The Power of Polish Poster Design

The creative brilliance of the Polish posters makes for some of the most iconic and collectable vintage art.

The end of the Second World War marked the dawn of a new period in the development of Polish poster art, which became known as the Polish School of Posters.

The recently installed Communist regime began commissioning artists to design posters not only with social and political messages, but also, and more prominently, to promote the many aspects of the government-run (Ministry of Art and Culture) cultural media: concerts, exhibitions, film, jazz, opera, theatre, etc. and the circus (cyrk inPolish). The artists were instructed to reject Western values in their posters and were to follow rules about appropriate messaging, but other than that, they had complete artistic freedom.

This resulted in some truly unique and bold designs, chock-full with individual personality, wit and subversive commentary.

Heavy in metaphors and symbolism and executed in a painterly fashion with handcrafted typography the posters of the Polish School of Posters significantly influenced the international development of graphic design. The highly original designs remain contemporary to this day and continue to gain appreciation.