This inventive poster design shows the ingenuity of a printing firm that really understood its market. As today, pantomime was a hugely popular and lucrative part of any theatre’s annual offering in the UK, and by issuing a vibrantly coloured poster illustrated with leading characters from favourite pantomimes, the Ludo Press showed that their marketing was in touch with the needs of their customers.

The design integrates the characters into one eye-catching scene with Mother Goose riding Priscilla the goose in the sky, Jack climbing the beanstalk to the Giant’s lair, the Babes lying in the wood, the genie appearing from Aladdin’s lamp, Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother with her magic wand, Red Riding Hood on her way to see her grandmother, Dick Whittington and his cat walking to London to make their fortune, and the creature from the swamp rising from the water on which Robinson Crusoe stands on his raft.

The Ludo Press Ltd is a family business founded in about 1920 when Alfred Jack Collins amalgamated with the printers Parsons and Baverstock, establisheding a printing press at 24, Buckingham Street, Charing Cross, London WC2, on premises formerly occupied by the printing firm J.F.E. Grundy. Much of the early business of the Ludo Press was associated with printing advertising matter for the nearby theatre trade, including high quality multi-sheet posters. The name Ludo Press is loosely related to their theatrical business, the Latin word Ludo meaning ‘I play’, while a member of the Board of Directors was also a Stage Magician who performed under the name The Amazing Ludo.

From about 1940 until 2000 the Ludo Press operated from premises at 373 Earlsfield Street, London SW18, now called Ludo House, when the firm was managed by Alfred's son John Anthony Collins. The Ludo Press Ltd remains in family hands. In 2014 it is based in Walton on Thames and is owned by Jeremy Collins, the grandson of the founder Alfred.