The New Typography

THE PICTORIAL POSTER
Whenever advertising is required for an object which can be illustrated, the
pictorial poster is essential, because it is incomparably more meaningful
than any poster consisting only of words. The illustration itself must be as
objective as possible: above all, free from the personal "touch" of the artist.
Bernhard's "fact-posters" (for Stiller Boots, etc.) were already a step in this
direction long before the war. and it must be freely admitted that they were
not unsuccessful. But the individuality of the a'rtist in those classic exam­
ples was a bit excessive and has perhaps now played itself out. The ner­
vous hand of the painter was echoed in the "nibbled" lettering so charac­
teristic of the pre-war period, and which degenerated into a mannerism.
The theories of the pre-war artists still influence many contemporary
designers. and result in posters which - apart from the few with the
extreme linear skill of artists like Bernhard and Hohlwein - may interest a
few for their aesthetic form but do not please the public who really matter.
As no drawn posters of this kind existed at the beginning of the century,
they could be effective. People had more time then than they have today,
and the novel graphic forms led them to look at the posters. Today, condi­
tions for posters are different. A poster, whether pictorial or lettered, must
be absorbed at the moment of noticing or walking past; or, if a longer text
is necessary. must strike and attract by means of its total effect. The poster
today is still a "fact-poster" (as Lucien Bernhard preached), but the object
being advertised must no longer be artistically simplified (=distorted), but
must be shown in the most factual, unmistakable. and impersonal form. All
trimmings which proclaim the hand of a particular artist contradict the
poster's essence. From the mass of posters designed in the spirit of the
earlier poster artists, hardly one stands out; the choice of colour and
the painting or drawing of these individual-painterly posters have become
formula-based and therefore uninteresting. The "hand" of the artist is sim­
ply superfluous, its purpose a pernicious waste of the public's time. When
we realize that for the poster that must be read quickly on a hoarding, only
the simplest and clearest forms can be right, we have to avoid strictly
everything that is individual and unclear, because too strongly artistic. The
need for the most objective. indeed the intensely factual, design is shown
by the appalling quantity of inscriptions and posters in modern cities. If a
poster or inscription is not crystal clear. it is useless.
For type, sanserif has in general the sharpest definition for use in posters.
Pictures however are stronger and quicker in their effect than type, and
here again only the most objective representation will communicate the
poster's contents quickly and clearly to a passer-by. That is why so many