The Pacific — Minimalist

From Guadalcanal in August 1942 to Okinawa in June 1945, the Pacific War was fought as a chain of islands, each one a step closer to Japan and each one an airfield or anchorage for the next. Two lines of advance converged: MacArthur's through New Guinea and the Philippines, Nimitz's straight across the central Pacific.

The names on the poster mark the road. Guadalcanal took six months. Tarawa took seventy-six hours and cost more than a thousand Marines. Saipan put B-29s within range of Tokyo. Iwo Jima cost 6,800 American dead. Okinawa, the last, was the bloodiest of all.

The next step was Japan itself. It was never needed. This piece is a minimalist poster treatment of the campaign.

Two long arrows sweep up from Australia to Japan with the island names stepped along them like rungs on a ladder, and a carrier silhouette rides the lower left. The map is deliberately simplified — the Philippines and New Guinea are there in outline only — so that the eye reads the distance first. Sea green, sand and navy, on paper toned to look like it has hung on a wall since 1945.