I want to know the history of the poster?

Posters are a form of advertising. So posters follow the development of advertisements. In the early stage of advertising development, posters are also its main form of expression.

1880 ~ 1900 poster development history

This is the twenty years that European and American free capitalism has developed into monopoly capitalism. Many new technologies that have an important influence on human civilization, such as electric power and internal combustion engine, were invented during this period, and the railway across the North American continent was also built at this time. The popularization and development of large-scale industry has promoted the rapid development of economy, and a large number of new products have appeared. The market economy has turned into a stage of fierce competition, and commercial competition has become a major feature of the capitalist economy. A large number of goods need to be familiar to consumers through some channels in order to promote sales. These promotional activities mainly include four aspects: direct selling, public relations, commercial promotion and advertising. Posters in advertisements are undoubtedly an important means of promotion.

In addition to commodities, with the development of economy, entertainment has also begun to flourish. Due to the change of social structure, the business objects of various dramas, acrobatics, bars and dance halls have expanded from a few powerful people in the past to a large number of middle class and even the general public, and the competition in the entertainment field has also strengthened the demand for advertisements. It is in this context that modern advertising began to develop.

At this stage, the advertising forms are mainly posters and street signs. Advertising design is mostly done by painters, and there are almost no professional advertising designers. Beardsley, a famous British illustrator, and Henri Tuhuz-Lautrec, a famous French painter, both drew a large number of posters and posters. At that time, the concept of advertising was basically a painting, which looked like a work of art, but the characters in the painting were holding some kind of goods, which seemed far-fetched. Unique advertising language has not yet formed. Because color printing technology is still relatively backward and expensive, lithographs account for a large proportion of posters at this stage.

1900 ~ 1920 poster development history

The fierce competition of imperialism triggered the first world war between1914 ~1918, which had a great influence on the whole west. The League of Nations was founded in Geneva after the war. It also promoted the development of commodity economy in the international scope. In addition, the success of the October Revolution in the Soviet Union also caused great shock in the western capitalist world.

Stimulated by the war, various modern transportation undertakings (such as navigation, aviation, long-distance passenger transport, etc. ) have been greatly developed. In addition to traditional tourism and entertainment, the service industry has also made great progress in long-distance transportation and tourism. The proportion of service advertisements has risen rapidly. For example, the famous British luxury cruise ship "Tianci", known as "unsinkable ship", put up posters extensively to attract passengers before the maiden voyage of 19 12.

1909, Henry Ford, the American automobile king, used the assembly line for standardized production for the first time, and produced a civilian car with a price of only 600 dollars each. Since then, cars have entered the lives of ordinary people and become popular rapidly. The appearance of assembly line not only affected the automobile manufacturing industry, but also greatly increased the output of various products produced by large machines and quickly reduced the cost. As a result, the competition of various commodities is more intense, and commercial advertising has become a very important auxiliary means of competition.

With the prosperity of economy, cultural life has also been enriched. At present, there are more and more large-scale cultural performances, and the demand for posters also increases. During this period, the art field was also very active. Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism, Expressionism and many other modernist art schools have appeared one after another, competing to hold various art exhibitions, and various advertisements and posters have also stimulated the development of commercial advertisements. It is worth mentioning that 1903, a silent entertainment film "The Thief of the Train" with a length of only 12 minutes began to be released commercially, which opened a new era for movies as entertainment means. Movie posters have since become an important part of commercial advertisements.

These twenty years are an era of war and revolution, and there are a large number of non-commercial posters and posters. Britain, the United States and other countries have seen many recruitment posters.

At this time, posters and street signs are still the main forms of advertising, but magazine advertisements and newspaper classified advertisements have also developed with the improvement of the influence of these news media among consumers. The conception and expression of advertisements are artistic, focusing on painting effects and techniques.

The United States was not directly affected by the First World War, but its economy was greatly stimulated by the war. In particular, the rapid development of the advertising industry has obviously left the European powers behind. The development of advertising in the United States showed a strong tendency of commercialization in the early stage, and advertising paid more attention to the transmission of commodity information. The embryonic form of modern advertising has emerged, both in expression and advertising language. It can be said that the development of American advertising has laid the foundation of modern advertising in these twenty years, and gradually moved towards the number one advertising giant, and this position has been maintained to this day.

2 Poster development history

1920 ~ 1940 poster development history

From 1920 to 1933, economic crisis occurred in western capitalist countries. There is a surplus of goods in the market. Capitalists need to work hard on promotional advertisements if they want to sell their goods. In a sense, the economic crisis stimulated the development of advertising at that time.

In the 1930s after the crisis, with the economic recovery and development, many high-end consumer goods emerged in the market, which changed the whole advertising structure. Fashion, jewelry, cosmetics and other skin care and washing products, household appliances such as vacuum cleaners, and cars and lawn mowers account for a larger proportion of the total advertisements. With the prosperity of the food industry, advertisements for biscuits, sweets and canned food can be seen everywhere. This is the United States finally announced the abolition of prohibition, making alcohol and cigarette advertisements popular.

With the continuous expansion of the middle class, tourism and other leisure ways have become a way of life pursued by people, so advertisements for pleasure of beautiful beaches and luxurious and comfortable yachts can be seen everywhere. At this time, the American film industry has also entered a golden age, with a number of world-famous stars, Charlie Chaplin's comedy, Douglas? Burglars in Baghdad, starring Douglas Fairbanks, is a blockbuster. Because of the extraordinary charm of movies, it attracts a large number of audiences, and pervasive advertisements also take a fancy to this attractive media, so movie advertisements have become an important member of advertising media.

In Germany, the Nazi came to power, which led to many non-commercial posters and posters, some advocating fascism and some opposing fascism. This is also the time to make full use of public service advertisements.

In these twenty years, art advertisements still dominate. There are many successful artists among advertisement creators, and some advertisements are perfect works of art in themselves. Of course, the importance of conveying commodity information is unprecedented. Advertising in this period greatly exaggerated the luxury life of the upper class, created a "dream" for ordinary people that was higher than the actual living standard at that time, and satisfied the yearning psychology of many ordinary consumers. It was a guiding consumption strategy commonly used in modern advertising.

At that time, most advertising models were women, but at that time, more attention was paid to beautiful figure and exquisite appearance, unlike the previous model selection, which didn't have to be beautiful and needed strong personality. This selection criteria for advertising models has continued to this day.

1940 ~ 1960 poster development history

The outbreak of World War II affected almost all countries in the world and had a far-reaching impact. In the 1950s, Europe, which was hit hard by World War II, tried to regain its former glory, while the United States entered a period of peaceful development only after the Korean War. In these twenty years, pop music has developed rapidly and become a new force in traditional cultural performances such as opera, ballet, drama and symphony. Elvis Presley's appearance as a pioneer of rock music aroused the enthusiasm of the younger generation.

During the anti-fascist war in this period, many political posters with the theme of anti-Nazi appeared in Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries, which was the peak of political propaganda. Many arms dealers, especially the American arms dealers known as the "arsenal of democratic countries" (such as Lockheed Aircraft Company, Stubeck Aircraft Company, Shell Oil Company, etc. ), have produced a large number of German fire advertisements with the anti-fascist war as the background, and a considerable part of them are in the form of political propaganda.

In the early post-war period, a large number of advertisements focused on quiet and peaceful atmosphere, catering to the people of the world who suffered from war and longed for peace. Pictures are often scenes such as weddings and family reunions, which are quite human and full of life interest.

In 1950s, art advertisements still accounted for a large proportion, but the commercial effect was also raised to a high level. Professional advertising teams are forming, and many new advertising technologies have emerged. In addition to the usual realistic painting, plane cutting, surrealism and comics are widely used to create surreal visual impact to attract consumers' attention. In the late 1950s, with the development of photographic plate-making technology, commercial photography began to become an important advertising expression because of its convenience and realism.

In addition to beautiful girls in the past, lovely babies, cats, dogs and other family pets are also appearing more and more in advertisements. Inviting stars to be models has also become a common way of advertising.

In terms of media, with the rapid rise and large-scale popularization of newspapers, magazines and other mass news media, old media such as posters and street signs have given way to new media. Considering that the target of publicity is readers, this kind of advertisements especially emphasize catering to readers' tastes, reading habits and readability. This makes the importance of advertising copy and arrangement stand out. Because words can convey a lot of information and play an important role, the copy and arrangement of advertisements, like painting composition, have become an important part in advertising production.