1. P I C T O R I A L M O D E R N I S M

2. The culmination of the European poster
C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S
The culmination of the European poster
affected by modern art movements
altered by communication needs of two world wars.
Poster Designers
influenced by Cubism and Constructivism.
Cubism
Twentieth century art movement in which subject matter was separated into cubes and other geometric forms.
Created a balance between communicating persuasively with the general public as well as making exciting imagery.
Radio wan in its infancy. First human voice across radio was established sometime between 1892 and Mass communication was done through printed materials.
Constructivism
A Russian art movement, fully established by 1921, that was dedicated to nonobjective means of communication.

3. Lucian Bernhard Entered a poster contest for Priester matches.
Entered a poster contest for Priester matches.
Advanced the visual poster to a process of simplification and reduction of naturalism into graphic language of shape and sign.
Established approach to the poster of using flat color shapes, the product name, and the product image.

4. Communication is reduced to one word and two matches
Communication is reduced to one word and two matches. Color becomes the visual means to project a powerful message with minimal information.
Priester
Lucian Bernhard
Priester poster
1905

5. Plakatstil (poster style)
The reductive, flat color design school (body of designers) that emerged in Germany in the early twentieth century
Seeing the new direction in German Poster Art, Berlin lithography firm of Hollerbaum and Schmidt hired Bernhard and five other young graphic designers to
exclusive contracts.

6. Stiller
Lucian Bernhard, 1912

7. Hans Rudi Erdt, 1911

8. Poster reached its zenith as a medium of communication during World War I.
U Boats Out!
First human voice across radio was established sometime between 1892 and Mass communication was done through printed materials.
Hans Rudi Erdt, U Boats Out! , 1916

9. Poster reached its zenith as a medium of communication during World War I.
Printing technologies had been perfected.
Radio had not yet come into prominence.
Governments used posters as propaganda.
Public morale needed to be boosted.
Armies needed to be recruited.
Hans Rudi Erdt, U Boats Out! , 1916

10. Julius Gipkens, poster for an exhibition of captured airplanes, 1917
Stark graphic shapes project boldly against a white field. A symbolic eagle sits triumphantly upon the red, white, and blue destroyed icon of captured allied aircraft.

11. James Montgomery Flagg, 1917
Leading magazine illustrators turned to poster design.
Persuasive propaganda replaced narrative interpretations.
Alfred Leete, 1914
James Montgomery Flagg, 1917

12. Ludwig Hohlwein, early 1940’s
Bold imperial, and militaristic style of tight, heavy forms and strong tonal contrasts
DARTH VADER!

13. Allies approach to propaganda was more illustrative.
Promotes patriotism on all levels of society
Liberty dressed in the flag, holding an imperial shield, and taking a be prepared sword from the Scout.
Joseph C. Leyendecker
Poster celebrating a successful bond drive
1917

14. AFTER THE WAR… Post-Cubist pictorial modernism
Strong belief in the machine and technology was recognized
in the expression of art and design.
Technical, machine made, and industrial forms became an
Important design resource.
Cubist ideas of spatial organization and synthetic imagery
Inspired new directions in pictorial imagery.
Europe and North America returned to normalcy.
Prosperity for the Allies.
Faith in the Machine.
Looking at the Cubists works of Picasso and Leger.

15. Fernand Leger, The City 1919

16. E. McKnight Kauffer American born.
American born.
Incorporated cubism into his designs.
Moved to Europe after negative response to cubism in the states.
1913 New York Times - “Cubists and Futurists Make Insanity Pay”
“…He reveals his affinity with al artist who have ever aimed at expressiveness through simplification, distortion, and transportation, and especially the Cubists,” to produce “not a copy, but a simplified, formalized, and more expressive symbol.” -Aldous Huxley

17. Posters for the London Underground, 1924

18. A.M. Cassandre 1901-1968 Born in R ussia, moved to France 1925
Produced a series of posters that helped revitalize French advertising art.
Bold, simple designs emphasize two-dimensionality, and are composed of broad simplified planes of color.
Reduced subjects to iconographic symbols.
AKA (ne’Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron)
Born in R ussia, moved to France
Marianne the symbolic voice of France, urgently shouting the news, being received over the telegraph wires.
Clients name cropped as it races out of the right hand corner.
1925
Poster for the Paris Newspaper L’Intansigeant

19. Constructed on a rectangle echoing the rectangle of the posters edges.
Exaggerating the scale difference between ship and tug boat, displays a monolithic quality used to signify strength and safety.
1931

20. Austin Cooper Austin Cooper
Poster for the Southern Railroad, undated -
Operates symbolically for visual communications purposes.
Fragments of images and bright color convey fun and excitement.
Lively movement is achieved by shifting planes, sharp angles, and the superimposition of lettering and images

21. Herbert Matter Swiss designer
Across the Alps…
Herbert Matter
Swiss designer
Pioneered extreme contrasts in scale, and the integration of black and white photography, symbols, and color areas.
Faith in the machine - the camera, a machine for making images
Matter studied painting in Paris under Fernand Leger.
In 1930’s worked as photographer and typographic designer and assisted Cassandre on posters.
Returned to Switzerland.
1935

22. Travel poster for Switzerland, 1934
The angular shift conveys a sense of movement appropriate to winter sports. A screen tint under the large head introduces a skin tone, while the airbrushed color around the crosses is red , the sky area is a pale blue.

23. Paula Scher, 1985

24. Walter Herdeg
Created designs through the selection and cropping of photographic images
Poster for St. Moritz,1936
Light and shadow create a dynamic, angular composition conveying the thrills of skiing. The trademark sun becomes part of the photograph
Herdeg born 1908

25. To the future…
Joseph Binder

26. Schulz-Neudamm
Poster for the film Metropolis, 1926

27. Review 1 - Bernhard scores with Priester. 2 - The poster goes to war.
3 - Designers go Cubic …er, Cubist.
4 - Swiss Mr. Matter collages photos, illustration, and typography.

29. Project
Create a dynamic poster to communicate a new take on an exciting travel trip/destination/location to the average American. You want to create an interesting image that will entice the viewer to be a part of the experience.
Document size 11” x 17” horizontal or vertical.
Must be at least 150 dpi. (resolution)
You may scan photographs that you have taken for your design.
Use one word in your design
Include graphic elements (geometric, free form shapes, lines)
Use flat color.
Incorporate Contrast and a clear hierarchy of elements.
Final version should be created in Illustrator.
Make thumbnail sketches of your ideas?
Think about the colors being incorporated into your design.
Think about the structure to your design.
Simplify – “Less is more”