Back to Basics – Inspiration from 1940s War Posters
I recently came across a library of US WW2 Posters and pulled out a selection of examples for as a showcase of inspiration. They each rely on the basics of design; composition, typography and colour (be it a limited palette of mostly black and red inks to conform to the available printing technologies) to put across a short and concise message with high visual impact.
One thing’s for sure - they definitely get the message across!
December 5th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
OMG…there’s a STFU picture in there. You know, have a nice warm cup of STFU.
Where did you find these pictures?
December 5th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
dude thats awesome. So many of these types of post are filled trendy images and bright colors. This is great. I might have do something like this.
December 6th, 2007 at 2:12 am
hey hey, this is so nice- I like what you did right there, awesome very helpful and it gives me an idea how to create like this one. Thanks good job
December 6th, 2007 at 6:48 am
hey dude, just to know where can i get hi-res of this posters… anyway, 40’s people really know how to make great ads
December 6th, 2007 at 9:06 am
They are gorgeous ! where did you find them ???
December 6th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Thanks for sharing this great list! I am definitely going to check out that collection site.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Whoa! They all look far more contemporary than I imagined. I have a hard time believing they were all made in the 40s!
December 6th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Thanks Chris Great inspiration I luv old posters they make me realize how “modern” vintage design could look, have a look to this great Chinese political propaganda from the 30’s
http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/
December 6th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Here is another place for more posters from World War I and II and in between both wars:
http://digital.lib.umn.edu/warposters/warpost.html
Search for the health and safety posters they are hilarious.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
beauty
December 8th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Wow it’s amazing how blatant their messages were! These day’s they’d be considered brash and inconsiderate. We’re such a panzy nation now. lol. Could you just imagine the sheer terror that would come upon our nation if our government were to tell us now that _they’ve got more important places to go_ HA! That president wouldn’t last long… Anyway, nice post.
December 8th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Oh, sorry I didn’t realize I was on a British blog, I should clarify that I my comments were as a US citizen and I absolutely love the States! Just poking fun at ourselves a bit, that’s all.
December 10th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Great find!
December 14th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
This is a gold mine. This stuff is awesome!
December 15th, 2007 at 1:37 am
These are awesome. I also love the older vintage items as you can see by my website. The war ads are some of the more interesting. I seriously doubt Americans would sacrifice the way they did back in the 40’s.
Great site
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Remember when…..
http://www.Vintage-Ads.com
April 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
@ Marko, 1st post
LOL… good one!!