Poster - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A poster is any piece of printed paper

Paper

Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

designed to be attached to a wall

Wall

A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Most commonly, a wall delineates a building and supports its superstructure, separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air...

or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual

Typography

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...

and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be used for many purposes. They are a frequent tool of advertisers

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

(particularly of events, musicians and films), propagandists

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

, protest

Protest

A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

ors and other groups trying to communicate a message. Posters are also used for reproductions of art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

work, particularly famous works, and are generally low-cost compared to original artwork. Another type of poster is the educational poster, which may be about a particular subject for educational purposes.

Many people also collect and sell posters, and some famous posters have become quite valuable. Collectors' posters and vintage posters are usually framed and matted. Posters may be any size.

Poster history

Introduction

According to French historian Max Gallo

Max Gallo

Max Gallo is a French writer, historian and politician.The son of Italian immigrants, Max Gallo's early career was in journalism. At the time he was a Communist . In 1974, he joined the Socialist Party. On April 26, 2007, the French Academy recorded his candidacy for its Seat 24, formerly held by...

, "for over two hundred years, posters have been displayed in public places all over the world. Visually striking, they have been designed to attract the attention of passers-by, making us aware of a political viewpoint, enticing us to attend specific events, or encouraging us to purchase a particular product or service." The modern poster, as we know it, however, dates back to 1870 when the printing

Printing

Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....

industry perfected colour lithography

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

and made mass production

Mass production

Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...

possible.

"In little more than a hundred years," writes poster expert John Barnicoat, "it has come to be recognized as a vital art form, attracting artists at every level, from painters like Toulouse-Lautrec and Mucha

Mucha

Mucha:* Alfons Maria Mucha , Czech artist* Bob Moha, born: Robert Mucha , a Milwaukee-based middleweight boxer* Jan Mucha * Ján Mucha , Slovak footballer...

to theatrical and commercial designers." They have ranged in styles from Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

, Symbolism

Symbolism (arts)

Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...

, Cubism

Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...

, and Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

to the more formal Bauhaus

Bauhaus

', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...

and the often incoherent hippie

Hippie

The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...

posters of the 1960s.

Mass production

Posters, in the form of placards and posted bills, have been used since earliest times, primarily for advertising and announcements. Purely textual posters have a long history: they advertised the plays of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

and made citizens aware of government proclamations for centuries. However, the great revolution in posters was the development of printing techniques that allowed for cheap mass production and printing, including notably the technique lithography

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

which was invented in 1796 by the German Alois Senefelder

Alois Senefelder

Johann Alois Senefelder was a German actor and playwright who invented the printing technique of lithography in 1796.-Actor, playwright:...

. The invention of lithography was soon followed by chromolithography

Chromolithography

Chromolithography is a method for making multi-color prints. This type of color printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in color. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrom is frequently used...

, which allowed for mass editions of posters illustrated in vibrant colours to be printed.

Developing art form

By the 1890s, the technique had spread throughout Europe. A number of noted artists created poster art in this period, foremost amongst them Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...

and Jules Chéret

Jules Chéret

Jules Chéret was a French painter and lithographer who became a master of Belle Époque poster art. He has been called the father of the modern poster. -Biography:...

. Chéret is considered to be the "father" of advertisement placards. He was a pencil artist and a scene decorator, who founded a small lithography office in Paris in 1866. He used striking characters, contrast and bright colours, and created over 1000 advertisements, primarily for exhibitions, theatres, and products. The industry soon attracted the service of many aspiring painters who needed a source of revenue to support themselves.

Chéret

Chérêt

Chérêt is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-References:*...

developed a new lithographic technique that suited better the needs of advertisers: he added a lot more colour which, in conjunction with innovative typography

Typography

, rendered the poster much more expressive. Not surprisingly, Chéret is said to have introduced sex in advertising or, at least, to have exploited the feminine image as an advertising ploy. In contrast with those previously painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, Chéret's laughing and provocative feminine figures meant a new conception of art as being of service to advertising.

Posters soon transformed the thoroughfares of Paris into the "art galleries of the street." Their commercial success was such that some of the artists were in great demand and theatre stars personally selected their own favorite artist to do the poster for an upcoming performance. The popularity of poster art was such that in 1884 a major exhibition was held in Paris.

Commercial uses

By the 1890s, poster art had widespread usage in other parts of Europe, advertising everything from bicycles to bullfights. By the end of the 19th century, during an era known as the Belle Époque

Belle Époque

The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...

, the standing of the poster as a serious artform was raised even further. Between 1895 and 1900, Jules Chéret created the Maîtres de l'Affiche

Maîtres de l'Affiche

Maîtres de l'Affiche refers to 256 color lithographic plates used to create a very significant art publication during the Belle Époque in Paris, France...

(Masters of the Poster) series that became not only a commercial success, but is now seen as an important historical publication. Alphonse Mucha and Eugène Grasset

Eugène Grasset

Eugène Samuel Grasset was a Swiss decorative artist who worked in Paris, France in a variety of creative design fields during the Belle Époque. He is considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design.-Biography:...

were also influential poster designers of this generation, known for their Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

style and stylized figures, particularly of women. Advertisement posters became a special type of graphic art in the modern age. Poster artists such as Théophile Steinlen

Théophile Steinlen

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, frequently referred to as just Steinlen , was a Swiss-born French Art Nouveau painter and printmaker....

, Albert Guillaume

Albert Guillaume

Albert Guillaume was a French painter and caricaturist.Born in Paris, France, Albert Guillaume became a leading caricaturist during the Belle Époque. While remembered for his poster art, Guillaume also did oil paintings such as "Soirée parisienne," a portrait of Parisian dinner society...

, Leonetto Cappiello

Leonetto Cappiello

Leonetto Cappiello was an Italian poster art designer who lived in Paris. He is now often called 'the father of modern advertising' because of his innovation in poster design...

, Henri Thiriet

Henri Thiriet

Henri Thiriet aka Henry Thiriet was a prolific French poster artist, book illustrator and painter. Although responsible for many memorable posters, almost nothing is known about Thiriet's life and career. He painted in a flamboyant Art Nouveau style, using its characteristic curves and swirls, and...

and others became important figures of their day, their art form transferred to magazines for advertising as well as for social and political commentary.

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, posters did not evolve to the same artistic level. American posters were primarily directed towards basic commercial needs to deliver a written message. However, the advent of the travelling circus brought colourful posters to tell citizens that a carnival was coming to town. But these too were very commercially utilitarian, of average quality, and few saw any real artistic creativity.

Many posters have had great artistic merit

Artistic merit

Artistic merit is a term that is used in relation to cultural products when referring to the judgment of their perceived quality or value as works of art....

and have become extremely collectible. These include the posters advertising World's Fair

World's Fair

World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...

s and Colonial

Colonialism

Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

Exhibitions.

Political uses

Other times of great turmoil also produced great posters. The 1960s w the rise of pop art

Pop art

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...

and protest movements throughout the West; both made great use of posters.
Perhaps the most acclaimed posters were those produced by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

students during the so-called "événements" of May 1968. During the 1968 Paris student riots and for years to come, Jim Fitzpatrick's

Jim Fitzpatrick (artist)

Jim Fitzpatrick is an Irish artist famous for Irish Celtic Art. Perhaps his most famous piece is his iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara created in 1968 and based on a photo by Alberto Korda....

stylized poster of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

(based on the photo Guerrillero Heroico
Guerrillero Heroico
Guerrillero Heroico is an iconic photo of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara wearing his black beret taken by Alberto Korda. It was taken on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba, at a memorial service for victims of the La Coubre explosion and by the end of the 1960s turned the charismatic and...

), also became a common youthful symbol of rebellion.

Poster printing

Many printing

Printing

techniques are used to produce posters. While most posters are mass-produced, posters may also be printed by hand or in limited editions. Most posters are printed on one side and left blank on the back, the better for affixing to a wall or other surface. Pin-up sized posters are usually printed on A3 Standard Silk paper in full colour. Upon purchase, most commercially available posters are often rolled up into a cylindrical tube to allow for damage-free transportation. Rolled-up posters can then be flattened under pressure for several hours to regain their original form.

It is possible to use poster creation software

Tiled printing

Tiled printing is a method that computer programs use to enable users to print images larger than a standard page, recently popularized by a program called The Rasterbator. A tiled printing program overlays a grid on the printed image in which each cell is the size of a printed page and then...

to print large posters on standard home or office printers.

Types of posters

Many posters, particularly early posters, were used for advertising products. Posters continue to be used for this purpose, with posters advertising film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s, music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

(both concerts and recorded albums), comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

s, and travel

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

destinations being particularly notable examples.

Propaganda and political posters

During the First

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

and Second World Wars, recruiting posters became extremely common, and many of them have persisted in the national consciousness, such as the "Lord Kitchener Wants You

Lord Kitchener Wants You

A 1914 recruitment poster depicting Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, above the words "WANTS YOU" was the most famous image used in the British Army recruitment campaign of World War I. It has inspired many imitations.-Origins:...

" posters from the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, the "Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...

wants you" posters from the United States, or the "Loose Lips Sink Ships

Loose lips sink ships

Loose lips sink ships is an American English idiom meaning "beware of unguarded talk".The phrase originated on propaganda posters during World War II...

" posters that warned of foreign spies. Posters during wartime were also used for propaganda purposes, persuasion, and motivation, such as the famous Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military...

posters which exhorted women workers during World War II that "We can do it!". The Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

also produced a plethora of propaganda posters

World War II posters from Soviet Union

Soviet posters during the Eastern Front were visual aids meant to elaborate a certain point, such as the attitudes of the Soviet Government to current events taking place at the front, prevention of defeatism and pessimism, and inspiration of the troops and the people, in an accessible form...

, some of which became iconic representations of the Great Patriotic War.
During the democratic revolutions of 1989

Revolutions of 1989

The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...

in Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe is a term describing former communist states in Europe, after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept...

the poster was very important weapon in the hand of the opposition. Brave printed and hand-made political posters appeared on the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

, on the statue of St. Wenseslas in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

and around the unmarked grave of Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...

in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

and the role of them was indispensable for the democratic change. A recent example of an influential political poster is Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey

Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His...

's Barack Obama "HOPE" poster

Barack Obama "Hope" poster

The Barack Obama "Hope" poster is an image of Barack Obama designed by artist Shepard Fairey, which was widely described as iconic and became synonymous with the 2008 Obama presidential campaign...

Movie posters

The film

Film

industry quickly discovered that vibrantly coloured posters were an easy way to sell their pictures. Today, posters are produced for most major films, and the collecting of movie posters has become a major hobby. The record price for a poster was set on November 15, 2005 when US$690,000 was paid for a poster of Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang

Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...

's 1927 film Metropolis
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...

from the Reel Poster Gallery in London. Other early horror and science fiction posters are known to bring tremendous prices as well, with an example from The Mummy

The Mummy (1932 film)

The Mummy is a 1932 horror film from Universal Studios directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff as a revived ancient Egyptian priest. The movie also features Zita Johann, David Manners and Edward Van Sloan...

realizing $452,000 in a 1997 Sotheby's

Sotheby's

Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...

auction, and posters from both The Black Cat

The Black Cat (1934 film)

The Black Cat is a 1934 horror film that became Universal Pictures' biggest box office hit of the year. It was the first of eight movies to pair actors Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Edgar G. Ulmer directed the film; Peter Ruric wrote the screenplay...

and Bride of Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 American horror film, the first sequel to Frankenstein...

selling for $334,600 in various Heritage

Heritage Auctions

Heritage Auction Galleries is the world's largest collectibles auctioneer and the third largest auction house, with over $700 million in annual sales and 600,000 online bidder-members...

Auctions. The 1931 Frankenstein

Frankenstein (1931 film)

Frankenstein is a 1931 Pre-Code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features...

6-sheet poster, of which only 1 copy is known to exist, is considered to be the most valuable film poster in the world..

Travel posters

Poster advertising or proposing a travel destination, or simply artistically articulating a place have been made. An example is the Beach Town Posters

Beach Town Posters

Beach Town Posters is an ongoing series of original Art Deco-style fine art posters designed and rendered by painter, muralist and graphic designer Aurelio Grisanty. The posters are created in the style of vintage travel posters, travel ads or postcards from the 1920s and 1930s...

series, a collection of Art Deco travel posters of American beach resorts that refer to the advertising style of the 1920s and 1930s.
A site dedicated to modern Travel Posters is SevenDays-in: photographers of the world are selected to sell on line their photos.

Railway posters

In the early days of steam railways in Britain, the various rail companies advertised their routes and services on simple printed sheets. By the 1850s, with increasing competition and improvements in printing technology, pictorial designs were being incorporated in their advertising posters. The use of graphic artists began to influence the design of the pictorial poster. In 1905, the London and North Western Railway

London and North Western Railway

The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...

(LNWR) commissioned Norman Wilkinson

Norman Wilkinson (artist)

Norman Wilkinson CBE aka Norman L. Wilkinson was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolors and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but he was also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur...

to produce artwork for a new landscape poster, advertising their rail/steam packet link to Ireland. In 1908, for the Great Northern Railway

Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)

The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....

(GNR), John Hassall

John Hassall (illustrator)

John Hassall was born in Walmer, Kent on 21 May 1868, died 8 March 1948 and was an English illustrator.Hassall educated in Worthing, at Newton Abbot College and at Neuenheim College, Heidelberg. After twice failing entry to The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he emigrated to Manitoba in Canada...

produced the famous image of the "Jolly Fisherman" with the "Skegness is so Bracing" slogan. The development of this commercial art form throughout the first half of the 20th century reflected the changes in British society, along with the changing styles of art, architecture and fashion as well as changing patterns of holidaymaking.

Event posters

Posters advertising events have become common. Any sort of public event, from a rally to a play, may be advertised with posters; a few types of events have become notable for their poster advertisements.

Boxing posters

Boxing Posters were used in and around the actual venue to advertise the forthcoming fight, date, ticket prices, and usually consisted of pictures of each boxer. Boxing Posters vary in size and vibrancy, but are not usually smaller than 18x22 inches. In the early days few boxing posters survived the actual event and thus they are indeed very collectible and scarce.

Concert posters

Many concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

s, particularly rock concert

Rock concert

The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by bands playing at least one electric guitar,...

s, have custom-designed posters that are used for advertisement of the event. These often become collectors items as well.

Band/music posters

Posters that showcase a person's favorite artist or music group are popular in teenagers' bedrooms, as well as in college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

dorm rooms and apartment

Apartment

An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

s. Many posters have pictures of popular rock band

Rock Band

Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

s and artists.

Blacklight poster

Blacklight posters are designed to have a special effect under a blacklight (ultraviolet light).

Pin-up posters

Pinup posters , "pinups," or cheesecake posters are pictures of attractive women designed to be displayed, first coming to popularity in the 1920s. The popularity of sexy pin-up girl

Pin-up girl

A pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall...

posters has been erratic in recent decades. Pin-ups such as Betty Grable

Betty Grable

Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...

and Jane Russell

Jane Russell

Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s....

were highly popular with soldiers during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

but much less so during the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. The late 1970s and into the beginning of the 1980s were boom years for large posters of television actresses, especially Farrah Fawcett

Farrah Fawcett

Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...

and Cheryl Tiegs

Cheryl Tiegs

Cheryl Rae Tiegs is an American model and actress.- Early years :Tiegs was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota but raised in Alhambra, California, and she graduated from Alhambra High School in 1965. She also attended the California State University, Los Angeles and became a little sister to the Sigma...

Affirmation posters

This refers to decorative posters that are meant to be motivational and inspirational. One popular series has a black background, a scene from nature, and a word such as "Leadership" or "Opportunity." Another version (usually framed

Picture frame

A picture frame is a decorative edging for a picture, such as a painting or photograph, intended to enhance it, make it easier to display, or protect it.-Construction:...

and matted) uses a two-image hologram which changes as the viewer walks past.

Fanposter

The goal of creating a Fanposter is to show all or a large portion of devoted fans on one poster which will be presented and can be seen in a place where many other fans or members have access (hallway of a club house, fanzine

Fanzine

A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...

, fan webpage, public place).

Book posters

Book text on poster is a type of poster design where the entire text of a book (usually a novel) is printed in legible form. This unique and modern design style is commonly characterized by a wall of text with a depiction of an important element of the book by use of negative space

Negative space

Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real"...

, which in this case is also known as white space

White space

White space may refer to:* White space , portions of a page left unmarked** Space , the space between two words of text* Whitespace character, a computer character for the space between words...

Comic book posters

The resurgence of comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

popularity in the 1960s led to the mass production of comic book posters in the 1970s and onward. These posters typically feature popular characters in a variety of action poses. The fact that comic books are a niche market means that a given poster usually has a smaller printing run than other genres of poster. Therefore, older posters may be quite sought after by collectors. Promotional posters are usually distributed folded, whereas retail posters intended for home decoration are rolled.

Educational posters

Research posters and "poster sessions"

Posters are used in academia to promote and explain research work. They are typically shown during conferences, either as a complement to a talk or scientific paper, or as a publication. They are of lesser importance than actual articles, but they can be a good introduction to a new piece of research before the paper is published. Poster presentations are often not peer-reviewed, but can instead be submitted, meaning that as many as can fit will be accepted.

Classroom posters

Posters are a standard feature of classrooms worldwide. A typical school in North America will display a variety, including: advertising tie-ins (eg. an historical movie relevant to a current topic of study); alphabet and grammar; numeracy and scientific tables; safety and other instructions; artwork and displays by the students(shashwat).

Vintage poster restoration/conservation

Poster restoration and conservation.
The backing of posters with fabric dates back to 19th century France, where posters were occasionally glued to linen for reinforcement. This provided some protection, but with the passage of time the paper continued to become brittle and was frequently torn by stress. Modern backing techniques have eliminated this problem by using an acid free paper between the poster and the fabric. The adhesive used is wheat paste treated to inhibit mold growth.

Why fabric-back a poster? The principal reason is to provide support for the paper.
It also enables the conservator to flatten the folds and to more easily make repairs. Fabric backing also eliminates the waviness that can occur when the poster is framed.

Reversibility is a concept that is important in all conservation work, because today's curators and collectors are only temporary custodians of a cultural object

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...

(the poster) that will have continuing and timeless interest for future collectors. We strive to make certain that materials and techniques that are applied to the poster are not harmful over time and are reversible to bring it back to the state in which we found it.

Restoration can dramatically improve the appearance of a poster. Damage caused by clear adhesive tape, residual stains, water marks and dirt can be easily repaired; combining this with the replacement of lost paper can bring the poster back to virtually its original state.

Notable poster artists

Albert Guillaume
Albert Guillaume
Albert Guillaume was a French painter and caricaturist.Born in Paris, France, Albert Guillaume became a leading caricaturist during the Belle Époque. While remembered for his poster art, Guillaume also did oil paintings such as "Soirée parisienne," a portrait of Parisian dinner society...

(1873–1942)
Alfons Mucha
Alfons Mucha
Alfons Maria Mucha , known in English as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs.-Early years:...

(1860–1939)
Achille Mauzan
Achille Mauzan
Achille Lucien Mauzan was born on the French Riviera, but moved to Italy in 1905, known as a decorative illustrator designing during the Art Deco movement, though he also painted and sculpted....

(1883–1952)
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre was a Ukrainian-French painter, commercial poster artist, and typeface designer.-Early Life and Career:...

(1901–1968)
Angelo Cesselon
Angelo Cesselon
Angelo Cesselon was an Italian poster painter.- Biography :Cesselon began painting at a young age, following the Venetian traditions of painting from the late 19th Century, albeit with some important modifications...

(1922–1992)
David Lance Goines
David Goines
David Lance Goines is an American artist, calligrapher, typographer, printing entrepreneur, and author. He was born in Grants Pass, Oregon, the oldest of eight children. His father was a civil engineer and his mother a calligrapher and artist.During the 1960s, Goines enrolled at the University of...

(1945–present)
Eugène Grasset
Eugène Grasset
Eugène Samuel Grasset was a Swiss decorative artist who worked in Paris, France in a variety of creative design fields during the Belle Époque. He is considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design.-Biography:...

(1845–1917)
Firmin Bouisset
Firmin Bouisset
Etienne Maurice Firmin Bouisset was a French painter, poster artist and printmaker. He was born to a working class family in the town of Moissac in the Tarn-et-Garonne département in southwestern France...

(1859–1925)
Gino Boccasile
Gino Boccasile
Gino Boccasile was an Italian illustrator.Born in Bari, Boccasile was the son of a perfumer. Early in his youth he lost his left eye, when a drop of quicklime fell into it while he drank from a fountain...

(1901–1952)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...

(1864–1901)
Jean Carlu
Jean Carlu
Jean Carlu was a French graphic designer, specialised in posters. He was member of a family of architects; his brother Jacques Carlu for example designed the Palais de Chaillot in Paris...

(1900–1997)
Jean Michel Folon (1934–2005)

John Gilroy (1898–1985)
Jules Chéret
Jules Chéret
Jules Chéret was a French painter and lithographer who became a master of Belle Époque poster art. He has been called the father of the modern poster. -Biography:...

(1836–1932)
Leonetto Cappiello
Leonetto Cappiello
Leonetto Cappiello was an Italian poster art designer who lived in Paris. He is now often called 'the father of modern advertising' because of his innovation in poster design...

(1875–1942)
Paul Colin
Paul Colin
Paul Colin was one of France’s greatest poster artists.Made famous in 1925 by his poster for the Revue Nègre, which helped to launch the career of Joséphine Baker , he worked for over forty years in the theatre, creating not only posters but also numerous sets and costumes.Very Art déco at...

(1892–1985)
Privat Livemont (1861–1936)
Raymond Savignac
Raymond Savignac
Raymond Savignac, often just abbreviated to "Savignac", was a French graphic artist famous for his commercial posters. He was born on November 6, 1907 in Paris, and died on October 31, 2002 in Trouville-sur-Mer , aged 94...

(1907–2002)
Róbert Berény
Róbert Berény
Róbert Berény was a Hungarian painter, one of the avant-garde group known as The Eight who introduced cubism and expressionism to Hungarian art.-Early life and education:...

(1887–1954)
Sándor Bortnyik
Sándor Bortnyik
Sándor Bortnyik was a Hungarian painter and graphic designer. His work was greatly influenced by Cubism, Expressionism and Constructivism. He moved to Weimar in 1922 and was connected to the Bauhaus...

(1893–1976)
István Irsai (1896–1968)
Tadeusz Gronowski
Tadeusz Gronowski
Tadeusz Lucjan Gronowski was a Polish graphic artist, architect who worked as an interior designer, painter, and a book illustrator.He is considered to be one of the creators of the Polish modern poster...

(1894–1990) (:pl:Tadeusz Gronowski)
Théophile Steinlen
Théophile Steinlen
Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, frequently referred to as just Steinlen , was a Swiss-born French Art Nouveau painter and printmaker....

(1859–1923)
Tom Eckersley
Tom Eckersley
Tom Eckersley was an English poster artist and teacher of design.-Early career:Tom Eckersley was born on 30 September 1914 in Lancashire. His artistic training began in 1930 when he enrolled at Salford Art School, where his abilities were soon recognised and he was awarded the Heywood Medal for...

(1914–1995)
Frank Newbould
Frank Newbould
Frank Newbould was an English poster artist, born in Bradford.Educated at Bradford College of Art and Camberwell School of Art, he worked mostly in London from the interwar period specialising in travel posters...

(1887–1951)

Contemporary poster artists

André François
André François
André François , born André Farkas, was a Hungarian-born French cartoonist.He was born to a Hungarian Jewish family in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary , He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest . He moved to Paris in 1934 and entered to the atelier of the famous poster artist Adolphe Cassandre...
Beautiful Angle
Beautiful Angle
Beautiful Angle is a guerrilla arts poster project in Tacoma, Washington.. Approximately once per month, graphic designer Lance Kagey and writer Tom Llewellyn create hand-crafted, letterpress posters and then distribute them around the city's downtown core via wheat paste and staples..- History :In...
David Tartakover
David Tartakover
David Tartakover is an Israeli graphic designer, political activist, artist and design educator.He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and is a graduate of the London College of Printing...
Dóra Keresztes
Dóra Keresztes
Dóra Keresztes Hungarian painter, printmaker, illustrator, graphic designer and animated film director.-Biography:...
Echo Chernik
Echo Chernik
Echo Chernik is an American Art Nouveau artist. Her motif is an art nouveau/jugendstil influenced style, with elaborate decorative borders, women with flowing and entwining hair, sometimes accompanied by elaborate typography.-Early life:Chernik was born in Ellington, Connecticut...
István Orosz
István Orosz
István Orosz Hungarian painter, printmaker, graphic designer and animated film director, is known for his mathematically inspired works, impossible objects, optical illusions, double-meaning images and anamorphoses. The geometric art of István Orosz, with forced perspectives and optical...
Mehdi Saeedi
Mehdi Saeedi
Mehdi Saeedi, , Iran. He studied graphic design in the Art Academy and afterwards majored in Art and Design at England’s Cambridge University....
Jan Sawka
Jan Sawka
-Biography:In 1946, Sawka was born to an architect father and linguist mother, Jan and Maria Sawka, in the Silesian city of Zabrze. His childhood was overshadowed by his father’s Stalin-era political imprisonment. Sawka completed two Masters degrees; in painting and print-making from the Wroclaw...
Jim Fitzpatrick
Jim Fitzpatrick (artist)
Jim Fitzpatrick is an Irish artist famous for Irish Celtic Art. Perhaps his most famous piece is his iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara created in 1968 and based on a photo by Alberto Korda....
Michael Byrne
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...
Jean Michel Folon
Paul Ford
Rafal Olbinski
Rafal Olbinski
Rafal Olbinski immigrated to the United States in 1981, where he soon established himself as a prominent painter, illustrator and designer. For his artistic achievements, he has received more than 150 awards including Gold and Silver Medals from the Art Directors Club of New York, Gold and Silver...
Reza Abedini
Reza Abedini
Reza Abedini, is a world renowned Iranian designer and a professor of graphic design and visual culture at Tehran University.Abedini is one of the most famous graphics designer in Iran because of his modern Persian typography...

Mark Young
Seymour Chwast
Seymour Chwast
Seymour Chwast an American graphic designer, illustrator, and type designer.Chwast was born in Bronx, New York, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union in 1951. With Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, and Reynold Ruffins, he founded Push Pin Studios in 1954...
Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His...
Shigeo Fukuda
Shigeo Fukuda
was a sculptor, graphic artist and poster designer who created optical illusions. His art pieces usually portray deception, such as Lunch With a Helmet On, a sculpture created entirely from forks, knives, and spoons, that casts a detailed shadow of a motorcycle....
Stanley Mouse
Stanley Mouse
Stanley George Miller , better known as Mouse and Stanley Mouse, is an American artist, notable for his 1960s psychedelic rock concert poster designs and Grateful Dead album cover art.-Early life:...
Warren Dayton
Warren Dayton
Warren Dayton is an American illustrator, artist and graphic designer best known for his posters from psychedelic art era, a pioneer of the use of T-shirts as an art medium, creator of corporate branding & logos such as Thomas Kinkade’s Lightpost Publishing, and internationally award-winning book,...
Wang Xu
Wieslaw Rosocha
Wieslaw Rosocha
Wiesław Rosocha is a Polish illustrator and graphic designer.He attended Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts from 1969 - 1974...
Wiktor Sadowski
Wiktor Sadowski
Wiktor Sadowski is a Polish artist working in poster, illustration and painting. He was born in Olendry, Poland in 1956. He graduated in 1981 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in Tomaszewski's studio.-Major awards:...
Jefferson Wood
Jefferson Wood
Jefferson Wood is a professional and award winning illustrator and graphic designer.-Personal life:Jefferson Wood is married and has three children. Wood lives in the Northwestern United States area.-Education:...
Syd Brak
Syd Brak
Syd Brak is an illustrator.In the mid 1970s, Syd was awarded the 'gold award' for design and illustration in Johannesburg South Africa by Bill Bernbach. In the late 1970s, Syd moved to London. He started working as a freelance airbrush artist...
Favianna Rodrigues
David Plunkert
David Plunkert
David Plunkert is an award winning illustrator and graphic designer based in Baltimore, MD. Plunkert graduated from Shepherd University in 1987. David is best known for his editorial illustrations and theater posters. His illustrations are highly conceptual, in two styles, Dada influenced collage...
Pola Brändle
Pola Brändle
Pola Brändle in Aachen,Germany) is a German collage/decollage artist and photographer who now lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Santanyí, Mallorca.- Life :...

Gallery see also

A 1990 Hungarian political poster by Fidesz
Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union
The Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union is a major conservative party in Hungary. At the 2010 election in Hungary, Fidesz-KDNP won a two-thirds majority of seats by gaining 52% of the votes, with Fidesz winning 227 seats and KDNP winning 36...

(Alliance of Young Democrats): Choose!
The Tennis Girl
Tennis Girl
The Tennis Girl is a popular poster. It shows a young woman from behind walking towards the net of a tennis court with a tennis racquet in her right hand and her left hand reaching behind lifting her short tennis dress, showing she is not wearing any underwear.The photograph was taken by Martin...

poster was an iconic image from the late 1970s'
Death to the Brutes
Death to the Brutes
Death To The Brutes is the title of a historical anarchist poster that was originally printed in France in August 1943, during World War II . The poster was signed "International Revolutionary Syndicalist Federation ". 150 copies of the poster were produced...

, an anti-war anarchist poster printed in France during the Second World War.

External links

General

Poster Archive of the MAK-Austrian Museum of applied arts / contemporary art
Posters, American Style (exhibition and educational site from the Smithsonian American Art Museum)
Vintage Hungarian and international posters
Rene Wanner's Poster Page
The International Poster Collection (exhibition galleries from the Colorado State Libraries and the Department of Art)
Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) Over 100,000 images available free for use in education, including thousands of posters from the UK's Imperial War Museum and the Design Council collections.
Electronic museum of russian posters Collection of Advertising, Political, Military, Social posters from 1880 to current time
Poster Frames Retail Poster Frames & Light Boxes that Display Classic Movie Posters
Jean Michel Folon (1934 - 2005) posters website
Swiss Posters Collection

Political

1800 military posters from 20 countries of WW1, WW2, Civil wars in Russia and Spain and many others
Les Purs Canayens: Canadian Posters of the First World War - Canadian War Museum
Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War II
The Chairman Smiles: Posters from the former Soviet Union, Cuba and China
University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections - War Posters A selection of World War I and II posters; topics include propaganda on purchasing war bonds, the importance of national security and posters from allied and axis powers.
WWI and WWII Poster Collection hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries' Digital Collections. Search and browse through almost 500 posters.
Design as Social Agent at the ICA: The Obama Effect by Kerry Skemp

Academic

Creating Effective Poster Presentations (for research posters)
Effective Poster Design: A Step by Step Guide from the University of Guelph
University of Guelph
The University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the Macdonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College...

Railway

Seaside Railway Posters

Other

Collection of Puerto Rican art posters
Far and Wide: The Golden Age of Travel Posters (from the Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library system serves the residents of Los Angeles, California, United States. With over 6 million volumes, LAPL is one of the largest publicly funded library systems in the world. The system is overseen by a Board of Library Commissioners with five members appointed by the...

)
Polish Film Posters Database
Polish Poster at Polish Poster Gallery
The European Library Portal giving access to thousand of digitised posters.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Poster history

Introduction

Mass production

Developing art form

Commercial uses

Political uses

Poster printing

Types of posters

Propaganda and political posters

Movie posters

Travel posters

Railway posters

Event posters

Boxing posters

Concert posters

Band/music posters

Blacklight poster

Pin-up posters

Affirmation posters

Fanposter

Book posters

Comic book posters

Educational posters

Research posters and "poster sessions"

Classroom posters

Vintage poster restoration/conservation

Notable poster artists

Contemporary poster artists

Gallery see also

See also

Further reading

External links