Posters have always carried with them the ability to communicate in a unique way. With the right message, posters can inspire and motivate people to think about things in new ways and perhaps do things they might otherwise never do. Posters can reflect culture, as well as alter it. When combining art with other interests, posters can become powerful tools of communication.
It wasn't until the late nineteenth century, with the advent of the lithographic process that posters became recognized as the type of art they are today. Though the movement began in Paris with superb poster designers such as Cheret, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Cappiello, it wasn't long before the art spread Holland, Belgium, London, and America (Fusco xiii). Famous American poster designers include Bradley, Parrish, and Hardy.
This new art movement became known as Art Nouveau, which was the leading international decorative style of the early nineteenth century. Art Nouveau posters featured a flowing line which was inspired from nature. The style of this movement was all-encompassing, gathering influence from architecture, graphics, and furniture. Art Deco became the leading international decorative style after World War I and maintained popularity until World War II. Art Deco is best described as a machine age aesthetic, replacing the flowing line of Art Nouveau with streamlined, geometric designs with designs that represented speed and power. Other poster movements that created trends were Capiello, Object Posters, International Typographic Style and the Poster Style. Probably the most prominent of these style would be the International Typographic Style, which displayed an orderly appearance of the elements involved, usually a sans-serif typeface, and black and white photography. The style was clean and simple, as well as tightly structured and harmonious, which was a welcome relief after World War II. (International Poster) poster collecting "craze" was inspired by this new novelty and poster shows and exhibits became popular everywhere. Eventually artists and publishers realized that they could overprint an edition and make it available through print dealers and soon cities exploded with a new merchant class. Posters were inexpensive and became decorative items for the home as well as the streets. Posters became mainstream and were eagerly anticipated, as well as talked and written about. (Fusco 40)
Posters in the late nineteenth century expressed ideas of "success, or what we may call the good life" especially in leisure activities, retail goods, and clothing. It should be noted that collecting posters during this era went far beyond any particular interests in or loyalty to products and seemed to represent an appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of the poster in general. (Kiehl 2)
An excellent example of how posters can be used to promote a cause is how the United States Office of War Information used posters to promote attitudes during World War II. Propaganda, the government discovered during World War I, could be used to control the content of war images. (Davidson 1061) The O.W.I. created posters that encouraged a unified base of support in America as well as support for the soldiers. Another aspect of these types of posters was to paint an evil face on those who opposed America and her allies. A griping example of this type of propaganda is the O.W.I. Poster number 76, which simply has the words "THIS IS THE ENEMY" along the bottom of the poster in bold type with a hand holding a knife, which is driven through the center of a Bible. On the wrist, a jacket cuff is emblazoned with a swastika.
An example from the Art Nouveau movement is William H. Bradley's advertisement poster for Narcoti-Cure. William Bradley was one of the most influential poster creators of his time and once said, "I think the American Poster has opened a new school whose aim is simplicity and good composition. One can see its effect in all directions, especially in the daily papers" (Kiehl 13).
Bradley started his own firm when he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1895. He wrote books and was a trained painter and engraver, but became popular for his posters. He designed posters for Victor Bicycles, and other companies, but one of his Narcoti-Cure poster deserves special attention.
In this poster, which was created in 1868, Bradley creates an unsettling contrast when he uses illustrations similar to what is seen in children's books while advertising...
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4 in the background, there is what appears to be a huge gray shadow which some viewers of this poster have seen as the "rear view of a man wearing a top hat with collar upraised" while he looks at a wall of flyers or advertisements for other French magazines like "La Revue Blanche." 5 it is pretty easy to see the top of the black hat, but the
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