Political Poster Design

Poster design and its ability in contemporary times to spread agendas effectively and efficiently - as a result of the Internet and social media platforms - is a key aspect to ethical design considerations. The ability graphic designers have in using their communication skills to promote ethical agendas or raise awareness of concerning political progressions is a vital part of the practice. As a result, research was conducted into existing political poster designs, considering the use of colour, type, layout and form, as well as the language choices and communication techniques used to fulfil its purpose.  

EU Referendum Posters




Equality & Ethical Posters

Paul Peter Piech (1920 – 1996). He was a graphic artist in both the U.S. and England. Aside from his commercial work he had his own printmaking studio as a way to channel his ideas and art to the world.

His use of illustration and typography together to mould the message of the design is effective alongside its cold colours and intimidating compositions. The roughness of the printing technique further aids its feel of worn away and tattered subjects. 

https://gregwhitedesign.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/the-work-of-paul-peter-piech/



Collage and techniques 

Looking at how Type and Illustration can work together in format and layout



How type itself can utilise its shapes to form the depiction / communicate the intended message

Sasayaku Shiriyou The Whispering Dead | book covers by kiyoshi awazu

Environmental Design - Image connotations



https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/political-posters-oped/index.html 

The pedestrian visual language of established party candidates makes the all too rare, visually adventurous political campaign posters memorable and effective. 
The best ones that promote a candidate inspire hope and optimism. The best ones that oppose a candidate use humour or satire to critique the candidate for what they've done, or for what they promise or threaten to do.



https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/w-magazine-art-issue-political-campaign-posters-311016

W magazine commissioned 15 artists to reimagine the political campaign poster, giving a blank canvas to artists. The posters have been published as part of W’s tenth anniversary art issue, inviting each creative to come up with the posters they would like to see. “In this charged election season, we should all show that we give a damn,” says the W team.

Maurizio Cattelan’s poster defaces the one dollar bill, replacing George Washington with a duck, “suggesting the quackery threatening our most revered symbols”. Nina Chanel Abney’s uses sugary colours and silhouettes to draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Jeremy Deller worked with Fraser Muggeridge Studio to create his poster, titled Vote William Morris, which enforces the link between the arts and social activism. Zoë Buckman worked with Hank Willis Thomas on a poster starring Jemima Kirke from Girls wearing rose-coloured glasses made from specula, aiming to create a provocatively feminist and satirical campaign.

The Italian provocateur Maurizio Cattelan is best known for satirical art works that send up art history and notions of grandeur—institutional or national—such as his life-size wax effigy of Pope John Paul II downed by a meteor. For W, he created an original image suggesting the quackery threatening our most revered symbols.

Nina Chanel Abney’s large-scale paintings confront the social issues of the Black Lives Matter movement and the relationships between police officers and people of color. Irreverent, bold, and pop-savvy, they’re layered with words and faces in a bright mash-up that recalls Matisse’s cut-outs.

George Condo burst on the scene in the early 1980s alongside artists like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, helping to usher in a new age of painting that mashed up classical sources with a street-art edge. His most widely seen artwork is likely the five provocative covers he made for Kanye West’s 2010 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. He has titled his W poster All Saints All Souls Election Day...CAMPAIGN FOR FREE TIME.

Supermundane: political posters have the power to reach beyond our bubble

https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/supermundane-anti-tory-posters-for-the-uk-general-election-150517

In the lead-up to the UK’s general election, graphic designer Rob Lowe, aka Supermundane, has released a series of posters that are free to download, which he is encouraging us to print out and “put where people can see them”. Here, he writes about why he’s returned to posters and how they might have the power to break us out of our bubbles.

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/fons-hickmann-amnesty-posters 
Fons Hickmann M23 put together some powerful political posters for Amnesty

A great representation of the iconic slogan poster design. These punchy, minimalist images accompany each new issue of Amnesty International’s Amnesty Aktion magazine, taking a subject high on the charity’s agenda and reducing it down to a hard-hitting graphic.
Bold, straight to the point, minimal yet bright and eye-catching.