«New in the Collection: World War I Posters»

In 2024, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich received a donation of around 100 international posters from World War I. The 1910s marked the first appearance of the political poster, which experienced an early high point during the war. Design tools and communication strategies were borrowed from consumer posters at the turn of the century. Exhibiting for the most part an expressive, illustrative style, the posters are designed to elicit an emotional response from the public. Enemy propaganda confronts the glorification of one’s own nation, supplemented by appeals to purchase war bonds or donate to the cause. The impassioned argumentation draws on stereotypical images of heroic soldiers and self-sacrificing mothers and nurses, and on national symbols and personifications.