Art of Poster Design

Communication. Getting the word out. Promoting a product, service, message. In a word, advertising. In the beginning, there was cave paintings, stone tablets carved in relief, town criers, hand drawn public notices. But the combined word and image of poster design the most effective although few in numbers. Typography, the primary element of poster design, larger print, handrawn, words the art form. Text carved into woodblocks, stone, and metal, rolled with ink, pressed, and transferred to paper. Cranked out, one at a time. For artists though, the process slow, use of color and design limited, prompting advancement of both printing and typography. As printing technology evolved, so too art styles, elevating poster design to a fine art status. Decorative curvacious lines and floral vine motifs define Art Nouveau, later in an altered state inspiring psychedelic rock posters. In an increasingly industrial society, hard-edged Constructivism surfaced, rejecting traditional “art for art’s sake” with an abstract assemblage construct of mediums. During wartime, advertising campaigns prominant, posters the platform for propaganda, politics, and activism. Art Deco embraced machine-made production from fine art and architecture to fashion, furniture, and everyday things in a sophisticated sensibility, geometric form, concrete and polished metallic surfaces. Iconic cruise ships, trains, and planes dominate poster design. Altogether, a collage of art styles. Cubism. Surrealism. Expressionism. Steampunk. Cyberpunk et al. The modernist style borne of many, a transition from illustration to graphic design.