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propaganda &
war poster history
The Art of War
World War I and the
Bolshevik Revolution
World War I meant
a new role for the poster: propaganda. Indeed, the war ushered
in the biggest advertising campaign to date, critical to the wartime
communication needs of every combatant – from raising money, recruiting
soldiers and boosting volunteer efforts, to spurring production and
provoking outrage at enemy atrocities. America alone produced about
2,500 poster designs and approximately 20 million posters – nearly
1 for every 4 citizens – in little more than 2 years.
The lessons of brilliant
American advertising in WWI were not lost on the Bolsheviks, who turned
to poster art to help win their civil war against the Whites. Lenin
and his followers proved to be the pioneering masters of modern propaganda,
and the poster became a weapon which would be used throughout the century
in both hot and cold wars everywhere.
World War II and the End of Stone Lithography
The poster again played
a large communication role in World War II, but this time it shared
the spotlight with other media, mainly radio and print. By this time,
most posters were printed using the mass production technique of photo
offset, which resulted in the familiar dot pattern seen in newspapers
and magazines. The use of photography in posters, begun in the Soviet
Union in the twenties, now became as common as illustration. After the
war, the poster declined further in most countries as television became
an additional competitor.
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