Printed posters are a rich resource for design and marketing inspiration. Whether promoting events, movies, music, politics, product launches, sales promotions or mainly living online as with the recent explosion of info-graphics – the common thread here is great graphic design as a tool to capture attention, inform and inspire action. A quick walk through the shop this morning found three examples of poster art good enough to always want around:
In 2007, The Smashing Pumpkins reformed as a band after a 7 year hiatus with a nine show residency at The Orange Peel right here in Asheville, NC. This folded insert poster is a keeper – designed by printmafia.net.
A classic movie poster: Frank Capra’s 1934 film It Happened One Night.
A wide format print of Van Gogh’s Starry Night serves as a backdrop behind my computer. With apologies to Van Gogh, even cluttered over it is a nice image to have around.
Accessible, inventive, designed to catch your eye and stir your emotions – great poster art can be found in museum collections or stapled to the nearest light pole on any street in your town. Great print collections of curated poster art are available, or browse online galleries when you’re in need of a creative boost. Below are a few resources we found inspiring:
- A great overview of the history of the poster is at designhistory.org. This site divides the development of the poster into the following helpful categories: Early Broadsides, The French Poster Craze of 1880, Early European Illustrated Posters, Cubism Meets the Airbrush, The Photographic Poster, The Swiss Poster, American Posters of the 20th Century, and The Poster as Public Message. Makes you want to read more just from the titles, right?
- You can read a great interview with Martijn F. Le Coultre, coauthor of A Century of Posters, and a leading poster collector/curator from Holland, over at Steven Heller’s blog. In October 2013, Le Coultre will be auctioning off a portion of his vast collection at Christie’s in London – the auction is titled “Graphic Masterworks: A Century of Design.” Take a minute to browse Christie’s Ecatalogue of the event for an overview of the scope of this collection which spans from the 1890s to 1988.
- Josef Müller-Brockmann is coauthor of the 1971 seminal study of the History of the Poster. Browse his own works over at designishistory.com, or on a Pinterest page devoted to his design.
- For insight into the current, cutting-edge international poster scene, follow Rene Wanner’s Poster Page. This site hold a wealth of information on exhibitions (online and off), publications, links, news and events related to current poster design and graphic arts around the globe.
Wide format printing can take your poster designs to new sizes. Consider using your branded designs as wall or floor graphics for a huge impact. Digital print allows you to run small quantities at affordable prices, whereas in the past an offset run of a poster could be a much more expensive undertaking. Get inspired by the best of graphic design in poster art.
Consider the ways you can use inspired graphic design to market your small business. Your printer should be able to provide you with the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail, integrated marketing and environmental responsible printing
. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!
