-ism

Microlandscapism

 

The perception on our earth landscapes from a creator or master designer (God)

Research on movement and -ism’s

Movement within graphics is regarded as a change or shift in thinking or presentation.

Some notable historical isms in graphic design are; Minimalism, futurism, Dadaism, romanticism, anarchism and surrealism. In may also reflect a change of thinking within society such as Feminism.

These have particular styles associated with them such as type, image and narrative. Movement appeal to a particular target group and can become a populist movement.

EXAMPLE OF minimalism

noun: minimalism

• a movement in sculpture and painting which arose in the 1950s, characterized by the use of simple, massive forms.

• an avant-garde movement in music characterized by the repetition of very short phrases which change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect

• deliberate lack of decoration or “finishing touches” in style or design.

“his living room was a testament to minimalism”

(dictionary.com)

The development of futurism in design

Futurism was not only an art movement but also a social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20^th Century and influenced graphic design.  Marinetti’s onomatopoeic graphic poem “Zang Tumb Tumb” published in 1920 is an iconic forerunner of the futurism movement as it used vertical and horizontal elements in the expressive typography.  The poem relating to the Battle of Tripoli uses the poetic drumbeat to imply the repetition of war.  The use of a variety of columns and deliberately not setting out in traditional lines of text, but uses fragmented lines of text and varieties of typeface to move into the futurist  format of graphic design. The importance of this style was because it moved away from the historic form of printing press typeset in horizontal rows but required an artistic format when setting out the letter blocks.

In February 1910, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini signed the Manifesto of the Futurist Painters who railed against the concept of value everything that was old, statues, paintings, bric-a-brac and that hosted in museums. They considered the habitual contempt for everything which is young, new and burning with life to be unjust and even criminal.

This influenced the emerging European culture of Avant-garde in both art and graphic design.

Avant-garde (French for advanced guard, vanguard or forerunners)

The Avant-garde movement relate to people or works that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.   Pablo Picasso’s cubist movement impacted on the development of other art and design movements.

In the sense of the art or graphic design movement this spawned Dadaism based in Switzerland and utilised aspects of expressionalism, futurism and cubism.  Famous art exponents were surrealists Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp.  Dali was famous for his surrealist dripping clocks.

Modernist self-publicist magazines such as those in the illustration helped to create a movement throughout Europe where a changing typography became a new universal visual language.  Key individuals involved in the modernist movement—El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, László Moholy-Nagy, Hans Richter, Theo van Doesburg, Lajos Kassák and Karel Teige used the magazines as a platform that extended their reach to art, architecture, films and advertising.

There was also a strong Czech and Russian avant-garde movement during the 1920’s which reflected the sociological and political upheaval in both nations.   According to Richard Hollis, The publication, ‘USSR in Construction,’ became the most “highly developed and consistent achievement of Soviet graphic design.” Use of photo montage, central images and specific fonts on a variety of media from film, poster or banners in graphic design were key elements in Soviet propaganda.

Bauhaus Movement

Leading this modernist movement in central Europe was the most influential Bauhaus School of Art and Design, so much so that it created its own Bauhaus movement.

Based in Weimar Germany, and established by Walter Gropius in 1919, its goal was uniting art and industrial design, and it was this which became its most original and important achievement. The school is also renowned for its artists Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee and Johannes Itten, architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and designer Marcel Breuer.

Included in the revolutionary idea was the typeface and font used that not only followed the new layout from the Italian futurist movement but designed new fonts.  The new fonts were a far cry from the traditional calligraphic lettering used in historic Germanic writing whose archaic form did not work well with the modern machine age.

 

Idea generating

Using the creative thinking technique of mind mapping, I separated my thoughts into three sections; my likes, dislikes and beliefs.  This helped me categorize my thoughts and gave structure to my ideas.

my likes included:

• singing
• playing the guitar
• drawing
• illustrations
• exercising
• heading to church
• viewing landscapes

my dislikes included:

• losing
• mental health issues
• using multiple fonts in a poor format
• both atheists and religious people who are too upfront about it

my beliefs

• belief in a creator
• belief in a designer of the universe
• Lionel Messi is the greatest footballer of all time
• minimalism is the best form of ism
• most art in a gallery is terrible

After contemplating on what route I should take, I noticed a recurring topic of religion / a creator within each category.  However, as I really enjoy landscapes, I saw this as an opportunity to combine both my passion of landscapes with my religious belief.

 

Creative thinking by using mindmaps and lists

Idea Refinement

Creationism x microlandscapism

A form of Creationism is to give credit to an intelligent design

According to Wikipedia Creationism is the religious belief that the universe and life originated “from specific acts of divine creation”, as opposed to the scientific conclusion that they came about through natural processes.

As designers, graphic or otherwise, we like to give credit to the designer of their creation.  Each item we look at or use we see that perhaps a lot of thought and consideration has gone into the design and construction.  We understand that there is an intelligence behind that product or outcome.  Therefore, creationism is a movement to give credit to the creator.  We recognise that even the planet so delicately balanced, perfectly structured to the minute detail and wonderfully made, points to the argument that there is a creative process and creator behind it all rather than a generation of a perfectly balanced planet purely by random chance.

Put another way, the intelligent designer or as some would refer to as “God,” is a very creative artist and engineer.   My argument is not for or against the methodology or science of how it was done, but simply that it was done.  It is not even an argument between evolution and Biblical creationism but simply a suggestion that with an implication of a  creator and designer, the concept of size becomes relative.

How does this relate to an artistic or design movement?

The connection with the landscapes is that we often see landscapes as huge, magnificent and stupendous.  We marvel at the rugged nature of mountains, the calm of a meadow or lake and the   lush vegetation of the forest.    The contradictions and juxtaposition of the contrasting landscapes serves to prove rather than disprove its majesty.

And yet for us humans, even with peripheral vision, often the grand landscape is the largest thing our naked eyes can comprehend.  And yet if there was a creator as the term creationism implies, we could hypothesise that to the creator, the landscapes of earth are micro in his eyes.

Micro-landscapism is trying to comprehend this perception much like the Google Earth is able to zoom in and out of a specific location.  With the ability of modern viewers using technology available on a home laptop or even mobile phone, it is not uncommon for viewers to consider this viewpoint.  And therefore this form of art is now very accessible and plausible for the modern viewer.  It also becomes interactive for the viewer who has to physically zoom in and out to view what could be on display but is at first glance an unknown quantity or visual offering.

A history of isms or artistic movements

further creative thinking of refining my ideas

Concepts of landscape designs

Concept development

Concept Refinement

Alternative ideas for landscapes

 

Storyboard first draft

My storyboard shows 9 scenes of how I’m wanting to portray my Microlandscapism movement.  It depicts 3 landscape scenes being sketched and drawn out as a time-lapse process showing detail, errors and final touches.

It would then transition to a scene of the world being sketched and drawn to give a sense of scale to the landscapes in comparison to the size of planet earth.

This idea of scale is showcased through the next two scenes, as my intent would be to transition to the solar system and to show the magnitude of the other planets compared to earth.  This idea would continue and show our galaxy to give a real sense of how micro we as a planet are.

I intend to show a hand sketching out one of the landscapes to imply the designer in this creation and to give the viewer a sense of art and design behind our stupendous yet beautiful landscapes.

furthermore, I would like to end the animation with simple text asking “have you considered who the master designer of the universe is?”.  I’d ask this in order to make the viewer question their belief, and to imply a religious context in a nonreligious form.

 

Story board second draft

My second draft is a newer version of the first storyboard, however, I have cut down scenes in order for it to flow and to give a more clear understanding of the message I’m trying to get across to the viewer.

Furthermore, it begins with a timelapse drawing of a landscape design, indicating a concept of design to the animation and gives it life.  This will follow with a zoom out transition of the earth to set an idea of scale.  The zoom out effect is important in order the give a comparison of size to the viewer.

This zoom transition continues for the next two frames where the viewer will see the scale of Earth compared to our solar system, and thus our solar system in correlation with the universe.

The importance of this transition is to connote the term “micro” in relation to the original landscape scene.  I want the viewer to understand that we are so nano compared to the sheer size of our universe.  However, with the level of precision and detail our universe has, surely there is a master designer behind it all…

Creating my animation

In order to create my animation I had to become familiar with Adobe After Effects, a programme I have not used before.  I used tutorials from Youtube to give me a rough guide of what I was supposed to be doing and to gain an understanding with how After Effects works.

I created a new composition with a 1920 x 1080 resolution at 30 frames per second.  My first stage was to create a time-lapse animation of my landscape being drawn.  I wanted the clip to have a theme throughout, and as it was intended to be drawn, I used a paper texture as the background layer to give it a real sense of pencil and paper.

Once I had added this paper texture, I imported my landscape design and placed it above the paper background layer.  After adjusting the scale of the landscape to fit appropriately, I applied the vegas effect from the effects & presets panel and adjusted its settings so that it was correct.  It was crucial that I changed the blend mode to transparent and the colour to a light grey.  Once adjusted, I opened the image contours and changed the channel to Alpha so that the Landscape was now visible.

It was now time to animate, so to begin, I made sure I was at the first frame and applied a keyframe.  In addition, I added a second keyframe at around the four second mark and changed the length value to one.  However, I needed to add a new effect, so I opened Turbulent Displace effect and applied it to the landscape layer at the four second mark.

Moreover, I applied Easy Ease to both layers and opened the graph editor to adjust the end Keyframe.

I created a pencil stroke PNG on my iPad and placed it above both layers and changed the track matte to Alpha matte so that the pencil stroke would appear inside the landscapes lines.  After adjusting some more settings and making duplicate copies of the landscape layer and paper texture layer, I highlighted all layers and used the cube icon to add 3D properties to all, except one of the paper texture copies.  It was time for me to use the camera tool which allowed me to have a 3D rotation on my animation.  I positioned the camera layer on top of everything else and added a keyframe at around 6 seconds for where it would stop its rotation.

First layer of the paper texture

second layer of the landscape

Evidence of the camera’s rotation and pencil stroke being used

My next composition was way less complicated, however, I needed assistance from youtube in order for me to complete it.  The purpose of this composition was to have the zoom out transition that I so desperately needed.

I begun by placing the image of my landscape and the image of the world as two separate layers.  I trimmed the image of the landscape to the initial  second of the composition.  With the image selected I added a scale keyframe at that one second mark and changed its scale to 50%.  By pressing CMD and the left arrow key four times, I was able to jump backwards four frames and set the scale value to 100%.  This gives an animation of the image scaling down by 50%.

The next step was to select the second image of the world and add a scale keyframe of 200% at the midpoint between the keyframes of the previous image.  I then jumped four frames forwards, by pressing CMD and the right arrow key four times, and set a scale keyframe of 100%.  In order to make the animation seem more fluid, I applied the Repetile effect to the first image of the landscape and expanded it so it fit the entire frame.  By selecting tiling, choosing unfold, and adding motion blur to both images the quality of the animation exceeded my expectations.

Furthermore, I applied this same effect to both the solar system image and the universe image which gave it the appearance of zooming out.

My next steps were to create a new composition pure for text.  I wrote the question “Have you considered the master designer of this universe” on a dark grey background to give contrast to the white of the paper texture.  I applied a typewriter effect to the text, and gave it a keyframe to where it would drop off, leaving a brief, empty, dark grey background.  This followed by the finishing text “microlandscapism” in order to end on the name of the movement.

I inserted all the compositions together into a new composition, which had a 1920 x 1080 resolution and 50 frames per second.  Once all the compositions were in the right order, I  inserted audio of my Pastor, Rev Simon Jennings, narrating to the clip.  In addition, I added the audio of a chord progression played on a keyboard onto the clip.  I created this on GarageBand and in my opinion, brings it all together.  It is soft, yet powerful…

screenshot of evidence of landscape looking like a drawing

screenshot evidence of motion blur used to create zoom out transition effect

screenshot of the solar system during the animation

screenshot of the universe during the animation

screenshot evidence of the quote ‘have you considered the master designer of this universe’ been written with a typewritter effect

screenshot evidence of the quote ‘have you considered the master designer of this universe’ finished during the animation

screenshot evidence of the title ‘microlandscapsm’ at the end of the animation

 

 

 

Type and Image

Research on the Propaganda of WW1 Posters

The propaganda used by governments during World War 1 featured poster campaigns.  Each campaign had different posters and layouts based on their own national preferences.  For example, in Britain, a poster that’s aim would be to recruit young adults to volunteer and fight would have an important figure as its central image supported by bold, short sentenced text.  It would be a powerful poster, demanding Britons to help join or support the war.  Methods included creating a sense of national duty or guilt, as the posters would intend to make you feel guilty for not being part of the war and hopefully get you to sign up.

Furthermore, posters would have a particular three colour pallet, depending on what nation.  The most common would be red, black (grey) and yellow.  The colours used would grab the viewer’s attention due to being primary colours which are hard in tone and easily recognised.  Germanic posters seemed to include more text than English or American.

The posters would typically include a large image, which would either be an illustration of some sort or an icon, large text for the Header at the top of the page and smaller text with perhaps a message further down the poster.  Symbolic icons such as animals, army symbols, flag imagery, and concepts of good and evil were used alongside images of war such as guns, tanks, planes and soldiers in combat.  Enemy countries or soldiers would be portrayed as an evil beast whilst their own national soldiers were heroic fighting men suffering in a war situation and needing support in the form of weaponry.

The posters also targeted their nationals to invest money in the country’s war by buying war bonds, Liberty Bonds, Loans, War Saving Certificates or German Kriegsanleihe. The target group may have been different because one w­­ould have been fighting aged men to enlist whilst the other group of civilians were asked to invest money or labour as their contribution to the war.

The posters appealed to people’s sense of national pride, duty, heroism, fighting an unjust or evil government or they appealed to a sense of guilt to those not involved.

After the war, the photograph became more widely used as the medium of image but the use of text still remained short, to the point and often involved persuasive language or demanding instructions.

The Posters

Arguably the most iconic and most frequently copied British Propaganda Poster of WW1 is the famous Lord Kitchener “Wants You” poster.  So successful, it was imitated by the Uncle Sam poster adopted by the USA and a variety of other similar style recruitment type posters.

Appearing in 1914 on the cover of a weekly magazine “London Opinion” this image soon became the recruitment poster for the British Army.    The central image features a lifelike portrait of Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, wearing the cap of a Field Marshall pointing at the viewer. Because of his position, the poster carries authority of a high ranking Government official who, as a Lord, is also a member of the Gentry.   The Gentry were the ruling class of Britain which added further status to the central figure. His face is very serious, resolute and stern, challenging the viewer to “Join your country’s army!” Although wearing a high collar, fashionable with military uniforms of the day, he does not have a body, the focus being on his arm and finger insistently pointing directly at the viewer.  His eyes appear to follow the viewer in the style of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.  The pointed finger is almost accusing and also appears to follow the viewer.  The poster does not state his name but makes the assumption that the public of the time would have recognised him as he has a very distinctive moustache. He was an Admiral and one of the most decorated military figures of the day.  The words, “WANTS YOU,” are in different sizes but the subject pronoun “YOU.” is in very large bold Sans Serif type with a border.

Below those words is the imperative phrase “JOIN YOUR COUNTRY’S ARMY!”   It instructs the reader and ends with an exclamation mark indicating urgency or action.  The words are in red and seem to be crammed together more than the rest of the phrases on the poster.  The first letter of each word is in bold and much thicker than the other letters in each word. The bold capitals at the start of each word could be intended to draw the reader’s attention to the demand.  This stops the words from looking thin and weak but intends to give strength to the imperative phrase.  It is really clever how they do that (Alfred Leete) because if all the letters of the phrase was all in bold, the entire phrase would be too thick, busy and difficult to cram into the page.  If all the letters were thin they would be too close together and difficult to read.

Under this phrase is another imperative and patriotic catch cry, “GOD SAVE THE KING.”  It does not have an exclamation point but is likely to be used in the poster as it connotes patriotism, service and loyalty to the Throne.  The implication is that a loyal subject would serve the reigning monarch, in this case King George V.  All members of the Armed Services would sign and declare an oath of allegiance to the monarch.  The phrase does not share a line with any other phrase and seems to add the King’s authority to the demand of the poster to join the Army.  It is spaced wider than the previous phrase. It appears to be a bold Sans Serif font in capitals and it is centred.  The start of the G for God lines up with the R in the word BRITONS, and the end G for King lines up with the letter N above in BRITONS.

The poster central image is of Lord Kitchener in a grey scale print, whilst the font colour scheme is red and grey.  The red and grey as colours work together being darker than the sand coloured background.   The background could be white or it may have faded to a sepia tone due to it being exposed for long periods of time.  Red is a colour that demands attention and signifies danger and urgency, whilst also symbolising blood and death.  The type used are a mixture of bold, tall, serif and san serif.

It features a variety of fonts and all words are in capitals, which are designed to not only demand the reader’s attention but also an action of enlisting.    The feature Header was the word “BRITONS.”  A Briton is a British person and therefore would include the various countries within the United Kingdom.  It does not specify simply Englishmen but implies the demand includes action from the Welsh, Scots, Irish and English.    This would then extend the target market to all people in Britain although initially the first responders were males aged between 18 and 35.

I want you – James Montgomery Flagg

Imitation is the best form of flattery and this appears the case with the Uncle Sam “I want you” recruitment poster created by Montgomery Flagg released in the USA.  It follows the same forms of layout and economic use of the text.  Recognising that the photograph had not yet been used in propaganda posters, the image is a painted picture on a white background using shades of red, white and blue.

The central image is according to some accounts a self-portrait rather than using an iconic high ranking military officer or politician.  As a former colony of Britain, the USA did not replicate the same Gentry class of birth-right but was seen as the land of opportunity where successful people are self-made and rise to the top of society based on ability.

The central image is stern faced with the same steely gaze and demanding body language as Kitchener. However, instead of the image having just the arm and pointing finger demanding the viewer to action, this image of “Uncle Sam” involves his torso and upper body.  Uncle Sam is a visual metaphor and personification used to convey a personal icon of a man to represent the nation of America.  It gives a familiarity using the phrase Uncle as if the person is related to everyone and is like a wise older action relative who has respect.

Only one arm is used whilst the other arm fades in incompletion.  This draws attention to the pointed hand and finger.  Instead of a military uniform he wears a suit jacket or large overcoat with a high white collared shirt and large strong red bow tie.  He wears a white top hat with a large blue ribbon adorned with white stars.   The colour combination is red white and blue, the colours of the American flag, the stars and stripes.  His white hair and bushy eyebrows frame a strong angular face and he appears a man of action who gets things done.  He may be fashionably dressed and wearing the clothes of a Senator or someone who is wealthy and powerful.  His demanding finger is pointing at the reader in the same way as Lord Kitchener.

Whilst the Kitchener poster uses the word, “Britons,” Flagg’s text does not use the word “Americans.”  Perhaps he does not need to as the poster did not need to unite the various regions of America but simply demand action from the viewer with the imperative sentence, “I WANT YOU for U.S. ARMY.”  It does not use an exclamation mark and does not finish with an exhortation similar to “God save the King.”  However, it does include a very practical lead in phrase “NEAREST RECRUITING STATION.”  This could imply that there was an additional, directional, stick on section that would have been added to each poster dependent on the location where the poster was displayed.  This addition may have included such a place as a local town hall, school or army base.  A recruiting station would be a place where a new person or recruit could sign up to join the army.

Both these two “I want you” posters have stood the test of time and been copied even in to the present day for such things as wide ranging as joining a team, to buying products.

German War Bond Posters

In contrast the German nation did not need to recruit soldiers as they had a conscripted army which means they had a law which forced their young men to go into the army.  They were professional soldiers and did not need to appeal to their young men’s national pride or sense of guilt to become soldiers to serve their country.  However, wars are expensive to governments and the focus of some of the  German propaganda posters, were aimed at asking the public to invest money in war loans.  This meant that the people were asked to pay money to the government in the form of loans that would be paid back if they won the war.

These posters appealed to the people’s sense of national pride, duty, and doing their part to help defeat the enemy.  The posters are either heavy in text or imagery.

This poster is one of a number of posters asking people to buy War Loans.  It involves a very idyllic Germanic young family of blonde haired, strong jawed iconic people.  The father is holding a sword with his other arm around his wife and child in a protective fashion.  The mother is holding her healthy infant close to her chest.  The image has strong dark colours with a yellow or golden backdrop, there being a strong haze of yellow similar to that of a lighted halo or silver lining around the central characters.  The mother’s long golden hair falls down to her waist indicating health, strength and beauty.  The braided hair forms a crown like image and the people could be of noble birth or strong people of the land.

The text is also short “Kriegsanleihe helft den hütern erudes”  but the translation reads ‘War bonds helps the guardians of your estate’ or perhaps war bonds help guard your home and family.  The imagery is clear that people are asked to invest in their own security of their family.

Julius Klinger’s Serpent

In the next poster the imagery portrays the enemy nation as an evil serpent rather than as people or soldiers.

Sometimes the British animal symbol is a lion but in this poster the artist Julius Klinger from Austria has demonised the British as an evil serpent that needed to be killed.   There are seven arrows through the head of the serpent coloured green and black and the eighth arrow is perhaps through the heart of the serpent.  The number 8 written in red, circles the serpent and appears to be closing in on the body.  The 8 symbolises the eighth war loan and implies that the eighth loan will drive a final and killer blow through the heart of the beast.    The beast appears to have its tongue hanging out and its eyes appear to be dark and lifeless. The word “Kriegsanleihe” is German for War Loan.   The continual circle shape of the number 8 implies infinity or connotes the idea of not giving up.  The top of the number also could appear to be a strangle hold on the beast.

German propaganda poster

The next poster has the phrases, “It is Essential that the Last Blows Achieve Victory!” “Subscribe to the War Loan!”  It was published in 1918.

It depicts a sword wielding youth almost in a heroic fairy tale from medieval or King Arthur period.  The youth is about to slay the lion and creates the other imagery of a gladiator in the Roman Colosseum.  The lion is a metaphor for Britain.

Within the text which is black letter calligraphy font are two images of oak tree branches, leaves and acorns.  The metaphor of the oak tree and acorns are strength, long life, health and shelter.  From acorns grow great oaks. The implication is that they will grow a great nation by delivering the final blow.

This was published in the same year as the Klinger Serpent “8^th War Loan” and the implication is that this is the last of the war loans and the final blow that will end the war thus giving incentive for the German and Austro Hungarian empire to invest even more money.

USA and UK Alliance

The Americans entered the Great War later than the UK but they used another Flagg creation to celebrate it and establish Britannia Day on Dec 7 1918.  It symbolised USA joining with its allies the UK.  Iconography is heavily present in the eagle representing USA and the Lion for the UK.  Uncle Sam is decked out in red and white striped trousers the same colour as their stars and stripes flag and the same blue jacket, red bow ties and white top hat as previously noted in his I want You poster.   In this poster  Uncle Sam is holding a long sword, the symbol of the cavalry and army.  He and Boudiccea are linked arm in arm and both appear to be smiling at each other in a satisfied pact.  Boudicea is another icon of the UK because of the fighting spirit she displayed against the Romans. Her leadership has established her as an historic uk icon of resistance and strength.  She is wearing what looks like a Roman Centurion’s helmet, perhaps plundered as a spoil of war.  Similarly she is holding a trident, the weapon symbolising Neptune, the God of the Sea.  Britain was a world Super Power because of its assumption that it “ruled the waves” with a fearsome navy.

Both iconic characters are walking up a hill and the sea is behind them.  In the distance on the left is a skyline that could be a visual metaphor for New York and on the right a naval ship now in action after the sinking of the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland. It appears that Uncle Sam has come across the water or Atlantic Ocean to join with the British forces.

All countries involved in the war, focussed heavily on raising money from their own people to finance the war.  War Bonds, War Loans or Kriegsonleihe were a common theme of posters used in each country to encourage people to invest their own money in buying government backed investments. Having analysed two German posters, it is interesting that the American and UK posters used similar themes such as demonising the enemy, personal sacrifice, duty and a common cause.  Posters had heavy war themes showing the hardware of war or soldiers in battle. Realism, guilt, national identity and doing their part to help their forces win the war.  As the war continued on for longer than expected, some of the posters started to focus on ENDING the war rather than winning it or stopping an aggressor.

Canadian War bonds poster

This Canadian poster shows a group of soldiers celebrating or waving goodbye.  They’re sitting on an army truck.  The trucks are driving on a road paved with money or most likely war bonds. The fact that the trucks are full of men hanging off could indicate that many have survived and are coming home. The type in the top left is in a sans serif font and italic style.  The use of italics show speed due to the angle of the font.  This gives the impression that the trucks are moving and not stationary.  The typeface of the bottom left is also a sans serif font, however, unlike the previous font, this is not italic.  The yellow sky gives the impression of a sunset indicating the day is over or perhaps even war is over.

Feed the guns

This poster encourages people to “FEED THE GUNS” with war bonds and help to end the war.  The encouragement theme is to end the war rather than to win the war.  This poster is very concise and strong in its message.  Bold Capital letters in tall serif font now blend with the big guns that are seen as crucial to bombarding the enemy.  These large weapons were seen as the latest technology that costs money and needed people’s investment.

Dark colours of black, blue and a muddy red sky contrast with the white text.

Remember Belgium

The next poster has strong imagery and is appealing to a sense of protection, dignity and fear.  Silhouette figures of an iconic older German soldier complete with a bushy moustache and pointed helmet associated with the German leader dragging a young girl away against her will.  Behind the black image symbolising evil is a church or town on fire with the flames rising high into the sky.  This is a metaphor for the destruction and ruin of villages or towns in Belgium.  The picture has a sinister tone with the underlying metaphor of the German soldier doing something bad to the young girl like rape or murder.  The Text simply says “REMEMBER BELGIUM” Buy Bonds Fourth Liberty Loan.  This would indicate that there have already been three loans.  The liberty loans are associated with the Statue of liberty which is an icon for freedom.  These were designed to make them a patriotic thing to do for the Americans and were sold as a good investment for financial security.

War saving certificates

Propaganda became advertising when a new product called War Saving Certificates were introduced to get a different group of people to invest in the war.  The posters using the standard 3 colour pattern, started to include the rate of return and other important information such as getting your money back at any time.  These were different from war bonds and in this poster they were marketed as a romantic gift that was also a good financial investment for after the war.

The central image is of a soldier in uniform giving a gift to his wife or girlfriend.  The woman is elegantly dressed, indicating the couple are of middle to upper class status.  He has his hand around her waist giving the indication that they are in a romantic relationship and as he is in uniform it may be the first time they have met up whilst he is on leave.   It also looks as if she has a poppy symbol on her hat but it’s hard to tell due to the image quality.  The man has a dog giving the metaphor of a caring man who also has the loyalty of a pet.

The underlined text of ‘for her’ draws attention and demands the viewer to purchase a war savings certificate.  The typeface used in this text is a serif font, it also seems to be hand drawn due to the unbalanced stroke of the letters but it could be intended to be a more personal note similar to that of a gift card.   ‘War savings certificates’ are handwritten in red ink, with a calligraphy feel to it.  The sentence is heading in a diagonal position, which gives the impression of speed and urgency.

In summary, posters used in World War 1 as Propaganda tended to have a central image with large header and a supporting brief text.  They appealed to their citizen’s national sense of duty and guilt to support the troops or war effort.  The often featured three primary  colours were very effective in raising awareness, support and financial income to help finance the cost of the war.

 

WAR AND PROPAGANDA concepts copy

In my final poster design, I have intended to imply visual metaphors, the correct typefaces and colour pallets used during WW1 propaganda.

I wanted to create a powerful image that would grab attention, encourage, and have a sense of visual metaphor-cation.  The image shows a sense of hierarchy, with the lion at the very top.  The lion is an analogy of Britain as a country, whilst also portraying a powerful figure and encouraging others to fight for their country and to fight with power and strength.  It is looking down towards Lieutenants, soldiers and the youth, almost instructing and leading them.

I included teens/young men in the poster and placed them at the back of the queue, connoting that they are the backbone of the army, and without them volunteering, the army would not be able to continue.  It appears that one of the lads has his arm over another, and gives a sense of reassuring behaviour, almost saying “it’s gonna be okay” or something along these lines.

The three soldiers depicted in the poster are a visual metaphor to the structure of the army.  Implying that you have to fight first in order to survive, to then standing tall as a lieutenant of some sort.  My implication was to portray the lieutenant as Lord Kitchener, so that the viewer gets a sense of authority.

The hierarchy system is depicted as a mountain or a hill in which connotes that this war is a climb and that it has its ups and downs, however, Britain will reach the top at the end!

In addition to the imagery used, the typeface is both serif and sans serif, with an added handwritten text.  “THE GREAT ROAR” is seen in bold, capitalised, Sans Serif font.  It is also a play on words, or a pun on “the Great war”, as that is what WW1 was known as during this period.  The word ROAR connects with the imagery of the lion.

The words “SUPPORT YOUR BRITAIN” are in a serif font, and its kerning is rather large.  This allows the text to be readable, despite it being in a much smaller font compared to “The Great Roar”.  The text “Support your Britain” implies a sense of ownership to the viewer, and makes them feel as if its their duty to support Britain.

Specifically, the Sans Serif type used is DIN Condensed Bold, whilst the Serif type used is Athelas.  The handwritten type is my own writing, however, I wanted it to somewhat resemble the “For Her, War saving certificate” poster.