After the formation of the Nederlandsche Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways) as a collaboration between private railway companies around 1920, virtually no railway posters were issued anymore. Competition through advertising had become obsolete. Only with the economic crisis the railways started recruiting new travelers by advertising discount tickets and day trips.

This coincided with the popularity of the French designer , who put the advertising industry on a new track with his stylized posters of the Nord Express and Étoile du Nord. Around 1930 he began working for Dutch companies such as the Holland America Line and Philips. The influence of Cassandre, together with the railway's advertising campaigns, resulted in a series of beautiful posters in the 1930s.