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P O S T E R S , VOLUME 2 IN THE A M E R I C A N D E S I G N C E N T U R Y SERIES, IS B R O U G H T T O

YOU ON P O T L A T C H M c C O Y , AN U L T R A - B R I G H T BLUE WHITE COATED PAPER THAT

COMES IN F O U R VERSATILE FINISHES - GLOSS, VELVET, SlLK AND V E L O U R . A s YOU

ADMIRE THE IMAGINATIVE POSTERS IN THIS BOOK, PLEASE TAKE A M O M E N T TO

NOTICE THE WONDERFUL PAPERS ON W H I C H THEY ARE P R I N T E D . T H E VIBRANCE

OF THE C O L O R S , THE CLARITY OF THE IMAGE AND THE SMOOTH LAY OF INKS HAVE

ALL BEEN ENHANCED BY THE INCOMPARABLE QUALITY OF P O T L A T C H

McCOY.

commercial poster is considered ephemera created specifically to sell a product, promote an event or rally support for a cause. But, in reality, it is the poster that often endures long after the product has been consumed, the concert hall lights have been dimmed, and the war has been won or lost. The posters that are treasured over time exhibit aesthetic values and conceptual brilliance that extend far beyond the timely and topical. The practical function of a poster, however, is what makes the medium its own unique art form. Unlike works of fine art created to be viewed at leisure, a poster must catch the attention of disinterested passersby and make itself understood at a glance. The best posters fuse words and image into one indelible impression and, in a few brief seconds, drive home their message with such power and persuasiveness that people feel

compelled to act. The visual poster came into its own during the 20th century through the widespread availability of color printing and an advertising-driven marketplace. Over the years, most of America's finest designers have contributed to the medium - in such huge numbers, in fact, that selecting posters for this volume of the American Design Century has been difficult. At times, it was even frustrating because space limitations forced us to exclude many wonderful images. Some posters of historic significance also were simply unavailable for reproduction. What we have tried to bring you is a representative sampling of the best American poster designs from the 20th century, within the most common subject categories. Although some of your favorites may be missing, we feel that the selection, however subjective, demonstrates the originality of American designers and the power of graphic communications.

An Interview with Milton Glaser

A major force in graphic design for the past half century, Milton Glaser has influenced generations of designers, even as he has continued to reinvent his craft. Co-founder of the venerated Push Pin Studios [1954] and New York Magazine [1968], Glaser established his own studio, Milton Glaser Inc. in 1974 and formed the publication designfirm,WBMG, with Walter Bernard in 1983. Glaser is actively involved in a wide range of high-profile graphic, architectural, interior, packaging and advertising design projects worldwide. He also has personally designed and illustrated more than 300 posters for clients in publishing, music, theater,filmand commerce. His poster uArt Is... Whatever/'commemorating the 50th anniversary of NewYork's School of Visual Arts, where he has taught for the past 40 years, was awarded the prestigious Prix Savignacfor the "World's Most Memorable Poster of 1996."
Q. Could you talk about some of the movements that influenced American poster design at the start of the century?

A. In the United States, the earliest influence came from Europe through the Art Nouveau movement - which was influenced, in part, by the Japanese art that poured into Europe around 1880 after Japan began trading with the West. The flat colors and outlined shapes in Japanese woodblock prints had a significant influence on turn-of-the-century French Art Nouveau artists like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen. The Viennese Secessionists, most notably Gustav Klimt, were also caught up in Art Nouveau and informed the Arts & Crafts movement. These movements were not separate events, but a continuing series of ideas that led to an American LYCEUM

DON UIXOTE

adaptation, which was first expressed in the works of Will Bradley and Edward Penfield. Q. Were early American poster design styles largely imported? A. No, at the same time, there was a more indigenous and journalistic current under way in America, as exemplified by practitioners like Winslow Homer and a field of American

byz^tt
Two English artists William Nicholson and James Pryde (1866-1941) (1872-1949) created posters under

illustrators who developed in a narrative, realistic direction. That current brought us to poster artists like James Montgomery Flagg and Howard Chandler Christy.

the signature Beggarstaff Brothers, a pseudonym they had lifted from a sack of corn. The brothers-in-law developed a collage technique, using cut paper to create flat shapes and silhouettes.

Q. Who would you list as your favorite American poster artists from that early period?

A. I love Edward Penfield - a wonderful artist, and I also happen to love Maxfield Parrish as an illustrator and poster artist. Parrish was part of the early tradition of doing magazine covers that were turned into posters. He did wonderfully striking images that you carry in your mind long after you have seen them. Of that generation, they are exemplary Q. Who are your early favorites from England and Europe? A. Well, of course, I love the Beggarstaff Brothers in England. They were fantastic and powerful. Their work showed a profound Art Nouveau influence. In France, there was Steinlen and Felix Vallotton.Vallotton didn't do many posters, but he did many images that depended on the strong simplification of black and white, also reflected in the work that the Beggarstafls did. And certainly Cassandre defined the poster genre more than anybody else in the 20th century. Those are just a few of my favorites. Q. William Nicholson and James Pryde, both schooled in the fine arts, used the pseudonym "Beggarstaffs" on their posters. Did they see posters as something less than true art? A. There are all these secrets involving moonlighting painters who didn't want to be considered commercial artists. It is part of our heritage, in fact. People like Edward Hopper spent many years as an illustrator, but would not mention it for years after. Then you deal with artists like Toulouse-Lautrec who didn't see the difference between the work he did as an applied artist and the work he did as a painter. His paintings and posters have very comparable effects and qualities. Q. Is poster design kind of a bridge between commercial and fine art? A. In theory, it is. The physical size of a poster puts it more in the realm of painting than a little brochure cover or a cover of a magazine. The size gets it closer to the idea of something that sits on an easel as opposed to a drawing board.
The Art Nouveau posters that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) painted for the Moulin Rouge in Paris were revolutionary in that they told a pictorial story and took advantage of stone lithography for printing large color images.

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Q. Did the invention of lithography in the late 19th century foster the development of visual posters?

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A. Lithography sent it on its way. Before the advent of lithography, there wasn't much of what we would call posters. The invention of a way to reproduce large images coupled with the need to communicate information to people on the street made posters an obvious instrument for commercial purposes. Q. What did the first visual posters promote in America?

Art director for Harper's, Edward Penfield (1866-1925) primarily worked

A. Most were done to promote literary, musical and cultural events and spoke to a more upscale market. In the case of Will Bradley's Chap Book and other magazines such as Century, the poster was frequently an enlargement of the cover image, displayed at the newsstand to advertise the latest issue.

in watercolor to design a promoting

monthly series of posters the latest issue of the

magazine. typically

The cover of the magazine

served as the image for the poster.

Q. Unlike books and brochures, do posters always focus on a single idea or message? A. The original impulse for the poster was that it should be understandable to those walking by without a serious commitment of time. Posters basically made themselves understood without complexity and were extremely reductive. Commercial posters moved increasingly toward the synthesis of an idea a very direct visual, very easily understood statement so that once you saw it, the act of recognition would penetrate your consciousness. Q. The need for quick understanding seems to rely heavily on cultural symbols that people recognize immediately. A. That's always true in design. Design is frequently not a place for the new because it has to utilize the imagery and understanding of the people it is addressed to. When something is truly new, it is incomprehensible. So, you can never use what is truly new until it begins to be understood. That usually means introducing the new within the context of what is already known. That's kind of a general principal about everything in design. Q. What was the influence of the Bauhaus? A. The Bauhaus set the stage for American Modernism. Reductive design, clarity and simplicity, the lack of ornamentation and, to some extent, the elimination of narration are all characteristic of Bauhaus work. The Bauhaus defined the tenets of Modernism, informing a whole generation of designers and people who did posters in the United States.

Q. How did the European emigres of the 1920s, '30s and '40s figure into this?

A. They were products of the Bauhaus.What Herbert Matter, Will Burton, Erik Nitsche, Herbert Bayer, E. McKnight Kauffer and other emigres to America were espousing in terms of Modernism was the philosophical roots of the Bauhaus. Q. Did they influence American design practices at the time? A. Very much so. Paul Rand, Lester Beall, Alvin Lustig, Erik Nitsche who was European .5? A M E DEGERANGE E T D ' A R M E M E N T all fell under the emigre influence. They were flag carriers of this extraordinary change and responsible for the introduction of Modernist thought into American design. Q. How were you influenced by the Bauhaus? A. When I was in high school, design practice was all about Bauhaus and Modernism. By the time I finished Cooper Union, I began to reject it because it seemed limited as a singular point of view. I felt I had to find an alternative way of thinking about what design is, what art is, what beauty is.

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Q. Where did Cassandre fit in? A. Cassandre was very much influenced by Cubism, which was the wave of the new at the time and ran

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A Cubist influence is evident in the work ofA.M. Cassandre (1901-1968), who changed his name from Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron when he immigrated from Russia to Paris. Cassandre's reductive approach utilized broad planes of color and turned subjects into iconographic symbols.

contrary to the visual tradition in France. Cassandre's works offered a different perception of reality. Viewers

had to make an effort to switch their assumptions while looking at them. Cassandre's posters were novel and startling, on the cutting edge of modernity. People who responded to them felt they were part of this change. Good design always engages people in a kind of tribal identification - making them feel that they're participating in change.

Q. Weren't the WPA and Bauhaus happening about the same time?

A. The two occurred more or less at the same time. But the WPA [Works Progress Administration] work was more indigenously American. The Modernist attitude didn't affect very much of what was going on in the WPA, which tended to be more storytelling and was less influenced by a new kind of typography and symbolic language. Q. As a student, what did you think of the WPA posters? A. It varied. I thought they tended to be corny or less sophisticated than their European counterparts. In retrospect, they begin to look better having the veneer of time on them. Q. Are there certain American posters that stick in your head as icons of this century? A. A couple come to mind the posters that Lester Beall did for the Rural Electrification Administration that related to agriculture, water and power, and posters that Ben Shahn did for the U.S. Office of War Information. They were very powerful and memorable. The work Victor Moscoso did in the Sixties seems to epitomize that moment in history. I would also include many works of Saul Bass, Paul Davis, Jim McMullan, Seymour Chwast, Ivan Chermayeff, Paul Rand, Michael Vanderbyl, Paula Scher, Woody Pirtle,Tony Palladino and George Tscherny that persist in my memory. Q. What about the designers and artists
associated with the Push Pin Studios? Did you influence each other?

A. We did have an effect on one another. Everyone had a personal way of looking at things. One of the more significant things we did as a group was demonstrate that it is possible to be eclectic as a designer.You didn't only have to use Modernism as your basic resource. You could take ideas from anywhere. You could look at things like Art Nouveau, Surrealism or Constructivism, for instance, and derive a lot of ideas from them and see them as part of a continuing series of ideas. That was not such a common idea when we started. Q. As a communications venue are posters more important in America than elsewhere? A. No, in Europe there are kiosks and other spaces officially allotted for posters, but in America, there is usually no official way for posters to be displayed. They often have to be put up opportunistically. In New York, you pay people called snipers to put posters up on fences around building sites and so on. It's illegal, but one of those illegalities that is not pursued. If you post it yourself, the same sniper will take every one of your posters down or cover them before the end of a day. At this point in history, posters are not the most effective way of communicating ideas in our culture.

Bob Dylan Album Poster, Milton Glaser 1967

Q. In recent years, it seems that your approach to posters has changed.

A. Yes, I've become interested in doing complex posters featuring many ideas, with a narrative and so on. There's something for the first look and then there's something to go back to. These posters tend to be less reductive, more complex. Q. Don't complex posters that people have to stop and read run counter to the fast pace of society? A- All design is mediated by its context. Once you know that, you think about the opportunity created by a specific circumstance. For instance, I've done a lot of subway posters for the
POSTER ADVERTISING SERVICE

Even for commercial posters, Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) expressed a romanticized view ojthe world with idealized landscapes.

School of Visual Arts in New York. If you know the social habits of people on the subway, you're aware that people are desperate for something to read. If they didn't buy a newspaper, they'll stop in front of a poster and actually read it because they're waiting for the train to come sometimes an interminable wait. Under such circumstances, you might question the idea of simplicity or reductiveness to make a form that is more interesting and complex. Q. What is the appeal of designing posters for you? The size? The conciseness of the message? A. It's all of that. The size is certainly important because as a designer you're often working in an 8 1/2 x 11 format. To see something at a poster size is the closest thing to easel painting designers have. It's a great change of expectation about what your work looks like. Q. Is it less collaborative? A. Unlike most design activities that are done with the participation of copywriters, account
10

executives, marketing experts and so on, a poster artist usually puts it together by himself. From that point of view, it is generally more satisfying and also has a capacity to be more unique than the sort of systemic generalization that occurs in much collaborative work. Q. How did your famous Dylan poster come about? A. John Berg at Columbia gave me the assignment to do a poster for the Dylan LP album. I knew Dylan at the time because I was a good friend of his manager, Albert Grossman. I knew I would do a portrait, but I wanted to do it in a fresh and compelling way. I had a memory of a self-portrait of Duchamps, where he cut his head out of a sheet of paper. I remembered the drama of that head as an object in space and thought I could do something just showing a silhouette, a black shape of Dylans profile with psychedelic hair. I didn't do a lot of development for that poster. The graphic solution the contrast between this wavy colored, abstracted form and the dense silhouette of the head was the first thing I did. Q. Did you have trouble selling it as an idea? A- No, I just sent it over. The original had a harmonica attached to Dylan's neck, so there was another little form at the bottom. The art director said, "Get rid of the harmonica." He was right. The simplicity helped it. Q. What influences and inspires your poster work? A. I've been very influenced by a lot of people. I'm certainly influenced by the history of posters and certainly by Toulouse-Lautrec and more dramatically byVallotton who has always been one of my great interests. I love that whole period of turn-of-the-century France. Q. Do you have favorite themes when you're working? A. Yes, certainly. If I looked over things I've done, I'm sure I could find a lot of patterns. There's this big profile device I use often. I use still life ideas in a lot of my work and look to the history of art as a reference point as well. But obviously, the posters are driven by their subject matter more than anything else. Q. Posters are classified as ephemera because they promote events or products of the moment. How do you view them? A. They are vernacular in the sense that they generally speak the language of the moment to communicate to their audience. But my hope for doing a poster is always that I will create something that will have staying power, that 20 years later somebody will say, "Hey, that looks pretty good." That reward is not related to the selling function of a poster but to another objective, the desire to produce work that has more than transitory value.

11

PRICE
KEEPS TEETH WHITE

DENTYNE
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PEROXIDE TOOTH PASTE

THE KIND YOUR DENTIST RECOMMENDS'
Two key messages were communicated in this 1911 poster for Colgate's Dentyne toothpaste - the signature red color of its packaging and the fact that Dentyne "keeps teeth white."

13

14

< David Lance Goines' use of broad, flat colors, outlined shapes and hand-lettering is reminiscent of Art Nouveau. Through his Saint Heironymous Press in Berkeley, California, Goines prints the posters that he designs and illustrates. This poster for Chez Panisse was originally printed in 13 colors.

The father of American visual posters, Will Bradley reflected the design style of his time. Here he emulates the heavily ornamented borders introduced by Arts and Crafts leader William Morris and the drawing style of Aubrey Beardsley.
15

ANYWAY YOU SLICE I T - E

16

During the Sixties, art director Dennis Wheeler created an advertising poster campaign for Life magazine using playful

metaphors and visual puns. No matter how you sliced it, Life's logo remained recognizable to viewers

< Paul Rand - who created many of the century's most recognizable corporate identities - designed IBM's slab-serifed logotype in 1956 and gave it stripes in 1972. Here he had fun with Big Blue's famous mark by turning it into a witty rebus.

Swiss graphic design was introduced in America in the late 1950s, and emigres like Swiss-born Erik Nitsche introduced the clean, organized style to corporate identity programs and applied Swiss design principles to corporate posters.
19

Ivan Chermayeff and Tom > Geismar demonstrated that photography is the perfect medium for communicating the reality of place in these travel posters for Pan Am.

In 1994, CKS Partners' Jill Savini teamed up with illustrator Terry Allen to evoke the great sea cruise posters of the Thirties by paying homage to A.M. Cassandre's famous French Line images. 20

21

Painted by Haddon H. > Sundblom, this is one of the most famous billboard posters of the Forties. Through an alignment of key visuals - Coke bottle, young woman, Yes and Coca-Cola logo - the poster conveys a narrative sequence that leads the viewer's eyes to the brand name.

You don't have to be Jewish

to love Levy's
real Jewish Rye

Countering ethnic stereotypes and celebrating cultural diversity, these posters by Doyle Dane Bernbach copywriter Judy Protas and art director Bill Taubin helped to make Levy's the best selling rye bread in New York.
22

Potlatch Corporation RO. Box 510 Cloquet, MN 55720-0510

NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST-CLASS PERMIT 1700 CLOQUET, MN POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

POTLATCH

CORPORATION 55720-0510

P.O. BOX 5 1 0 CLOQUET, MN

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es

In 1932, illustrator Otis Shepard received first prize in the Outdoor Advertising Association competition for this poster for Wrigley's gum. Reflecting the fashion vogue of the Thirties, the poster positioned Wrigley's as a contemporary product; today the image is appreciated for its aesthetic composition.

25

The distinctive international styling of Italian-born Massimo Vignelli's work complemented the design of Knoll's furniture products.

i gives architectural

Hot Seat

Knoll

27

28

< Herbert Bayer emigrated to America after the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933. For Olivetti, an early leader in corporate visual identity, Bayer created an abstract graphic image that suggested the tape of an adding machine.

Designer Nancy Skolos teamed with partner/ photographer Tom Wedell to create an abstract collage for Berkeley Typographers. The use of contemporary imagery helped to position the company as a cuttingedge typographer. 29

A uniquely American genre, Barnum & Bailey circus posters overwhelmed the senses with a plethora of words and images designed to convince viewers that they would be treated to non-stop thrills.

31

The golden age of magic > shows coincided with the heyday of chromolithography for large-scale color reproductions. Magic posters typically presented a portrait of the magician and/or one of his most famous tricks.

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Early Hollywood movie posters were done in a narrative style, showcasing the star and a preview of what the film was about. Common during the period was the integration of hand-painted lettering into the illustration. 32

33

Saul Bass departed from the movie poster tradition of featuring a likeness of the star. Instead, he chose to capture the mood and theme of the film through a simple yet compelling drawing.

F R ^ N K SINATRA E I ^ A N O R , PARSER,- K J M N O V A K

A FILM BY OTTO PREM.NGER . FROM THE NOVEL BY NElSON ALGREN . MUS.C BY ELMER BERNSTEIN . PRODUCEO & DIRECTED BY OTTO PREMINCER

Saul Bass' reductive approach to design was aimed at leaving viewers with one overriding impression. In "Exodus," Bass combined his traditional graphic style with the reality of photographic flames to heighten the impact and immediacy of the image.

HN DEREK. HUGH G R i r f l T H , GREGORY RATO* F, JILL HAWORTH IN

FXO0US * SCREENPLAY fit OAUON TRUM8C

AM LEAVITT. TODO AG STEREOPHONIC SOUNO A U A . RELEASE PRODUCED ANO DIRECTED BY OTTO PRfMINGtR

36

OTTO PREMINGfiR PRESENTS PAUE Nl WUAN. EVA MARIE SAINT, RALPH RICHARDSON, PETER tAWFORD, IEE J. COBB. S A i MIN BAStQ ON THE NOVEL BV EEON URtS, MLJSiC BY OWIEST GOLD PHOTOGRAPHID IN SUPER PANAVfSION /G, TECHNICOLOR

For greater on-street > visibility, Milton Glaser designed this Mahalia Jackson concert poster so that it could be hung as a single sheet or in sets of four (shown here).

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Ruspoli-Rodriguez suggested the dawning of the Age of Aquarius with a glowing psychedelic image and tie-dye colors done using split-fountain printing. The music and images from "Hair" became synonymous with the Sixties. 38

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A founding partner of Pinnacle Production Company, the first to stage psychedelic rock concert/dances in Los Angeles, John Van Hamersveld applied his art education toward designing posters for many Pinnacle events. He went on to design more than 300 album covers as well as a major mural for the 1984 Olympics.
40

During the Sixties, San Francisco was the center of new rock music and the hippie scene. The Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom which showcased top talent, promoted their live dance/concerts through giveaways of psychedelic posters. A unique style of the Sixties, these posters featured optically vibrating colors and sinuous hand-lettered type, many evocative of the Viennese Secessionist style.

3
Pentagram's Paula Scher > created a cacaphony of typographic sounds in this poster for "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk," one of several posters that she has done for the Public Theater in New York. Founded by Joseph Papp, the Public Theater has a long tradition of commissioning great posterists.

EXHIBIT-JEROME ROBBINS "BALLETS U.S.A."-U.S.I.S. GALLERY 41 GROSVENOR SQ. LONDON W.l. SEPT. 1 5 0 C T . 2 3 . 1 9 5 9

During a stint as a lithographer's apprentice, Ben Shahn claims he became "infatuated" with type. Shahn made hand-lettered type a predominant visual element in most of his posters. 42

THE PUBLIC THEATER/NEW YORK SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL NftStNTS;

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wo of the foremost illustrators of Broac show posters are Push Pin Studios alumni: R and James M aster of portraits,

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Paul Davis has painted many of the most famous faces in the world. His realistic technique and evocative style give viewers a sense of the subject's inner emotions.

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James McMullan works primarily in ink-line and watercolor. Starting with pencil sketches and reference photographs, McMullan approaches each assignment somewhat journalistically, seeking to capture the one facial expression or scene that embodies the essence and tone of the play.

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< A pioneer in the use of computer graphics, John Hersey assembled this fanciful image electronically for a new technology opera performance held in Italy.

A departure from traditional Broadway theater posters, the hard-edged graphics by Gilbert Lesser helped to communicate the raw emotionalism of the play. 47

For Masterpiece Theater's > " I , Claudius," Pushpin's Seymour Chwast captured the imperial intrigue of ancient Rome by making a mosaic of Claudius, surrounded by a snake and a goblet of split wine/blood. In trying to achieve the look of a chromolithograph, the poster was originally printed in 15 colors.

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American Diplomatic History In >m Yersai!les to Pearl Harbor A unique 16-week television series Host: Eric Sevareid Wednesday evenings beginning April 5 at 7:30 Channel

Mobil

Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar, who had designed the logo for Mobil in 1964, were later commissioned to design posters for the PBS Masterpiece Theater, funded by Mobil. For both PBS series, Chermayeff & Geismar chose signature objects helmets and a hat to define each period between the wars, and Winston Churchill's famous cigar and hat.
48

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Electrically cwctatedttainsleaoe^ora RANDOLPH J i . & MICHIGAN Ave.and stop a t VAN BURNJi.,ROqfEVElT R d . , 5 3 * 6 3 ^ , A * c m d KEN/JNGTON.

Representative of the narrative painting style of the period, this football poster by Otto Brenneman is actually intended to encourage people to travel to the Notre Dame games via the South Shore Railway.

51

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< The WPA, formed during the Great Depression, hired unemployed artists to produce public service posters, such as this one promoting outdoor activities.

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A European emigre who came to the U.S. in 1935, Joseph Binder was heavily influenced by Cubism. Binder evolved a natural yet stylized look, using flat shapes and sharp contrasts to suggest shadow and light. 53

For an exhibition on baseball, Pushpin Group's Seymour Chwast chose a cut-paper style of illustration to communicate the vernacular of the game, showing the path of a whimsical curve ball.

54

No bird soars too high, Ifhe soars with his own wings.
-William Blake

Michael Jordan's legendary grace and power on the basketball courts gave spectators the impression that he was "flying through the air" and led Nike to create an athletic line called Air Jordan. This six-foot long poster still falls short of Jordan's true reach.

Created in 1903 to promote Mercers burg Academy, a Pennsylvania prep school, this poster idealizes youthful manhood and America's great national pastime in a style that is representative of the times.

< Evocative of the romance and unhurried pace of a bygone era, this poster by Michael Schwab exhibits a reductive style using flat, bold colors and a strong graphic rendering of the subject.

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Best known for his graphic design for Herman Miller, Stephen Frykholm used flat colors and a distant horizon to suggest the broad expanse and freedom of racing across open water.

61

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For the Atlanta Games, > Primo Angeli exemplified the spirit of the Olympic Movement with a classic Greek profile of an athlete and a ghosted image of the Olympic torch throwing off embers of American stars.

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The host city for each Olympics tournament brings its own unique graphic interpretation to its promotional materials. As the host city for the 1984 Games, Los Angeles expressed its avant garde personality through photosurrealist posters done by local designers including Saul Bass (left) and April Greiman and Jayme Odgers.
62

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End Bad Breath.

Seymour Chwast's genius at packaging a serious message within a disarmingly innocent image is evident in this poster. Here he combines a familiar advertising slogan with a primitive woodcut of Uncle Sam to protest the aerial bombing of Hanoi during the Vietnam War.

65

66

< One of the most popular illustrators of his day, Joseph C. Leyendecker depicted America as it wanted to see itself, whether that was the dashing Arrow Shirt man or the champions of freedom. Here he liberally utilized patriotic symbols, including Lady Liberty cloaked in the flag, the official shield, and a sword with the Boy Scout motto.

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A highly narrative, illustrative style dominated poster design during, and just following World War I, before the Bauhaus emigres ushered in the reductive style of Modernism. Eugenie Deland appealed to patriotism through national symbols (left), and Howard Chandler Christy sent his famous "Christy Girl" off to war by presenting her as a "lady at arms."
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Charles Coiner delivered a powerful message in the simplest and most direct manner in this World War II poster.

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A 1915 British military recruiting poster was so effective that in 1917 James Montgomery Flagg did an American version in the same pose, using himself as the model for Uncle Sam.

70

Steven Horn did a take-off on an American icon to drive home his anti-Vietnam war message. The pose and arm position are similar to Flagg's Uncle Sam, but Horn's version shows a defeated and disillusioned man.

71

Jean Carlu sought to distill > a message to its essence, avoiding "two lines where one would do." By repeating the pictographic silhouettes in the form of a factory worker and machine gunner, Carlu gave a double meaning to the phrase "Give"em both barrels" and emphasized the importance of supporting the war effort at home and on the battlefield.

In New York to complete a French exhibition for the World's Fair when Hitler invaded Paris in 1940, Jean Carlu stayed in America for the duration of the war, creating powerful symbolic posters in support of the Allied war effort. This poster won first place in a government-sponsored poster contest aimed at boosting wartime production. 72

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J. Howard Miller used body language the flexed muscle pose associated with macho males - to suggest that women were fully capable of doing a man's job. Miller's down-to-earth, realistic style reinforced the message that women could run the machines while the male work force was off at war.

75

76

Designer Richard Hess > and illustrator Paul Davis collaborated on this benefit poster for California's migrant farm workers from Mexico. The noble pose of the young migrant worker, set against a cloudy sky, is evocative of early socialist posters.

A master of typographybased design, Herb Lubalin wrote the copy and designed this anti-war poster for an AIGA exhibition. The bold white text, devoid of color except for the cockroaches crawling in the last word, gives stark reality to the message. 78

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< Dean of the graphics department at his alma mater, the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco, Michael Vanderbyl succinctly shows how the future of the earth is in our hands.

For Artis '89 in Paris, Saul Bass marked the bicentennial of the French Declaration of Human Rights by linking it with America's struggle for independence. Superimposing the American Bill of Rights over half the face, Bass showed the document being licked by flames to indicate how human rights must be vigilantly protected lest it be consumed.
81

Chosen by designers from 40 nations as the "most memorable poster in the world" in 1985, "Wave of Peace" by McRay Magleby commemorates the World War II bombing of Hiroshima. In its use of color and theme, the poster is evocative of traditional Japanese woodcuts.

83

For an American > Graphics exhibition in Russia, Chermayeff & Geismar let the image explain the contents of the show.

As part of an effort to encourage rural areas in America to install electricity, in the 1930s Lester Beall developed a series of graphic posters that touted its benefits. Beall's Modernist approach condensed visuals and words to the essential message.
84

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< For the Mexican Museum in San Francisco, Jennifer Morla integrated the vernacular typography and colors of Mexico into the design to communicate the museum's focus to a California audience.

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John Clark utilized the edgy experimental typography of the Nineties to suggest the avant garde nature of Ask's Common Ground Festival.
87

Primo Angeli found the Art Deco style of the Thirties perfect for this poster commemorating the 50th anniversary of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, completed in 1939.

88

For decades, Container Corporation of America, commissioned the leading exponents of Modernism to shape its visual image. Emblematic of the Swiss graphics popular in the Sixties, this poster by Tomoko Miho follows in the great CCA design tradition.

89

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< Bruce Blackburn communicated the grim reality of this disease with graffiti-like bluntness, using iconographic symbols to succinctly convey the key points of this AIDS message.

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An epidemic that swept through the nation in the late 1940s and 1950s before the development of a vaccine, polio was the subject of many public service campaigns. These posters by Milton Ackoff (left) and Herbert Matter reflect the quintessential look of the Fifties, with their angled type, bands of color, integration of graphics with photography and greater use of white space. 91

The ephemeral nature of > posters suited Andy Warhol's pop art style. Warhol was one of many fine artists commissioned by Lincoln Center to create posters for its film festival.

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Based in New York City, the School of Visual Arts has fostered the talents of designers, filmmakers, artists and photographers, among other creatives. Its faculty includes some of the most illustrious names in design, many of whom have created posters over the past 50 years to promote the school.

94

For the School of Visual Arts, Milton Glaser demonstrated a lesson in optical illusion with this poster entitled "Big Nudes." By extending the image past the "edges" of the page, he made it appear much larger than it actually is.
96

A teacher at the School of Visual Arts between 1956 and 1964, George Tscherny has been known for distilling the most complex subjects into the simplest graphic symbols. Before starting his own design studio in 1956, he had been a partner with the renowned George Nelson & Associates.

97

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Pentagram's Woody Pirtle communicated several vital bits of information in this simply designed poster. By arranging two books into the shape of a palm tree, he suggested an educational institution in Southern California, and through a warm palette and cast shadow, he conveyed it was for a summer program.

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A recent recipient of the AIGA Medal, Louis Danziger combined two messages into one object by depicting the flag on a brush for an exhibition of American paintings.

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< For the branding of the Golden Gate National Parks Association, Michael Schwab created a series of posters that highlighted GGNPA's landmark urban park sites.

Departing from the realistic illustrative style prevalent during World War I, this 1927 poster by Brubaker achieves a soft, dreamy quality through its flat shapes and absence of detail. 101

A radical departure from > traditional Call for Entries, this AIGA poster by Pentagram's Woody Pirtle is black-and-white and almost exclusively text. Pirtle chose polar opposite descriptors - right/wrong, smart/idiotic - to suggest the fine line between brilliant and banal design.

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Pentagram's Kit Hinrichs and Michael Vanderbyl both served as chairmen for the San Francisco AIGA design lecture series. To promote the 1997 series entitled "Moving Emotions," Hinrichs showed a woman staring through a jalousie of bold emotional words. For the 1993 series "Les Enfants Terribles," Vanderbyl focused greater attention on the image itself, letting the text become a secondary read. 102

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< Embracing the new capabilities of the computer, April Greiman used words as visual elements, spiraling letterforms outward. Although Greiman studied the Swiss International Style in Switzerland, her work during the Eighties exhibited a strong post-Modernist bias.

This WPA exhibition poster was designed by Richard Floethe who emigrated to America in 1928 and headed the WPA Poster Division between 1936-39. His work reflected his Bauhaus-training, including the frequent use of Josef Albers' Stencil typeface.

105

Index of Designers A Ackoff, Milton 91 Adams, Bristow 59 Allen, Terry 20 Angeli, Primo 63, 88
B

Primary Image Sources L Lesser, Gilbert 47 Leyendecker, Joseph C. 66 Lichtenstein, Roy 92 Lubalin, Herb 78 M Magleby, McRay 83 Matter, Herbert 91 McMullan, James 45 Miho, Tomoko 89 Miller, Howard J. 75 Morla, Jennifer 86 Moscoso, Victor 41 N Nitsche, Erik 19 0 Odgers, Jayme 62 P Parrish, Maxfield 10 Penfield, Edward 6 Pirtle, Woody 27, 98, 103 Protas, Judy 22 R Rand, Paul 18 Rivolta, Jack 52 Ruspoli-Rodriguez 38 S Savini, Jill 20 Scher, Paula 43, 94 Schwab, Michael 60, 100 Shahn, Ben 42, 76 Shepard, Otis 25 Skolos, Nancy 29 Sundblom, Haddon H. 23-24 American Institute of Graphic Arts Primo Angeli Inc. Art Resource Saul Bass Estate Bettman Archive Blackburn Young Inc. Bridgeman Art Library Chermayeff & Geismar Inc. Chicago Historical Society CKS Partners Louis Danziger Design Paul Davis Studio Milton Glaser Inc. David Lance Goines Studio April Greiman Studio John Hersey Illustration Collection of Kit Hinrichs Looking Magleby & Company Morla Design The National Archives Pentagram Design Pushpin Group Paul Rand Estate Michael Schwab Studio Skolos/Wedell U.S. Library of Congress Vanderbyl Design Vignelli Associates

Bass, Saul 34-37, 62, 81 Bayer, Herbert 28 Beall, Lester 84 Beggarstaff Brothers 4 Binder, Joseph 53 Blackburn, Bruce 90 Bradley, Will 15 Brenneman, Otto 51 Brubaker 101 C Carlu, Jean 72-74 Cassandre, A.M. 7 Chermayeff, Ivan 2 1 , 48, 85, 94 Christy, Howard Chandler 67 Chwast, Seymour 49, 54, 65 Clark, John 87 Coiner, Charles 68-69 D Danziger, Louis 99 Davis, Paul 44, 79 DeLand, Eugenie 67 Dumas, Ron 55-57 F Family Dog 41 Flagg, James Montgomery 7C Floethe, Richard 105 Frykholm, Stephen 61 Geismar, Tom 2 1 , 48, 85 Glaser, Milton 9, 39, 94-96, 106 Goines, David Lance 14 Greiman, April 62, 104 Grohe, Glenn 77 Hersey, John 46 Hess, Richard 79 Hinrichs, Kit 102 Horn, Steven 71

Taubin, William 22 Toulouse-Lautrec, Henr

Van Hamersveld, John 40 Vignelli, Massimo 26 W Warhol, Andy 93 Wedell, Tom 29 Wheeler, Dennis 16-17 Wieden & Kennedy 58 Wilson, Wes 41

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