PROPAGANDA AND GRAPHIC DESIGN
Sergio Reyes
What is Propaganda
Propaganda is defined as a systematic propagation of official government policies
through manipulating communications to the public
The main uses of propaganda that most people remember are of the Political Party. The
party uses propaganda as a powerful weapon against citizens. They control people’s
minds with rumours, myths, ideas and false information. An Example of propaganda used
by the Party is ‘doublethink’, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength’,
is the Party’s slogan. Nowadays we all know this is wrong but back then this was only a
message by the government sent to the public to convince them to believe this. Citizens
would believe most things the government said, especially if it’s done as propaganda.
Propaganda Today
Many people believe that any persuasive communication is propaganda, one example is
corporate advertising, and this applies to this day and age. Although many view
propaganda as a bad cause, it sometimes isn’t, you may say propaganda used by the
government today isn’t as bad as it used to, things like anti-littering campaigns aren’t
exactly bad.
Propaganda isn’t necessarily bad, it has just been used in a bad ways in the past.
Propaganda may even be the truth, but it’s the government and designers who choose to
display only one side of the story without mentioning any negatives or fewer negatives.
Graphic Design
Graphic design had an important role, mainly in World War I and the Revolution of
Russia. After the invention of the printing press, it became possible for printing
posters/books. It was much easier and less risky to publish mass amounts of posters
than oral propaganda, so artists like V.V. Mayakovsky and the Russian Telegraph Agency
were asked to create posters to influence the opinions and behaviour of the people
during the war.
Although Russia was first to publish propaganda poster, the USA were the ones who got
it noticed more and managed to publish more poster than any other war-nation.
How it was all influenced
It wasn’t much what influenced the artists to create such posters in the early 20th Century,
but what influenced the public from these propaganda posters. The Soviet War and the
First World War was happening at the time when propaganda became radical. These
posters were so important around those times that millions were printed. Their main aim
was to manipulate men to join the war (even by emotional blackmail), change political
view, and any way which helped out during the war.
Graphic design played a leading role as it’s a way of communication and it’s universally
understood. Because visual images can be easily perceived, sometimes emotionally and
understood immediately.
As propaganda was commonly used by Nazi and communists, it was given a negative
polish to the word. Artists in modern day take so much influence from early 20thcentury
to, again, influence the public opinion with powerful but none forceful technique. Arguably,
this period changed the design/advertising world forever. Now it’s hard to tell whether
corporate brand posters are propaganda or advertising.
‘Hope’ By Shepard Fairey
This is the iconic Barack Obama ‘Hope’
poster Designed by artist Shepard
Fairey. The poster is a stylised pencil
drawing of Obama in colours very
unusual to be used in modern
day/politics. It was made to look from
early 20th Century, in the era of the
propaganda posters. The poster uses
the same 3 colours used on most
propaganda posters by the US
Government during the Second World
War. The pop art and pencil Style is
what makes the poster stand out, with
also the facial expression by the
President making you believe that there
is ‘Hope’.
Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5cHt7W4cVQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxx-wMhBDeM