Chic (40 years) ago

Designers are often asked by non-profit organizations, museums, paper companies, etc. to participate in designing pro bono posters for various events. These can be competitive affairs, but many times they are simply invitational exhibitions created to help an organization raise funds, promote awareness of an issue, or excite a member or customer base. We recently became aware of one such poster initiative, produced on behalf of a paper company client by the partners at Winterhouse. The posters were to be “inspired by the word Sustainability.” You can find them at the changeobserver blog.

While many of these posters are visually interesting, they—and the whole notion of designing a poster around a single word theme—are problematic. Aside from the fact that “Sustainability,” rendered in some subjectively artistic fashion, printed on paper, and shipped in cardboard tubes by the thousands is probably not the best way to attack the real-world, daunting environmental problems that face us… the question is, what’s the point? What is the designer asking us to think about in a new way, to act upon, to change? Posters should provoke and stimulate, not sit passively by like some inert decoration.

Another poster event coming up in December is for the Society of Typographic Art’s Holiday Auction 2009. Part of the event will be a silent auction of small prints (some call them posters) by area designers in celebration of “Chicago.” Here again, there is certainly a danger that these “posters” will be approached as a stylistic typographic exercise. What will they be trying to say? Will there be any room for us to interpret the designer’s intent or, better yet, room for us to discover our own meaning for ourselves? We’re eager to find out.

As for our contribution, you don’t have to wait for the party. Judge for yourself.

Poster for the STA Holiday Party.

 © 2009, Legendre+Rutter