Sergo Grigorian has meticulously constructed a collection of political posters, deliberately disregarding other interesting Soviet themes such as cinema, circus, theatre, sports and advertising (except those with clear underlying political meaning). In addition, Sergo Grigorian collects a wide range of literature and photographic materials related to the Soviet poster. Most recent acquisitions are found at the top of the general list of posters.

You can view the collection by catalogue number, year and author. All the posters are divided into groups and subgroups by category, historical period, author, series (e.g. The Fighting Pencil series), place of publication or edition, style, technique of manufacture etc.”

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Thus the government in London acted quickly in bringing out a stream of recruitment posters, including possibly the most famous of its type, featuring Lord Kitchener (“Your Country Wants You!”).

Other posters followed in due course, many urging wartime economy.  Others simply encouraged continued support for government policy, usually by whipping up indignation against the latest alleged outrages committed (invariably) by the German Army.

Browse the collection of approximately 40 posters by clicking each individual image.” on firstworldwar.com.

You can register to purchase these posters online until today (8th September). I, personally, don’t have the money for such things, but I’m sure there are others who have! there’s a couple of wartime posters in there, notably a couple of Fougasse and H.M. Bateman designs.

Thanks for the notification from IanVisits

Fougasse was born on 17 December 1887 in London as Cyril Kenneth Bird. Educated at Farmborough Park School, Hampshire from 1898 to 1902, Cheltenham College 1902 to 1904 and King’ College, London 1904 to 1908 where he studied engineering. He attended art classes at the Regent Street Polytechnic and the School of Photo-Engraving and Lithography in Bolt Court, while at King’s College London. Bird took on the pseudonym ‘Fougasse’ in the first world war, meaning ‘a small land mine which might or might not hit the mark’ in the First World War, as the signature ‘Bird’ was already being used by another Punch artist. The name was deemed appropriate for an ex-Royal Engineer, as he had been until wounded at Gallipoli in 1916. Whilst recuperating he started to draw cartoons which he sent to Punch and other magazines. He was successful but continued to take lessons from Percy V Bradshaw by correspondence. He became a regular contributor to Punch, becoming art editor in 1937, editor in 1949, retiring in 1953. When Fougasse was appointed Editor of Punch, Art and Industry ran a celebration of his work, written by his formed ‘master’, Percy V. Bradshaw. Fougasse described how his humour needed to be rooted in reality to be effective, and the method he had used to attract attention during the war years. Other magazines he contributed to were The Bystander, The Graphic, London Opinion, The Stretch and The Tatler.

He had designed his first poster for London Transport in 1935. Fougasse had abandoned commercial art-work about three years before war started, which Advertiser’s Weekly viewed as a loss, of ‘one of the most subtle interpreters of the British idiom that it has ever known’. He returned in order to design posters for the war effort. He was described as ‘the most sought-after humorous artist of our time’. By the Second World War he had become ‘an established cartoonist, illustrator and commercial designer. He offered his services free to the government, suggesting that humour was an ideal vehicle for propaganda, and went on to design a wide range of graphic material in aid of the war effort’. He designed ‘visual propaganda of all kinds: books, booklets, pamphlets, press advertisements and even a film strip’, working for ‘practically every Ministry’ and many other groups. Fougasse was personally commissioned to do work for the MOI by Embleton, Edwin. Fougasse received the C.B.E. in 1946. He died in London on 11 June 1965.

Information taken from: All About Posters, ‘Fougasse’, http://www.all-about-posters.com/fougasse.html, Accessed 28 August 2003; Darracott, J. and Loftus, B., Second World War Posters, 1981 (1972), pp.30-31; ‘Bird, Cyril Kenneth (C.B.E.)’, Anonymous, Who’s Who in Art, 1948; Bradshaw, P.V., ‘Fougasse of Punch’, Art and Industry, Vol. 46, No. 275, May 1949, pp.180-185; ‘Bird, Cyril Kenneth (Fougasse)’, Poster Database, London Transport Museum, accessed February 2000; ‘Advertising and the British Tradition’, Advertiser’s Weekly, February 22 1940, p.140; ‘The Mighty Fougasse’,Advertiser’s Weekly, February 29 1940, p.168; Caption at Power of the Poster exhibition at the V&A, 1997; Livingston, A, and Livingston, I., Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers, 1992, p.77; Questionnaire submitted by Royall, K. to Embleton, E., Royall, K., ‘Posters of the Second World War: The Fourth Arm of British Defence’, Unpublished M.A., University of Westminster, 1991, p.123.

• Katie Price (Jordan)
• Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley of Harry Potter)
• James May (Top Gear) (using the phrase in context)
• Ben Bradshaw (Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport)
• Philip Hollobone (Conservative MP)
• Neil Reddin (Conservative Councillor, Bromley)]

If you want to buy one of these t-shirts, or other bits and pieces, I’ve been checking out Barter Books, and Keep Calm London, and Yes/No Maybe

I have always loved finding subverted images of the posters that I studied:

• The further that you go into Google Images, the more variations that you find!
• Flickr has a number of “Design Variations“
• “Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake” was also featured in the New York Times
• “Keep Calm and Spray On” perfume!
• Keep Calm and Carry On (with mice)
• Keep Calm and McLaren On
• Keep Calm and Customise
• Deviant Art
• Detroit Variation
• 12 months of ideas on a calendar
• DoobyBrain: Change Words and Be Hilarious
• Make your own!

Other Entries

• What Quebec Wants
• Dr Bex Lewis in the New York Times (now this is the closest I’ve come to seeing the print item – so far!)
• A blog entry by Crossed Wires.
• Whirled Peas: KCCO
• Choose a Shoe (but it’s not an RAF poster, it’s the Ministry of Information!)
• Cian Ó Laoghaire
• Leave Duff and Carry On (The Simpsons-esque)
• Slogan for a Parenting Blog!
• So many variations in colour too. I have the red one from Barter Books, but I have to say I love purple nearly as much, it’s tempting!

Who likes it/mentions it (according to Google Alerts!)?
I’m just fascinated to see how it’s been repurposed!

• Lose That Girl
• Leah from London
• Breizh from Morgantown, USA
• See in Technicolour
• Daisy-Chain
• PlusNet Community
• Meet the Hazards
• Music, Track No 6 on their MySpace (not sure it’s my taste, but interesting none-the-less)
• Interior Designer (anti-the-”fad”)
• Should the Swedes take on the phrase?
• Splendicity
• Give Away Today
• Silvio Berlusconi?
• Parasol Party
• Rob Cherry, seen in a Beach Hut
• What(Ever) [highlighted some rude ones, just to warn you!]
• Pedlars
• Lexie (mind the music!)
• BCreativeNot Crazy
• Jamie
• Helen Morgan

I have, like, over 100 Google Alerts come in – stopped at around 40ish, have other work to do today, but there’s so much information on this – SO interesting!

One day, I would like to get an original of this poster, as the postcard of this that I purchased from the Imperial War Museum  formed the basis of my A-level research project, my degree project, and my PhD. One of the best places to purchase such posters, and they have a great visual catalogue of most of the images that they have sold, is Onslow’s, an auction house specialising in vintage posters (since 1984). See some of their past highlights, including a number of Second World War posters sold for significant sums of money!