Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

Are artists inspired by the idea that visual language can subvert
the tunnel vision of the state? The Polish posters that surfaced in the
United States suggested that either the authorities were looking the other
way, or artists, like Trepkowski, were brilliant subversives. The surreal
images these artists created were the means to circumvent the strictures
against free expression and, at the same time, invent new methods of
discourse. Trepkowski’s Nieposter was a humanist call to sanity, and most
Polish posters were designed for cultural events that did not have to sell to
consumer groups, please the chairmen of major corporations, or appeal to
the special interests. They did, however, have to fool a regime that was
suspicious of individual expression.