts Review, by John Daly-Peoples. “The book is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of images alongside the well-researched chapters which touch on the history of rail transport in New Zealand.”
NZ Booklovers, by Rebekah Lyell. “Te Papa Press has been producing some beautiful books lately and this is no exception. It is a work of art about works of art. Railways Studios offers a fascinating insight into the graphic work of a government agency that helped both shape and reflect New Zealand culture.”
1964, by Nathan Weathington. “Railways Studios (Te Papa Press) is an astounding conversation piece, an eye-feast of a look at Kiwi culture, consumerism and design from 1920 to 1987.”
New Zealand Listener, 101 Best Books of 2020. “A seven-years-in-the-making, lavishly illustrated literary monument to the Kiwi commercial art of the advertising and design Studio of NZ Railways, which survived 67 years . . . a 385-page literary monument to New Zealand commercial art.”