Post 4 - Sam Weible

Arguably, the United States saw its graphic design industry flourish during the second World War. At this point in history, graphic design as a differentiated art form has only existed for roughly fifty years and primarily in Europe. With the development of the poster, graphic design was used largely to advertise cigarettes and other common products up until this point, but American designers used graphic design to advertise something new: an idea. Propaganda and politically-motivated posters existed long before this period, but in this period of time, because of its intent to be mass-produced and to communicate a clear message, propaganda posters boomed in the United States. Take this poster for instance: "Keep 'em Rolling!" Designed by Leo Lionni, this poster is meant to excite its viewers and entice them into joining the war effort. Whether you're fighting on the front lines or keeping American war machines moving, you're doing your part.


Lionni, L. (1941). [Keep 'em Rolling]. https://fineartamerica.com/featured/ships-keep-em-rolling-war-is-hell-store.html?product=poster. 5 February 2020.

The interesting thing about this massive movement is its target audience–or audiences. While posters such as the one above called to the men of America to step up and fight abroad, posters were also designed to motivate those at home. Everyone knows Rosie the Riveter, star of J. Howard Millers's famous "We Can Do It" poster, designed for the encouragement of American women to step into the production industry to support the soldiers over seas.


Miller, J. H. (1943). [We Can Do It]. https://www.amazon.com/Studio-We-Can-Do-Poster/dp/B00A45G6CC. 5 February 2020.

But it doesn't end there. Posters were designed and produced even for those who couldn't contribute anything to the war effort, they were designed purely for the purpose of molding the minds of Americans. This poster is an attempt to convince anyone still on the fence about the war that the Axis powers are evil and they are coming for the United States. This is true propaganda, it's not communicating an idea or even selling a product, it's selling a way of thinking. It's selling fear.



Office for Emergency Management. (1942). [Warning! Our Homes Are In Danger Now]. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/516040. 5 February 2020.


Comments

  1. Viv LopezFebruary 5, 2020 at 1:48 PM

    I also looked up more war posters after reading this section. You raise an excellent point about the target audience. I found posters from war bonds to metal scraping to signing up for the war to women farming. Each poster felt like it had a specific audience. Some were targeted for men, some for women who stayed home, and even some for people who wanted to help (even in a small way). What I found interesting is that most of the posters calling men to fight had actual photos (like the real men and ships in the first photo) while almost everything else were drawn posters.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post 1 (Matthew Donald)

Image
One of the pieces that really caught my eye during the reading was Alphonse Mucha's Job  cigarette papers advertisement. There was something very intriguing about the way he created a background texture using an element from the foreground. "JOB" is written in big letters at the very top of the poster and its accented by "job" written in little letters evenly throughout the background. I think it does a good job at creating an interesting composition while maintaining the central focus around the brand. The big "JOB" flows on top of a large ring where a woman sits. I think the overall shape of the illustration was executed very well because of its emphasis on curves. The curves of the hair and the woman are all reinforced by the circle in the center of the page. Mucha, A. (1898). "Job" poster for cigarette papers. Retrieved from  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JOB_(rolling_papers)  on January 1st, 2020. In this piece of typography created ...
Read more

Post 3 - Sam Weible

Image
From the experimentation and norm-breaking designs of the avant garde movement came some of my favorite European designs predating 1940s. From this period, I particularly love the posters advertising the London Underground. I first saw some of these posters at the Art Institute over the summer and was immediately intrigued by their design, how they managed somehow be both artistically beautiful and utilitarian. The elements of each poster followed suit, text and imagery being generally separate from one another on the page yet communicating a since of uniformity. While that was the case for most of the poster I got to see, it wasn't for every Underground poster. There are actually a great variance of design and style between these mass-produced posters. This poster, "Power", from the textbook, for example, hardly has any visual unity. What it's trying to communicate is unclear and the visual ties the artist tries to make between each element isn't as unifying as...
Read more

2/5 in class reflection

I liked learning a bit of back story on Bert Stern. I like learning a more in depth about a designers history. Its interesting to see where these designers are coming from however, I know that the time frame of this class doesn't really allow for too much of that. I didn't really like watching the ted talk at the beginning because, while the message is good, this is the fourth class I have had to watch that talk in.
Read more