The V-mail (short for Victory mail) promoted in this World War II poster was described in an American War Department pamphlet (officially titled “Army Micro Photographic Mail Service”) as “an expeditious mail program which provides for quick mail service to and from soldiers overseas. A special form is used which permits the letter to be photographed in microfilm. The small film is transported and then reproduced and delivered. Use of V-mail is urged because it greatly furthers the war effort by saving shipping and airplane space.” Between the time it began operating in June 1942 and November 1945, more than 1 billion V-mails were processed. Jes Wilhelm Schlaikjer’s background of three bands of bold, primary color draws the eye to the image, and his witty use of film reel to spell out “V-mail” distinguishes this from many of the more standard American wartime posters. The nuanced features of the helmeted soldier also point to his fine-art training as a painter and portrait artist, both in France at the Ecole des beaux-arts de Lyon after his service in the U.S. Signal Corps during World War I, and later at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduating in 1923, Schlaikjer worked as an illustrator for several national American magazines and was hired as an official war artist by the Pentagon during World War II, designing posters and painting portraits of military leaders.