MICHIGAN POST WORLD WAR ll SHELL SERVICE STATIONS PHOTOS
MICHIGAN POST WORLD WAR ll SHELL SERVICE STATIONS PHOTOS
After World War ll, Shell Oil Company began a renovation and update to their service stations in the cities of Detroit, Battle Creek, Kalamzaoo, Royal Oak and Allegan, Michigan.
Being offered is an exceptionally scarce sales album of post- WW ll point of sale and architectural remodel designs for Shell Oil service station interiors and exteriors, featuring modernist design elements. Shell Oil Company here offered before and after makeovers for Michigan Shell service station owners who had completely redesigned their offices, retails spaces, work bays, lube stations, window displays, lighting and signage as well as sleek modern shelving systems termed by Jakle & Sculle as “Total Design”. Anticipating the tremendous pent-up demand and the coming post-war expansion of the automobile and vast interstate highway projects, Shell and other oil companies focused on place-product-packaging “total design” concept, with “each coordinating logos, color schemes, signage, and building architecture toward creation of chains of attractive, look-alike retail outlets.
It was felt that this approach would increase business and so careful attention was given to gasoline pump design and pump coloring, markings, point-of purchase advertisements including office, window, and driveway displays.
The original album covers have perished, but these photos have been retained showing examples of outdoor lighting, Christmas window displays, roadside billboards and significant emphasis on reducing unsightly clutter and striking a well-appointed space featuring an entire range of products which included Firestone Tires, Goodyear Tires, bicycles, tricycles and car wax. As Shell aggressively made over their stations in Michigan, these photos depict the wide array of lubricants, oils, gear lubes and more on specially designed Shell “Lube Shelving” designed to protect against contamination and maintain organization and inventory control.
Source: John Jakle & Keith Sculle – The Gas Station in America (1004). Pp 44-45.
Photos taken by: Owl Photo Service. Commercial Photographers. Battle Creek, Michigan. Nelson Associates, Detroit, MI. Spencer & Wyckoff, Commercial Photographers, Detroit, Michigan. Ward C. Morgan Studio, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Roland S. Eagle, Royal Oak, Michigan. Stuch Photo Service, Allegan, Michigan.
Mylar sleeves holding 52 original silver gelatin photographs, 8 x 10 inches, with mimeographed caption typescript affixed to upper fore-edge, some with date within negative at lower fore-edge and most with photographer’s imprint on verso. All housed within a 3-ring binder. All photos in vg cond.
