International Poster Gallery

world war II - military poster and the end of stone lithography

The poster again played a large communication role in World War II, but this time it shared the spotlight with other media, mainly radio and print. By this time, most posters were printed using the mass production technique of photo offset, which resulted in the familiar dot pattern seen in newspapers and magazines. The use of photography in posters, begun in the Soviet Union in the twenties, now became as common as illustration. After the war, the poster declined further in most countries as television became an additional competitor.

The last gasp of the classic age of the lithographic poster occurred in Switzerland, where the government heavily promoted the printing industry and poster excellence. The establishment of a standard poster size and national kiosk system in 1914 was an additional aid.

Appealing to the Swiss sense of precision, the style which developed during WWII and the early fifities in Basel was the Sachplakat, or Object Poster Style. Delighting in making everyday objects into giant icons, its roots go back to the Plakatstil of Lucian Bernhard and the Surrealist movement. The style depended on spectacular Swiss printing to create its wonderful trompe l'oeil effects. Visual elegance was often matched by gentle humor. With the end of lithographic printing in the '50s, Leupin, Brun and the other Basel Sachplakat artists turned to a humorous style less reliant upon the rich color and textures of lithographic printing.

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