Graphic Design: A Concise History – Richard Hollis

Richard Hollis is a graphic designer who has also worked as a printer, art editor, production manager, teacher and lecturer. Hollis has written several books focused on graphic design such as the book mentioned above, which is Graphic Design: A Concise History. Other prominent books by R. Hollis are About Graphic Design, Swiss Graphic Design, as well as others. His work consistently connects graphic design to the cultural and social conditions that inspire it. It is for these reasons that I believe that he would be a good source for this paper.

This publication is focused on all of graphic design, but I zoomed in on propaganda and its impacts in the 20th century. Graphic design is visual communication based on using signs, symbols, words, composition, and color to express an idea or communicate a message. Graphic design is mainly a 20th century phenomena as modernism and new methods of communication and advertising were released. There were several sections of the book that stood out such as when he spoke about WW1, Russian Revolution, and WW2 propaganda. Early propaganda was inspired by Lucian Bernhardt’s style of the “object poster”, which had characteristics that included flat color, simple images/illustrations of objects, and solid shadows. Many of the posters during WWI were representational, which used symbolism and metaphor to help get a message across. The book also went into Russian art during the time of and after the revolution of 1917. At the time Russia was a semi literate country, so images and symbols became the main source of information, which supported the revolution. These were primarily focused on posters, which ranged from political cartoons, constructivism, and woodblock prints. One common poster style of the early 20th century was known as the Rosta poster. These were single sided bulletins that were illustrated in a comic style. These posters were designed and printed overnight, which helped spread their influence into the streets of Russia. Several artists helped push this style such as Vladimir Mayayakovsky, Vladimir Kolinsky, and Vladimir Lebedev. Over time a new style known as Constructivism became more popular as the Rosta poster started to decline. Constructivism was a style that rejected art as belonging to the high society and instead brought it to use for the service of the people. This design focused on revolution and wanted to help establish socialism at the time. Qualities of this art included photomontage, abstract principles, minimal colors, and geometric and dynamic shapes. Many of these designs were focused on posters, but then expanded when publications such as USSR in Construction were released. As time went on this style was stomped out by Stalin, when he suppressed this method of design. The last important section of this book was about World War 2 and the propaganda of the time. By this time graphic design was incredibly important and influential in wartime information. Several countries created government offices that were focused on the production of propaganda of the time. These include the Ministry of Information in Britain as well as the US Office of War Information. Many of these posters used similar techniques of World War 1, but photography started to take over as the main method to express ideas and messages. Towards the end of the war color photography started to become popular and was also used in the creation of propaganda. New techniques to get information out started around WW2, such as showering pamphlets and informational articles over enemy territory using airplanes. This helped with the psychological operations that the Allied forces were using at the time. Overtime the poster became less popular as the main method to express propaganda and instead things such as art exhibits and magazines begin to take over.

Hollis, Richard. Graphic Design: A Concise History, Second Edition (World of Art). Second, Thames & Hudson, 2002.

Graphic Arts and Advertising as War Propaganda – James Aulich

James/Jim Aulich is a Professor in visual culture at the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design. His research and focus is on propaganda as well as the history of posters and war in Europe and Vietnam. In his area of focus he has written 8 books, several articles, as well as producing various exhibitions on the graphic design of war and propaganda posters. 

The overall theme of this article was to discuss propaganda and the posters that were created during WW1. This is when propaganda really took off and was implemented throughout Europe, America, and Russia. These posters were created to maintain morale at home and on the warfront. They also were used to promote interest in supporting the war effort such as savings, bonds, war work, and conservation of resources. Graphic designers, printing house’s, and advertising firms were specifically used to pump out these posters during a time of turmoil. There were a handful of types of posters, but the two main categories were focused on “the patriotic poster” and the “atrocity” poster. Patriotic posters were targeted towards subjects that would empower its viewers that are based on heroism, national identity (flags), and personification/symbolism of things such as peace, victory, liberty. Atrocity propaganda was the opposite of this and were based on images that are meant to illicit fear. These had subjects such as starvation, massacres, and other graphic scenes of battle that don’t give you warm and fuzzy feelings like the patriotic posters do. Many of these posters used psychological appeals that were aimed towards peoples desire and other idealism. The majority of posters were based on the “object poster”, which focused on an object on a stark background that was usually accompanied with typography. Posters were placed in high traffic areas such as banks, train stations, city streets, and the post office so that as many people could see them as possible. Different posters had different objectives as mentioned above. Some posters were used to point towards men who would be serving on the front lines, while others were focused on getting women to buy bonds or support the war effort with their time and work. One highlight of all of this was that after the war, America and other nations realized the importance of directing the hearts and minds of their citizens to keep them focused on their overall objective, which is something we are still being directed towards today.

Aulich, James. “Graphic Arts and Advertising as War Propaganda.” International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1), 8 Oct. 2014, encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/graphic_arts_and_advertising_as_war_propaganda.

The Art of Influence – A Propaganda Primer – Ben Weiss and MFA Boston

Ben Weiss is a Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Visual Culture , director of collections and board member at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Weiss graduated with a bachelors at Harvard, but gained an MFA from Princeton. Recently in 2019 he curated the large exhibit “The art of influence”, which was about propaganda posters and postcards throughout the World Wars as well as their impacts on society. Ben Weiss has also spent seven years working for the MFA’s (Museum of Fine Art – Boston) Education department as Head of Interpretation. At one time he was also chair member of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the MFA in Boston.

Throughout the talk Weiss discussed many facets of propaganda and how they repeat across nations and cultures. Propaganda is mainly a 20th century phenomena that has taken part to help gain an emotional response from the viewer. This was done for many reasons such as gaining morale, support, and recruitment as well as other avenues associated with war and revolution. Not all political art is considered propaganda. Propaganda was made possible by new successes throughout the countries in mass media, industrialization, advertising,  and literacy. It also was helpful that more people at the time were being involved in the political processes. The reasons for which propaganda came about when the first world war hit, was due to it being long lasting and expensive when it came to soldiers and supplies. The talk mentioned many of the famous posters/postcards that came out in the world wars, but mentioned that the same patterns repeat across countries. One was heroism, which showed leaders of their countries standing tall while looking off into the distance, which would point towards moving forward or looking to the future. Historical reference was another common form. These posters focused on the countries leader inheriting and taking on the country as previous leaders had. Sometimes these historical reference propaganda pieces would also focus on specific battles and historical moments that were necessary to highlight. Another key genre of propaganda poster was of soldiers running off to the front lines. They were always charging forward and were focused on advancement, heroism, defending the country, and showing their patriotic duty. Many of these posters are insidiously guilt inducing, which is why they worked so well. Another key to some of these posters was the non individualized aspect, which allowed viewers to project themselves into the poster so that they could see themselves in action. Many times propaganda creators used cartoons to express themselves. Cartoons take out the human aspect of the topic, which can be a dark way to get people on board with killing, or other dark activities etc. Sometimes posters would silhouette the victims, which would add less personalization to who was being killed. Propaganda posters had so much influence, because of the artists and advertising agencies that were used at the time. These people were chosen, because of their previous knowledge of psychology and how people interact with ads. Once the propaganda was made it was pumped out using avenues that capitalism already had in place. Things such as newspapers, magazines, postcards, posters, stamps, as well as various photographs or images.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “The Art of Influence: A Propaganda Primer.” YouTube, 15 Jan. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2eLGtgWASk.

Graphic Design: A New History –  Stephen J. Eskilson

Stephen Eskilson is a professor of art history at Eastern Illinois University. He has coauthored several books, as well as writing The Age of Glass: A Cultural History of Glass in Modern and Contemporary Architecture. However, his most important achievement was writing Graphic Design: A New History, which is what this reference is based on. There is not much information out about Eskilson, but the book which I pulled information from is 460+ pages and is used as a design history textbook for art students. The third edition of this large textbook was recently released in 2019. This has been one of the most informative graphic design texts I have read to date.

WW1:

This book was incredibly detailed and informative for the subject of how propaganda is tied to design. Propaganda when it began around WW1 was used due to the need to influence citizens, political recruits, and financial backers. There was no journalist perspective during the war so the only information that was released was through propaganda.  Britain was one of the first to use propaganda to recruit their citizens. Emasculation, was one of the most common tactics used. This was directly aimed at psychology and can be incredibly guilt inducing for the viewer. The best example of this are the “Daddy, what did you do during the great war” and “women of Britain say go!” posters. These have a strong sense of emotional blackmail, which bully the viewer into joining the armed forces. After years of wartime and as citizens began to lose hope new propaganda was focused on the citizens to get them behind the war effort. This is when atrocity posters were created. These were targeted at creating a false vision of the enemy by creating violent and cruel images (Red Cross or iron cross 1917). Once the US caught on to Britains methods of propaganda they also followed suit. The US joined the war shortly after Lusitania was attacked in 1915. To help their propaganda effort America hired magazine illustrators, artists, advertisers, and graphic designers. The American style was based on conservative paintings and illustrations, which were similar to Britain. James M Flag and Howard Christy were some of the most famous producers of United States Propaganda. On the opposite side of the battle was the “central powers”. Many of their posters focused on the object poster style, which was popularized by Lucian Bernhardt. This style helped keep the distance between the viewers and the grim details and truths of war, due to its simplified design. Adopting the national style of German typography, many posters used blackletter. Besides Bernhardt, Julius Klinger was one of the other famous designers of the central powers. After the war Germany criticized the abstract style of the posters they created claiming that it did not communicate their message clearly to the general population, which they believed was a large reason they lost the war.

Russia: 

Propaganda was used in Russia mainly to spread political messages, which supported the communist revolution. The propaganda that was produced during the time (1917 – ) was known as agitation propaganda or agitprop. This was revolution based, and state sponsored. Posters and propaganda was posted on trains, boats, and other transportation services that would travel the countryside to inform viewers. Propaganda was extremely important to the communist uprising, and without it might not have been as successful. Many of these posters used heroism,  and symbolism such as colors and in subject ( red communist state, white (counter revolution). Around this time is also when the red star and hammer and scythe iconography was created. A key participant in the creation of this propaganda was the modern movement known as Constructivism.  Constructivism fit well with ideological goals of new government so were used in service of the people. This led to a movement known as productivity in which art is used to serve a political purpose.

Eskilson, Stephen. Graphic Design: A New History. Third, Yale University Press, 2019.