I don’t think I saw the 1926 ”Man As Industrial Palace” poster until I was in college, but I remember looking at those cogs, cables, and conveyor belts for a very long time, loving the industrial connections. Illustrator Fritz Kahn drew direct functional analogy between human physiology and the operation of contemporary technologies, especially industrial machines and commonly encountered household items. His correlations between human anatomy and a chemical plant, were inspired by and conceived in a period when the German chemical industry was the world’s most advanced. Well, animator Henning Lederer must have fell in love as well, because he has been kind enough to bring this iconic image to life in a way that honors the original’s intent from top to bottom so brilliantly that I’d be shocked if it doesn’t mirror Kahn’s own imaginings while creating the artwork. Check out the video below, learn more about the project here, or see the classic poster after the jump.
