OUGD403 STUDIO BRIEF 4 - STUDY TASK 4 - POSTERS

In preparation for studio brief 4, I was given the task of researching into poster design, how posters initially came about, inspiration for poster design, and key poster designers. I also had to research into how a poster communicates it's message, why it's communicating the message and what the message actually is. 

To start off this research I loaded up Pinterest and simply typed "poster design" into the search bar to see what came up. I ended up finding this really useful website  which listed some very cool posters (below).

 This lead me to an amazing site called Designspiration, which is like a more professional version of Pinterest, and even more artist and design based. I typed "posters" into the search bar and found a whole host of beautiful designs. Below are some of my favourites.

I really like the use of print in "The Daredevil Christopher Wright" by Animal Canon, as it creates  a more illustrative appearance, which contrasts very much so with all the other posters above. I like how the blue background also seeps into the red of the little boys cape, it adds to the hand rendered appearance. 

The "Star Wars" poster by Olly Moss is also a firm favourite of mine, as I think it's really interesting how all the imagery is inside the silhouette of C3PO, a main character in Star Wars, in a very graphic, simplistic design, but still in keeping with the original Star Wars opening credits, how the "Star Wars" appears to shoot out away from you, just like in the films. The quizzical look on C3PO's face, achieved by the wonky angle of the head and the eye holes being different colours, adds a hint of humour to the viewer, whilst also intriguing them as well. 

 In the "Mutants are the Enemy" poster for the film X-Men: Days of future past, the Sentinel's robotic fist is punching into the word "mutant", making it get crushed, with bits of the letters flying off up towards the top of the poster. This is a very powerful image, which appears like the Sentinel's are pounding the mutants, which is a direct reflection of what happens in the film, of which I've seen and is very good. The simple colour palette of shades of grey and red, create a gory image, one suggesting danger and death, which could hint at what happens in the film. I thought it really interesting that when I Googled Trask Industries, which is says this poster is brought to us by them, a whole website created by Marvel about Trask Industries, the main corporation in the X-Men film, comes up, and is designed as if it is an actual corporation, one of which you can get a job in (there's a "jobs" page), and is very contemporary, almost futuristic, and is amazing to see that Marvel has created a whole comprehensive website as if Trask Industries was a real corporation. I was amazed to say the least. Although Compare the Market have also done this for their Meerkat advertisements.

POSTER DESIGNERS

Animal Canon

As mentioned above Animal Canon is a lot of things, which I feel is better explained by their "about" section on their website.

They mainly produce posters using screen printing, and very minimal colours, usually just 3 or 4 colours, which creates an illustrative appearance, one that is still very bold with bright colours, but is more vague than typical digital posters produced on Adobe Illustrator for example. Ben-Day dots, made popular by Roy Lichtenstein in the pop art era, are a common feature in their work, which allows for different shades of the same colour, adjusted by the weight of the dots and how many dots there are. Animal Canon's posters all have a similar style, as they are all produced by screen printing, however they all vary drastically at the same time, as you can see below.

These two posters are very, very different, "The Seed" uses very rich, warm colours, and is extremely patchy using Ben-Day dots to create this old-fashioned appearance. However "Wake up sleepy giants" poster looks like it has been produced digitally, or includes some form of photography in it, especially in the milky way imagery. However what is amazing is how they are both produced using the screen print method. "Wake up sleepy giants" is a lot more contemporary, however the T-Rex coming out of the middle of the poster, looks almost like deer heads you would typically find in ranch style houses in America, hinting at a more traditional image.

These are two very different posters by Animal Canon again, however both have been produced using screen printing. I like how both of them are mainly just one colour, but with varying shades of that colour to create the imagery. "Love hurts" uses block colours to create a very punchy, strong image of a roller skating woman punching through a heart, whereas "Here comes the night" uses carefully placed lines and strokes to create the image, which suits the topic, as it makes the image less clear and bold, which reflects how clearly you can see when the sun goes down. 

Olly Moss

Olly Moss is a designer based in Winchester in the UK, and mainly creates posters for a variety of films, TV shows and other moving image programmes. He has done work for Star Wars, Spiderman, Dr. Who, and a collection of Asian films. 

This is a cover image for the third issue of a new series of anthology comic Batman Black and White, commissioned by DC Comics. I like how the man at the bottom appears to be coming out of Batman's stomach, it makes it appear more sinister, especially with the man's one eye glowing. It starts off really dark at the bottom and gradually gets lighter, until the background is a creamy colour, this is an interesting effect, as it makes the man look like he's rising out of the darkness, a spooky thought. The cream background also makes Batman stand out a lot more, as the outline of him is very black, white contrasts with the cream background and creates almost a silhouette appearance.

This is a poster for Howl's Moving Castle for the San Diego Comic Con in 2013.  It was screen printed to create a kind of tiresome effect, as the animal carrying it's home appears weighed down by their possessions and life. It also appears to be an old fashioned story, which works really well with the screen printed effect.

However Olly Moss doesn't just do poster design, he produced this bone china plate, titled "8-Bit Willow" for a personal client combining the traditional willow design and classic gameboy console games. I think this is really interesting, the design combining the two creates, and how Moss has just stuck with different shades of blue for the design, this makes it appear more like traditional bone china willow patterns, but with a modern twist.

Olly Moss produced these series of screen printed Star Wars posters for Lucasfilm and Mondo. I really like how the imagery is all inside key characters in the films, and each poster is one main colour with the detail in silhouettes. This creates a very strong, colourful image that is very contemporary. The simplistic images also add to the contemporary appearance. The cream background makes the bold colours stand out even more, and creates a neutral view of the colours, for example if green was against grey, then you would see the green differently than if it was against a white or cream background.

This is a poster for the film The Final Member, produced in collaboration with Jay Shaw. I like the simplistic colour palette, how you can see the human figure through the typography. I also think it's kind of funny how they have made the "l" black and opaque as if it is censoring the man's penis. This adds an element of humour to the poster, which could reflect the atmosphere of the film. On Olly Moss' website it doesn't say how the human figure was produced, although my guess is either etching, as the fine line and cross hatching details looks like that of an etching, or screen printing as this seems to be the method of choice of many poster designers. Whichever production method was actually used, the illustrative quality making this seem like an original film, one that is unique and creative, which is very different from many blockbusters. 

This "The Jungle Book" is a screen-printed poster for a Disney Art Show at SXSW 2014. The tiger has very similar characteristics as the tiger in the animated film, which is a pleasant reference to the original film released in 1967. I think it is very clever how they have made a lot of the stripes on the tiger using the tree trunks and branches of the jungle, so you get the traditional tiger stripes, but also a snipping of the film as well. The tagline at the bottom of the poster "The Jungle is Jumpin'" makes you think something may come out and jump at you in the film, which is reinforced by the fire red/orange of the tiger and the menacing looking trees making up the tigers stripes.

POSTER DESIGN ORIGINS

Posters are one the the first forms of visual communication, and started to be used in the early 19th century as a way of promoting political parties, recruiting soldiers, and advertise products. They were a massive influence on typography because suddenly type had to become readable at a further distance, which required larger type to be produced, often from wood rather than metal. Henry Toulouse-Latrec and Henry van de Velde were two of the initial poster designers of the 19th century. 

Henry Toulouse-Lautrec's poster of Moulin Rouge - La Goulue in 1891, is a prime example of one of the first posters designed, featuring simplistic beige colours, possibly due to the lack of available coloured inks, and simplistic shapes and designs. The typography on the poster is also translucent, showing the colours beneath it, and is sometimes patchy, which suggests lack of knowledge of printing, or lack of specialist equipment, which you would expect from one of the first posters ever produced.

This promotional poster by H C Howard, for the presidency election for Abraham Lincoln, was produced in 1860 using woodcut lithography, one of the oldest printing methods. As you can see, once you make a mark you can't correct it, hence why "Abraham" is spelt wrong. It measured 58.9cm X 89cm, so was very, very large. This is one of the earlier presidential campaign posters produced, with the design being simplistic and basic, and the use of colour reflecting that if the American flag.

Lithographs were a common method of producing posters in the 1800's, which is based on using oil and water, producing a reverse negative image of the plate. They weren't used for mass produced work, as they were too expensive to produce. Lithographic prints were produced using grid systems, as the plates had to line up perfectly with one another in order to produce a sleek, clean image. 

Jules Cheret's "three stone lithographic process" changed the way posters were designed, as instead of having limited colour, they could now produce any colour they wanted, using only three stones, usually the primary colours, red, yellow and blue, printed carefully. It was a relatively difficult process, however the result produced posters in vibrant colour, with unusual transparencies you can't achieve in any other media even today. This process started in the 1870's in Paris, however due to it's success it quickly spread to the rest of Europe and America.

This poster for El Dorado music hall by Jules Cheret is an example of the new three stone lithographic process.

This is a silk screen lithograph produced by John Hassall for the London and North Eastern railway in 1909. The colours are in blocks, and are also kind of vague looking, they aren't bright and bold at all, this adds to the appearance of the seaside, as the beach is generally not bold in colour, it's very pastel-y. 

This is a globally influential and iconic poster designed by Alfred Leete in 1914, as a recruitment poster for people to join the army in Britain during First World War. It was a silk screen print, so was a lot more easy to reproduce than a woodcut. It was very persuasive as the man on the poster is Lord Kitchener, a senior British army officer that became famous during the First World War, and he is pointing directly at the person looking at the poster, so it appears as if he is personally asking you to join the army, you feel guilty not to.

This is one of the most famous posters from World War One, by James Montgomery Flagg in 1917, with Uncle Sam, the personification of America, saying he wants YOU, yes YOU in particular to join the army and help fight the war, with the pointing finger and the glaring eyes directly at you making it all the more personal. This poster was produced 3 years after Alfred Leete's poster for recruitment in teh British Army, and copied the general idea of it, as Leete's poster worked so effectively. The colour scheme, red, white and blue coincidently also reflect the colours of the American flag, enhancing the sense of pride in your country, what your country stands for, so much so that you'd almost feel guilty for not joining the army. Although it is Uncle Sam in the poster, it is actually a portrait of Flagg with the addition of rosy cheeks and a beard, which is actually quite comical if you think about it, as although it may look like "Uncle Sam" it is in fact just a designer, yet proved to have so much impact of the people of America

This is another recruitment poster based on Leete's poster for Britain, only for Russia in 1920, persuading people to join the Russian Soviet Socialistic Republic Army. It uses the same idea of an influential and powerful man pointing at the viewer, and asking them to volunteer for their army.

There were many different styles of poster design, which progressed and changed during time. The first style was called Futurist Typographic Design, which was led by Marinetti, the founder of the futurist movement. It attempted to glorify modernity and liberate type from the past and common conventions such as punctuation, adjectives and so on. Instead it focused on sounds and onomatopoeia in type's layout. It had a passion for fighting and speed. The Futurist Typographic Design didn't used grids, they believed that layout and imagery expressed as much as or more than the actual content of the poster. 

This is a letterpress produced by Marinetti, which reflects the Futurist Typographic Design era.

Dada Design was the next phase in poster design, which despited war and violence, and began during the First World War in Zurich, Switzerland, with the sole purpose being to honour the war. Dada design was often satirical and nonsensical, and created a new art movement itself. One of it's characteristics was to mix typefaces using unusual punctuation. often with horizontal, vertical and diagonal layouts. 

This lithograph was produced by Tristan Tzara in 1921, and was influenced by Dada. It is more structured than Futurist poster designs, however it still has that quirky style to it.

De Stijl Design came after Dada Design, and was founded in Holland during the First World War, where avant garde art was still "allowed" to be produced, without Hitler getting in the way. This design style consisted of harmonious designs to contrast with the chaos of war. They developed rules and standards regarding type and layout. 

This is a photo-lithograph by Piet Zwart in 1928, an example of the De Stijl design style.

This photomontage poster titled "Adolf Superman" was produced by John Heartfield in 1932 is another example of De Stijl poster design, of which I find quite unusual, as it contains no type, only an image of Hitler with coins for his spine and then more coins resting in his lower belly as well. It creates a strong anti-Nazi political message, in the time of the Nazi's growing in Europe. Heartfiled produced a whole range of anti-Nazi posters, warning against Hitler and the Nazi's, of which you can find here, some of them are very powerful, and the message is vert clear, such as blood and iron, others take a bit more time to understand the message behind them.

The next poster design style was called America & Federal Art Project, which started during the Great Depression in America. The US government funded the arts to help people who didn't have a job produce amazing artwork, such as posters to promote tourism within America. Jackson Pullock, Jerome Rothstein, Alexander Dux, Frank Nicholson, and Harry Herzog are all examples of artists during this era that produced some really inspirational, and very "good" posters promoting tourism. 

Russell Kraus' anti-Nazi, informative, propaganda poster came out of this poster style, telling people not to give the Nazi's any information, as they could turn it around and use it against America during the war. 

This is another informative poster produced by the America & Federal art project, by Raymond Wilcox, telling people not to waste water. It's so effective because of it's simplicity and use of primary colours only, and how the message is short and to the point, it's punchy. 

The Swiss Design is the next style in producing posters, which is the same style as the Swiss International Typographic Design style, which emerged in the 1940's. It's composition is asymmetrical and uses mainly sans-serif typefaces such as Helvetica and Futura. Grids systems are also used widely during this design style. Black and white photography also replaces all illustrations, in an attempt to highlight modernism.

This advertisement poster for VW Beetle was produced using the Swiss Design Style, and is very, very simple, with only a tiny image of the car, and the words "think small." in Futura at the bottom. It is clean, it is simple, and the advert itself reflect the message it is portraying.

Post Modernism is the final stage in poster design styles, which encapsulates all the previous styles. It uses colour, and type and crazy shapes and patterns, whilst using sleek lines and occasionally putting text into columns..maybe.

This album cover for Bob Dylan's greatest hits album was produced by Milton Glaser, who also designed the iconic "I (HEART) NY" logo that is used and copied everywhere to this day. It is minimalistic yet colourful and informative as well. 

This promotional poster for Barak Obama's presidential campaign in 2008, produced by Shepard Fairey is in fitting with the post-modernist style, which is of a similar style to Jim Fitzpatrick's Guerrillero Heroico poster produced in 1968 (below).

Jim Fitzpatrick's Guerrillero Heroico poster.

This research into the history of posters should help me in Studio Brief 4 when I have the task of producing my own poster. Hopefully I will be able to fit it to a style above and use key aspects of it in my own poster, or create my own style combining several elements of the posters above. I have surprisingly found it very interesting researching into posters and different key designers, both from the past and modern. I have found it very interesting and inspiring, so hopefully this brief will be really exciting for me.