David King was an important graphic designer that worked and produced protest posters/material for the Anti-Nazi and Anti-Apartheid Movements. The image below is his ‘1977 poster for a march against the Official Secrets Act’.

King had always been interested in the Russian Revolution and I feel as though this is reflected in his style of design. The heavy, bold typefaces in capital letters and the colour choices of red and black; his work reflects that of Rodchenko. King’s work gives a powerful message and feeling of strength and resistance that was desperately needed during these times.

During the 1960’s and 70’s, the film industry in Cuba was becoming another way to promote political agenda. Due to the economy, the budgets for posters wasn’t very large. This meant designers were steering away from complex designs and refining them instead. An example of this would be from Eduardo Muñoz Bachs.

The posters that he designed were much more simplistic, often with a limited but bold colour palette, simple typefaces and composition. This created an interesting, new style of poster. The simplicity tells a story of the difficult financial times but creating something new and beautiful because of it.

In a similar way to David King and Eduardo Bachs’ posters, another, more recent poster that tackles a world issue is: “Adbusters: The Big Question, 1999” by Jonathan Barnbrook in collaboration with Adbusters.

The poster was designed for the G8 summit in Seattle. I find the design of this poster very effective. The relevant imagery provides instant associations with world issues caused by the economy. These combined with the carefully considered choice of typefaces work very well to convey the purpose of the poster and the importance of the question being asked. I like how the rectangular areas are broken up by the erratic and plummeting graph line- this makes the poster even more striking.

Researching these posters has made me realise the impact and influence that good graphic design can have on the world. They communicate such important issues and grab the attention that is needed to make change in world.

References:

• Hollis, R. (2016) David King Obituary. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/25/david-king-obituary (Accessed: 30/11/2017).
• Hawkins, A. (2015) The beautiful film posters of post-revolutionary Cuba . Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/cuban-film-posters (Accessed: 30/11/2017).
• Barnbrook, J. (2017) Adbusters:The Big Question. Available at: http://www.jonathanbarnbrook.com/work/adbusters-big-question/ (Accessed: 30/11/2017).
• Barnbrook, J. (1999) Adbusters: The Big Question. Available at: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1f/30/13/1f30134a0a6ca36be62ad0d7b8bb0ba9.jpg (Accessed/downloaded: 30/11/2017).