Modern British Posters: Art, Design & Communication

Modern British Posters explores the interaction between modern art, graphic design and the utopian vision of Britain in the twentieth century, as the modern poster found a way of communicating beyond the established rhetoric of advertising and sales.

Modern British Posters discusses the cultural significance of the poster as mass communication, the development of printing through a large collection of posters. The posters cover topics as broad as transport, new towns, art, architecture, the seaside and popular culture. The posters in this book demonstrate the graphic language emerging in Britain during this time, as commercial art was transformed into graphic design.

The book is drawn entirely from the prestigious graphic collection of Paul and Karen Rennie, with posters from artists including Paul Nash, Edward Bawden, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Abram Games, Peter Max and Tom Eckersley amongst others. Modern British Posters also includes graphic objects and ephemera, such as badges, books and magazines, contextualising the cultural significance of the modern poster in Britain.