How Posters Work

How Posters Work is more than a standard exhibition catalogue. Conceived as a useful and illuminating primer in visual thinking, it explores principles of design through a range of historical and contemporary works, uncovering ideas relevant not just to the design of posters but to 2D design more generally. How Posters Work has a unique focus on visual language. Rather than provide a history of the genre or a compilation of collectibles, the book is organized around active design principles. Concepts such as "Simplify," "Focus the eye," "Exploit the diagonal," "Reverse expectations," and "Say two things at once" are illustrated with a diverse range of posters, from avant-garde classics and rarely seen international works to contemporary pieces by today's leading graphic designers. Illustrated with over 150 works from the collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, How Posters Work provides a stunning education in seeing and making, demonstrating how some of the world's most creative designers have mobilized principles of layout, composition, psychology, and rhetoric to produce powerful acts of visual communication

The poster - inexpensive, colorful, and immediate - was an ideal medium for delivering messages about Americans' duties on the home front during World War II. Design for Victory presents more than 150 of these stunning images - many never reproduced since their first issue - culled from the collections of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. William L. Bird, Jr. and Harry R. Rubenstein delve beneath the surface of these colorful graphics, telling the stories behind their production and revealing how posters fulfilled the goals and needs of their creators. The authors describe the history of how specific posters were conceived and received, focusing on the workings of the wartime advertising profession and demonstrating how posters often reflected uneasy relations between labor and management.

Better posters mean better research. Distilling over a decade of experience from the popular Better Posters blog, Zen Faulkes will help you create a clear and informative conference poster that delivers maximum impact. Academics have used posters to share research for more than five decades, and tens of thousands of posters are presented at conferences every year. Despite the popularity of the format, no in-depth guide has been available on how to create and deliver compelling conference posters. From over-long titles, tiny text and swarms of logos, to bad font choices, chaotic colour schemes and blurry images – it’s easy to leave viewers confused about your poster’s message. The solution is Better Posters: a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know – from writing a title and submitting an abstract, to designing the poster and finally presenting it in the poster session. Your conference poster will be one of your first research outputs, and the poster session is your first introduction to a professional community. Making a great poster develops the skills to create publications, reports, outreach and teaching materials throughout your career. This book also has material for conference organizers on how to make a better poster session for their attendees.

An interactive book that introduces readers to the essentials of poster design through key designs and fun, thought-provoking activities.

"James Victore is a dangerous man. His ideas on optimizing your creativity, doing wow work and building a life that inspires will devastate your limits. And show you how to win. Read this book fast." —Robin Sharma, #1 bestselling author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Begin before you're ready. Renowned designer and professional hell-raiser James Victore wants to drag you off your couch and throw you headfirst into a life of bold creativity. He'll guide you through all the twists, trials, and triumphs of starting your creative career, from finding your voice to picking the right moment to start a project (hint: It's now). Bring your biggest, craziest, most revolutionary ideas, and he will give you the kick in the pants you need to make them real. No matter what industry or medium you work in, this book will help you live, work, and create freely and fearlessly. Here are some dangerous ideas: • The things that made you weird as a kid make you great today. • Work is serious play. • Your ego can't dance. • The struggle is everything. • Freedom is something you take. • There ain't no rules. Take a risk. Try them out. Live dangerously. More praise for Feck Perfuction: "In James Victore's new book, he unequivocally proves why he is the master he is. In every chapter, he challenges and inspires the reader to reach for more, to try harder and to create our best selves. It is a magnificent and momentous experience. (All true)." —Debbie Millman, Host Design Matters "James Victore got famous creating tough posters that shook me to the core. He now does the same using the written word. To you." —Stefan Sagmeister, designer

In the late 1960s, IBM was one of the world's pre-eminent corporations, employing over 250,000 people in 100 countries and producing some of the most advanced products on earth. IBM President Thomas J. Watson Jnr. sought to elevate the company's image by hiring world-renowned design consultants, including Eliot Noyes and Paul Rand. As well as developing the iconic IBM logo and a corporate design guide, Rand also brought together a remarkable team of internal staff designers. One of the designers he hand-picked was Ken White, who, along with John Anderson and Tom Bluhm, headed up the design team at the IBM Design Center in Boulder, Colorado. Together, they initiated a poster program as a platform for elevating internal communications and initiatives within the company. These posters were displayed in hallways, conferences rooms, and cafeterias throughout IBM campuses, with subject matter including everything from encouraging equal opportunity policies, to reminders on best security practices, to promoting a family fun day. Designers often incorporated figurative typography, dry humor, visual puns, and photography to craft memorable and compelling messages.

From the heyday of poster art comes this choice selection of 100 full-page color reproductions accompanied by detailed captions. Magnificent hardcover edition features posters by Lyendecker, Christy, Flagg, Brangwyn, Steinlen, others.

A Century of Posters presents a pictorial record of the development of poster art and graphic design from 1880 to 1980. Comprising over 400 colour images, it features a wealth of well-known artists from Henri Toulouse-Lautrec to Jan Tschichold.