War Posters Issued by Belligerent and Neutral Nations, 1914-1919
A 1920 survey, selected and edited by Martin Hardie and Arthur K. Sabin and published by A. & C. Black in London, reproducing 80 posters from Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the United States and other countries, mostly from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
What it is
A 1920 survey, selected and edited by Martin Hardie and Arthur K. Sabin and published by A. & C. Black in London, reproducing 80 posters from Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the United States and other countries, mostly from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is dedicated to Frank Pick of the London Underground for his effort "to link art with commerce". Six short chapters judge the posters as posters, not pictures. The authors argue that design matters more than colour or detail, and that a poster must seize attention at once. They rank German posters above British ones for force and economy, mock the early British recruiting posters, and condemn the War Savings poster that wrote "Old age must come" across Whistler's portrait of his mother. France earns praise for Faivre's "On les aura" and Steinlen's lithographs; the United States for volume and energy, with weak craftsmanship. The plates follow.
Why read it now
The core rule holds: one idea, read at a glance, beats a picture that tells a story. Studies of outdoor and social feed advertising agree that people give an ad a second or two on a phone and a few seconds on a roadside, so one focal image and few words must carry the load; the authors reached that verdict by eye in 1919. Their test case still teaches: a German advertisement showing only the product and the firm's name, set against a British one crowded with story and colour. The Whistler case is a warning against stamping a written moral on a strong image. What has dated: the national stereotypes, such as France as the more artistic nation and Japanese art in decline, and the belief that only hand-drawn lithography gives a poster its power. The book also judges design alone, with no evidence of what any poster achieved in recruits or loans. Use: before approving a billboard or a social ad, shrink it to thumbnail size, as the authors did when they printed posters at about one-twelfth scale, and cut whatever stops the reading.
Passages worth keeping
It must convey an idea rather than a story.
الملصق ينقل فكرة واحدة لا حكاية كاملة، لأن المارّ لا يملك وقتًا لقراءة قصة.
It is the essence of the poster that it should compel attention ; grip by an instantaneous appeal ; hit out, as it were, with a straight left.
جوهر الملصق أن يفرض الانتباه ويمسك بالمارّ من اللحظة الأولى، كضربة مباشرة سريعة.
but then they got someone to write across the beautiful background, in paltry lettering, "Old age must come."
أخذت الحكومة لوحة ويسلر الشهيرة لحملة الادخار ثم كتبت فوقها بخط رديء أن الشيخوخة آتية، فأفسدت الصورة بالموعظة.
Indeed, the poster must be like a beacon set on a hill to which all eyes must go, all roads must seem inevitably to lead.
الملصق كالمنارة على التل: تتجه إليه كل العيون، وتبدو كل الطرق مؤدية إليه.
the artist has been trained to limit himself to what he has to say, and to say that with all his might.
سر قوة الملصق الألماني أن الفنان تعلّم أن يقتصر على ما يريد قوله، ثم يقوله بكل ما يملك من قوة.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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