“I believe that designing a poster is a special challenge for the graphic designer. He has the opportunity to work in a scale that has a sense of immediacy that is perhaps less common in some of the other areas of expression. Also, in its colourful contact with the community, the poster has a long history as an important tool of visual communication.
The billboard, an overgrown step-child of the poster, frequently communicates similar messages, but to me it is mostly an environmental eyesore. Its brutal size is out of scale to people and houses, and can obscure otherwise potentially pleasant surroundings. When the poster becomes an enlargement of a magazine-style advertisement, as typified by New York City subway advertising, I am disappointed and largely disillusioned.
I should like to make it clear that my enthusiasms for poster art end where ‘hard-sell’ propaganda begins. For me, designing the informational announcement of a theatrical, sports, music or political event is the most intriguing task. Here the exciting possibilities for graphic design begin… to manipulate typography, symbol, image into a cohesive, creative, personal visual statement.
Unlike most ‘hard-sell’ ads, the strong, well-designed poster is visually quite simple, carrying just enough information to express thoughts and ideas in a succinct way. Herein lies the challenge to the designer.
When the names of the great graphic artists of the world are spoken, the images of their work that instantly come to my mind are their posters. It’s my belief that as a means of visual communication, posters are closest to the hearts of most graphic designers.”
— Rudolph de Harak (1983)