When Frank Pick, the first “Chief Executive” of the London Transport Authority, took over responsibility for advertising on the Underground in 1908, he revolutionised poster design. Pick, who was actually a lawyer and administrator, was convinced that good design enriched life; so he breathed new life into a medium that had hitherto been quite conservative and text-based – and commissioned picture posters. “No need to ask a policeman” was one of the first posters designed by commercial artist John Hassall in 1908 as part of a campaign to allay the public’s fear of using the Underground Railroad. Pick subsequently focused on brand identity and openness, believing that there was room for all design styles on posters. While on the one hand he felt it was necessary to ensure a brand identity in London Transport’s posters, within this framework he consistently focused on variety and diversity. This led, among other things, to Pick beginning to work with graphic designers in the 1920s who were influenced by avant-garde art movements such as Futurism, Cubism and Surrealism and who conveyed the “modernity of the underground”. Pick commissioned a number of respected designers of the time, including established and prolific poster designers such as Fred Taylor, Walter Spradbery and Austin Cooper, as well as internationally renowned artists such as Christopher Nevinson, Laura Knight, Edward Wadsworth, Paul Nash and Man Ray. For three decades, Pick cultivated an extensive network of artists and designers, a legacy that brought London Transport critical and international recognition for its graphics and design. In the future, the new „Global Poster Gallery“ at the “London Transport Museum” in Covent Garden will honour this significant design legacy and its worldwide influence.
The modern graphic poster emerged in the 1890s and revolutionised the fields of advertising, publicity and propaganda. As the London Underground became a more unified network in the early years of the twentieth century, it quickly harnessed the power of graphic posters. In 1915 Pick discovered the talent of Edward McKnight Kauffer, an American-born designer who would later dominate British poster art. Kauffer designed many of the best-known posters for the Underground and London Transport until the Second World War. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Underground Group’s posters reached a qualitative peak. In 1927, The Times read, “There is no doubt that the credit for the earliest consistent use of good posters of any kind goes to the Underground.” In 1933, when London Transport was formed as an entity, the company was seen as a leading promoter of the arts.
The poster collection, rated outstanding by Arts Council England, is one of the world’s largest collections of 20th century graphics and design, with around 1,000 original poster artworks and over 30,000 posters housed in the museum’s depot in Acton, west London. One can also browse the collection online, and over 3500 poster motifs can also be ordered from the online shop. The opening of the new Poster Gallery will feature the exhibition “How to Make a Poster”, a visual exploration of poster commissioning and creativity in the pre-digital age from 1900 onwards, with more than 100 poster artworks and posters from the museum’s collection.
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