A brief history of posters from the days gone yonder...
Today, we think nothing of walking down the street and passing by scores of posters adorning the walls bombarding us with all kinds of messages; go here, go there, buy this product, use that brand. It wasn’t always so; time was when a man could stroll along without having his thoughts drowned out by the screaming from the walls. So, how exactly did we get from scratching one-off images on cave walls to making mass produced, globally distributed displays of visual information? Well, that is story of distinct phases, innovation, industrialisation, war and a handful of European inventiveness…
The first modern posters can be traced back to the sixteenth century. Initially produced to replace lazy town criers who had a habit of cutting their route short, the poster was seen as a more efficient means of communicating information to the masses. These initial pieces had to be produced as oneoffs as there was no method of print reproduction available. Because of this, the first posters were made by highly skilled artisans with the skills necessary to produce accurate work consistently; the most notable being Parisian artist Jules Cheret. Regarded as the godfather of the poster, Cheret not only designed many of the first mass-produced posters but also helped refine them from simple text into a visual artform and developed a lithographic printing technique using stone blocks.
By carving mirrored images into clay tablets and using them as printing blocks by rolling ink on them, the ability to make multiple reproductions from a single source image became a reality for the first time; although considerable skill was required to achieve desirable results. This was effectively the birth of the modern printing press, revolutionising printed media and graphic arts forever while spawning a whole new industry; commercial printing. So began the dawn of the modern mass-produced poster. Once the industrial revolution hit the scene the printing presses had plenty of custom from new industry and with the moving image and TV yet to be invented, the poster was the main vehicle for getting the message to the masses.
The poster became a universal attraction displaying everything from fine art to adverts for fags and booze. Artists like Toulouse Lautrec helped to elevate the poster as an artform and the Art Nouveau movement really found its home in the medium. Then came WWI and governments the world over jumped on the bandwagon, launching poster campaigns on a previously unseen scale warning their citizens of the dangers of Johnny Foreigner. The best posters of this era generally come from the Soviet Union, characterised by bold graphic styling. They were a huge influence on the stark clean modernist style which was refined in Germany during WWII and still holds a strong influence in graphic design to this day.
By the time the TV reared its ugly head, poster production had become extremely cheap and everyone was doing it. But big business wasn’t so interested any more and went off glassy eyed and salivating to the cult of the glowing box. The poster became small business, but as there were plenty of small businesses in the world, they carried on the tradition and the poster kept evolving. This was the sixties and the poster was ideal for music promoters who needed a low cost way of getting the word about the latest freakout on the streets. The hippie scene of California became the place where the good stuff was. Adopting a playful approach to image making, many examples they came up with are steeped in art nouveau styling and psychedelic imagery with stunning results. Vietnam also provided plenty of fuel for the political poster on both sides of the line.
This was probably the last great wave of the poster for the time being but the legacy lives on. Advertising still relies heavily on posters and they are a cornerstone of music promotion but there may be a new wave lapping at the shore. With the arrival of home computers, the internet and the ever growing street culture, DiY poster making is once again rising from the underground. Many savvy artists are taking to street art to get their work seen; scanning in drawings, printing them out large scale en masse and pasting their work up on the streets for all to see. People will always want to express themselves and with the means of production so widely available, this is a culture with plenty of room for growth. The poster, like vinyl, will never die.
The first modern posters can be traced back to the sixteenth century. Initially produced to replace lazy town criers who had a habit of cutting their route short, the poster was seen as a more efficient means of communicating information to the masses. These initial pieces had to be produced as oneoffs as there was no method of print reproduction available. Because of this, the first posters were made by highly skilled artisans with the skills necessary to produce accurate work consistently; the most notable being Parisian artist Jules Cheret. Regarded as the godfather of the poster, Cheret not only designed many of the first mass-produced posters but also helped refine them from simple text into a visual artform and developed a lithographic printing technique using stone blocks.
By carving mirrored images into clay tablets and using them as printing blocks by rolling ink on them, the ability to make multiple reproductions from a single source image became a reality for the first time; although considerable skill was required to achieve desirable results. This was effectively the birth of the modern printing press, revolutionising printed media and graphic arts forever while spawning a whole new industry; commercial printing. So began the dawn of the modern mass-produced poster. Once the industrial revolution hit the scene the printing presses had plenty of custom from new industry and with the moving image and TV yet to be invented, the poster was the main vehicle for getting the message to the masses.
The poster became a universal attraction displaying everything from fine art to adverts for fags and booze. Artists like Toulouse Lautrec helped to elevate the poster as an artform and the Art Nouveau movement really found its home in the medium. Then came WWI and governments the world over jumped on the bandwagon, launching poster campaigns on a previously unseen scale warning their citizens of the dangers of Johnny Foreigner. The best posters of this era generally come from the Soviet Union, characterised by bold graphic styling. They were a huge influence on the stark clean modernist style which was refined in Germany during WWII and still holds a strong influence in graphic design to this day.
By the time the TV reared its ugly head, poster production had become extremely cheap and everyone was doing it. But big business wasn’t so interested any more and went off glassy eyed and salivating to the cult of the glowing box. The poster became small business, but as there were plenty of small businesses in the world, they carried on the tradition and the poster kept evolving. This was the sixties and the poster was ideal for music promoters who needed a low cost way of getting the word about the latest freakout on the streets. The hippie scene of California became the place where the good stuff was. Adopting a playful approach to image making, many examples they came up with are steeped in art nouveau styling and psychedelic imagery with stunning results. Vietnam also provided plenty of fuel for the political poster on both sides of the line.
This was probably the last great wave of the poster for the time being but the legacy lives on. Advertising still relies heavily on posters and they are a cornerstone of music promotion but there may be a new wave lapping at the shore. With the arrival of home computers, the internet and the ever growing street culture, DiY poster making is once again rising from the underground. Many savvy artists are taking to street art to get their work seen; scanning in drawings, printing them out large scale en masse and pasting their work up on the streets for all to see. People will always want to express themselves and with the means of production so widely available, this is a culture with plenty of room for growth. The poster, like vinyl, will never die.
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