Design Prompt 13: May
Designing a Western Union Telegram!
Greetings! To me, there’s no better piece of graphic design than a Western Union Telegram. It has everything a designer could ask for, all on an 8” x 5” piece of lightweight yellow paper. It’s got form elements (fun!). A strong header (stunning!). There’s typewriter copy, tiny pieces of information, and cryptic messaging (fascinating!)
This history of the telegram goes deep, starting with Morse code in 1851 and hanging up its hat as a means of communication in 2006. The invention of the telegram enabled near-instant global communication for its time. If you wanted to send a message to a cousin in New York, you’d walk into a Western Union branch, write a message on a blank form, pay the clerk, and your message would arrive within the day. You could also dictate the message over the telephone, and the cost was added to your monthly phone bill.
Messages were sent via the Teletype Printer, which had a keyboard similar to a typewriter, enabling operators to send and receive messages via wire transfer. To prepare the message for the recipient, the telegram operator would print it on strips of ticker-tape paper and paste them onto the yellow telegram blank.
I decided to take a gander through old Western Union Telegrams found on Archive.org, and let me tell you, I only clicked on a few, and each one could have been its own Academy Award-winning film.
Take this message for a stroll…
“I must inform you that your son will be tried according to the laws of the Soviet Union.” What?! Then this person ends it with…” if you wish to come.” What a cliffhanger. I hope there was a part 2 to this telegram. I did a little research about the son mentioned here, and this message is referring to Francis Gary Powers, who was an American Air Force pilot and CIA employee, and his plane got shot down while flying a secret CIA spying mission over the Soviet Union. He was ejected from the plane and captured by the Russians. Where’s Steven Spielberg when you need him?
Here’s another interesting message from a chief of police who believes he found someone’s stolen airplane parts in Burbank, California.
