Dear All
over the last few months I have been looking into what influence British war posters actually had in the 20th Century. I made several finding all in which I have put into an essay. In my Essay I have found my conclusion.
The first thing to do was to create a proposal of things I was to do. With this set I had to set out to acquire as much research as possible.
Research Proposal
What role did the 1st & 2nd World War posters play in wartime Britain?
To: Lee Paton
From: Jack Ramsden
Critical study: Proposal/Essay
28/03/12
How did the War time posters have a role of aid in the 20th Century British Army?
‘Let us go forward together’ – Winston Churchill former PM (1940)
I chose this question as it is an interest of mine that I have had for a very long time starting from childhood, mainly interested in the War, the most artistic work to spawn from it is definitely the War posters. A lot is said of uniform and songs from the wartime, even typefaces come up in conversation quite a lot. The posters are very important to me; they are seen more and more, brought back to life recently within the fashion world. I want to see what the role of the posters was and what they many managed to succeed in doing. Other than just being a lovely art piece with great illustrations, they are pieces to be taken seriously. Propaganda has a significant effect, even used in popular advertising today. I firmly believe it was these posters that as well as the soldiers won us the War. Ranging from, farming plots to grow vegetables for rations to save on money and impossible imports, through to calling people to work in factories actually making the ammunition needed to fight off the enemy, no ammunition, no winning of war!
To answer my question I will use several formats to gain information, internet, books and museum/art galleries, as they will be the most informative. Especially to me Art Galleries are very important, it will allow me to see firsthand exactly what occurred with all the information and research I could need. Not only is it information that I need, imagery will be great to and again there is nowhere else better for it. As a general interest of mine it will be a bonus to get information about the war in general and not just about the posters.
Early World Ware posters from Britain, possibly the most famous being ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. Seen a lot in today’s society and very popular on the commercial scene.
As my desired pathway towards University is Graphic Design/Advertising it is very much so connected. Advertising is very important, especially poster design, it is very personal allowing just the designers ideas and thoughts out onto just one piece of paper. Being a flat product it has to get the whole idea across in one go, which is a lot harder than a TV advert where a story can be told. Seen as a challenge and greatly respected if produced correctly.
Also in the search for as much information as possible to produce the essay, I have created a questionnaire for friends, family and colleagues to fill out. Giving there thoughts and opinions will help when compiling all my research to back up the essay. From this I will gain someone else’s thoughts and not just my own allowing me to see other people’s ideas on the matter, plus evidence to show of my findings.
Plan of action
First on my list of things to do will be to visit the Imperial War Museum North so I can see firsthand the actual posters on show back in War times. It will be crucial that I gain this information to have a valid position in my argument .The majority of the research will be done before New year, giving me time to start my actual essay just after running from January.
Sources
With the research I will be obtaining, there are obviously a number of different sources. Forming a Bibliography I will list them. These are all the ‘URL’ links that have helped me so far:
Imperial War Museum
Bygone Times
Manchester Art Gallery
Liverpool World Museum
Wikipedia
Wartime Original Posters and description
Basic Website but informative
All from World War II
War Posters from around the World
Basic but informative
Dailymail Newspaper section on posters, nice imagery
Books:
British World War 2 Posters
Pub Date: 1 Feb 2010
Publisher: Imperial War Museum
Published in: United Kingdom
Paperback
Publisher: Imperial War Museum
Published in: United Kingdom
Paperback
Posters and propaganda in Wartime
Daniel James (Author)
Pub Date: 28 Apr 2011
Paperback 48pp colour illustrations
Pub Date: 28 Apr 2011
Paperback 48pp colour illustrations
World War Posters
James Aulich (Author)
Pub Date: 1 Oct 2007
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Published in: United Kingdom
Paperback 256pp 329 illustrations, 303 in colour
Pub Date: 1 Oct 2007
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Published in: United Kingdom
Paperback 256pp 329 illustrations, 303 in colour
Picture This – World War I Posters And Visual Culture
Pearl James (Edited by)
Pub Date: 25 Mar 2010
Paperback 440pp 54 illustrations
Pub Date: 25 Mar 2010
Paperback 440pp 54 illustrations
Contacts
Imperial War Museum North
Imperial War Museum London
Liverpool World Museum
St Andrews
So after my research was set, slowly but surely my research begin to build. with trips to various museums and galleries within the northwest helping generously.
Imperial War Museum North
The Essay
Lee Paton
Jack Ramsden
How did the War time posters have a role of aid in the 20th Century British Army?
During the research part of this essay I visited a variety of different museums and galleries to gain as much information as possible. Visits to Manchester, Salford, Lancaster and Liverpool really did help when building a background of research to back up my thoughts during this piece of written work. I feel easily the best place to get my research was from the Salford Imperial War Museum. The IWM (Imperial War Museum) have a lot to offer especially reading rooms in which specific information was given.
Internet and books are perfect for this job too, a great purchase along the way was the book entitled ‘British Posters of the Second World War’ (Pub Date: 1 Feb 2010 Publisher: Imperial War Museum Published in: United Kingdom Paperback). From which the majority of my backed up research came from on the information of each individual poster and designer behind them.
As well known as it is, Britain won both World War I and World War II. But at what cost, and how? Of course a War has to fight with fire power; to me on the other hand along side fire power has to be will power. The idea to spur our soldiers had to be well thought and carefully planned. This job wasn’t seen to be small; in fact it was so major that a lot of British Artists of the time were hired to design such posters. Gaining fame into the 21st Century but maybe for a different reason. These posters came back mass produced for fashion ad interior design. Once to inspire but now for decor to look pretty.
To be placed in the public eye, these posters were put on all streets and roads to be viewed everywhere, but not just small and anywhere random. They were strategically covering complete walls (each poster the size of a bus stop) and numerous different messages on each, making it impossible not to be seen. In the 1940s rows of posters to over the streets, designed by at the time artists and then mass produced by ministries, charities, and private concerns.
There weren’t actually that many army recruitment posters in comparison to the sheer amount of specialist services, most were aimed at women such as land Army. It was these specific posters and even film that drew civilians to the munitions factories.
Take a step back and just think of maybe being in the war back in the early/mid 1900’s, as many people know it wasn’t glamorous in the slightest. To be able to survive was essential whether being at home in England or in the middle of no man’s land in Germany. Your weapon, a large heavy rifle able to take a man’s life from one squeeze of its trigger. Its either you or he, the enemy, of course the trigger is squeezed in their direction. The modern sword, that long barrelled rifle was forged back in the UK with tired gun smiths sweating over it. Posters asking for gunsmiths and civilians to build shells were everywhere, it was essential to have the ammunition to continue in success. So surely, with no volunteers to make the weapons simply equals to, no weapons, no victory.
‘Women of Britain, come into the factories’. One of the most notable posters of the 20th century, so famous in fact it is one of that spreads across into the 21st century. As the majority of people serving in the army were men, mainly women were left behind and so jobs were handed to them. Weapons and ammunition were obviously essential and so factory floor with female workers producing ammo, again another reason to thank the posters, the advertising was key in working alongside soldiers from many miles away.
This to me stretches out across everywhere relevant within the World Wars. Obviously not just weapons but also rations for soldiers to eat and keep strength up needed to be sourced. Again posters came into play asking for the public to ‘Dig for Victory’. This infamous poster was the creation of the ministry of information for the ministry of agriculture and fisheries. The poster came to embody the whole British propaganda effort of the Second World War, producing crop rations for the country and soldiers in battle.
I firmly believe that without these posters that both Wars could have had different outcomes, even possible loss. As well known as our Army is for its successions throughout the countries existence, it’s not just about who has the biggest.
As odd as it seems but the World Wars were the making of some British artist’s careers, projecting them into the public eye. Britain’s propaganda gained the British designers international acclaim with a reputation in the post war decades. But take this for a different matter, these posters are world famous, ‘Take your Gas Mask everywhere’ for instance, a very strong and known piece, life saving! Does the name Eckersley-Lombers means anything? The name is from Tom Eckersley and Eric Lombers, two designers who teamed up to create this poster but yet gained no actual acclaim or any fame.
It’s a real shame that these great heroes of design, basically saving lives from a desk haven’t managed to gain as much credit as they deserve.
In today’s 21st Century that is totally different. Today’s wars are just like the advertisements, so much more advanced. They can’t be escaped down to the sheer interest that the viewer has over it. Recruitment today is mainly put in the place that the public view the most, television.
21st century Plagiarism?
British Army Advert
British Army Advert
Advertisements on the TV are rather intense and very open about what actually occurs, unlike the 20th century soldiers, the 21st know exactly what they are signing their lives up for.
Alexandra Taylor of Saachi & Saachi is seen to be the main creator of today’s ‘British Army’ ad campaign, an ad campaign that has run for the last 15 years. With websites, TV ads and even games! It just goes to show how different things are and have changed in the last 100 years. Moving with the4 times these too are extremely successful and gain a lot of interest from future recruits and other advertisement agencies gaining award after award.
I set up a questionnaire to gain results to put together, the idea behind this was to back up my thoughts and receive new ones getting other people opinions on the subject. An array of different questions were asked, answers were then assessed and accumulated to provide results.
‘What stands out for you regarding the 2 World Wars?’ This question gained very interesting and individual answers. Starting with the bravery of the men and women and children, to Hitler and death. Death came up most frequent but one answer was the one needed Posters and Advertisements. Clearly it isn’t just me that has noticed the posters and artwork.
‘If asked about the British War posters, would you know much?’ From my results it would appear that not many people know a lot about British poster design and at the most only a small amount and basic ideas of how they look, again no quotes of a poster and especially no mention of designers.
‘Do you feel posters have influential properties?’ Simply answered with the one word, yes. Without fail every questionnaire came back with the answer yes. This show’s that again there is belief that others feel the posters of the time must have had a very significant effect on the public as they would now in present time.
‘Can you quote a poster’? We need you, your country needs you and keep calm and carry on. All famous, but for what reason. It also that the keep calm is only noted from today as being over used and modernised into society, using it for posters, interior design and many others. The most things seen about keep calm is alteration within clothing design, one for example would be, ‘freak out and panic’.
Believing the best question was left to the end, ‘what do War posters portray for you?’ Propaganda strikes up more than once and is the most frequent answer. Alongside propaganda, community spirit and the countries honour are brought into it. The word Propaganda is key to my study and theories, with all posters of this era; propaganda is most noted being held within politics.
Dispersing incorrect information to the public to either help or harm another institution. The party in question (British) create incorrect ad campaigns to entice hopeful soldiers to join the army. Spread across a variety of different Medias capable of creating a desired result. Not getting the full message across, means that these people do not know what they are completely signing up for.
Not the only country to use Propaganda, the Russians did also quite significantly too. With big bold simple posters with sometimes just the one image of a single soldier to be seen. They were so simple in fact that the typography used was strong and bold enough to carry off the poster with sometimes no actual imagery.
The Art Movement Constructivism clearly plays a role in Russia’s design scheme. The movement originated actually in Russia, 1919 and must of been thriving at the time of both Wars for Russia and the Soviet Union. The Stenberg brothers designed posters for the Union and Constructivism played a big part of their design life, strongly influenced they gained acclaim as Soviet Artists and Designers.
Either way whether it being Russian, British or any other country the same message is put across. And clearly they had a great effect, with great results.
The two World Wars were not just won through death and bloodshed but also these colourful pieces of work, the posters that first instigated volunteers to help. Creating ammunition, rations, crops, clothing, guns and recruitment.
To conclude on my thoughts, I would hope that maybe eyes have been opened up to a different side to the War, the unsung and unheard cavalry of the 20th century armoury. Without the poster campaigns the outcome may well have changed for Britain, the rest of the world had their own posters that worked to the desired outcome. Maybe if the World didn’t know advertisement strategy, then today would be a different era.
I hope this essay has been found to be informative and possibly opened you the reader to new thoughts and maybe a different outlook upon what actually happened within the war but just on the outside of the battlefield. Thank you for the opportunity to do so.
Bibliography:
Contacts
Imperial War Museum North
Imperial War Museum London
Liverpool World Museum
St Andrews
Books:
British World War 2 Posters
Pub Date: 1 Feb 2010
Publisher: Imperial War Museum
Published in: United Kingdom
Paperback
Publisher: Imperial War Museum
Published in: United Kingdom
Paperback
Posters and propaganda in Wartime
Daniel James (Author)
Pub Date: 28 Apr 2011
Paperback 48pp colour illustrations
Pub Date: 28 Apr 2011
Paperback 48pp colour illustrations
World War Posters
James Aulich (Author)
Pub Date: 1 Oct 2007
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Published in: United Kingdom
Paperback 256pp 329 illustrations, 303 in colour
Pub Date: 1 Oct 2007
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Published in: United Kingdom
Paperback 256pp 329 illustrations, 303 in colour
Websites:
Imperial War Museum
Manchester Art Gallery
Liverpool World Museum
Wikipedia
Images sourced from ‘www.google.co.uk’
