British World War II Posters: Motivating a Nation

“Although there were more resources to reach the public in World War II than in World War I, the poster again became an indispensable means of stirring the public. With its bright colors and catchy slogans, the poster served as a primary tool of government propaganda, calling for patriotism, national security, production, and being on guard against the invader.

The adage, “the walls have ears,” was illustrated several times, and produced new challenges for graphic artists. What were the symbols for national security? How could they portray the need for a nearly paranoid caution against an insidious enemy?

The posters that succeeded the best relied upon graphic simplicity and an absence of emotion to bring civilians together in a common fight against the enemy. Accenting the close relation between the armed forces and production, English women and others were exhorted to work in the factories and make the sacrifices needed for the war.

The Blair-Murrah exhibition of British World War II posters is possibly the finest and most complete in portraying the subtleties of this complex time. This collection of vivid, exciting posters demonstrates the power of simple, clear graphics to motivate a nation.”

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Frederick A. Horn

Born in Bradford, married to another artist and with one son, ‘Frederick A. Horn’ was an artist, designer, typographer and writer. By 1957 he was art director of T. Booth Waddicor and Partners, advertising agents. Horn ‘came into advertising via printing, in which field he was writer, designer and technician for many years’. He had had wide-ranging experience, with men such as E. McKnight Kauffer and had already made a name for himself as ‘an authority upon typography, advertising and presentation’. He joined Percy Lund Humpries as a young designer in the 1920′s, ‘those golden years of exploration, revival and discovery’. In 1924 he gained the status to undertake the production work on Penrose Annual, a responsibility he held until 1936 when he became studio manager of Bemrose and Sons of Derby. In 1938 he became art director and studio manager of the Cecil D. Notley Advertising agency. Horn joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC), ‘where the authorities had the good sense to allow him to share in creating a Publicity Section attached to the Depot Planning Branch of a large Central Ordnance’. In the job he prepared graphs, charts and diagrams and ‘ingenuity and shoe-string planning’ was needed to produce and reproduce posters and other propaganda. He particularly focused on ‘cleverly constructed’ ‘cautionary messages’, printed economically on the backs of old print jobs. Post-war he continued to work for various advertising agencies and produced texts on typography.

Information collated from: Gowing, M., ‘The Creative Mind in Advertising: Frederick A. Horn’, Art and Industry, Vol. 63, No. 373, July 1957, pp.6-9, 34.

John Holmes (Jnr)

Holmes moved to Edinburgh in his mid-twenties, working in research and teaching laboratories, with a number of his illustrations appearing in text books and scientific journals. His work often had a nautical theme.

Information collated from: Scottish Art, ‘Artist Biography’, http://www.scottishart.co.uk/bio.php?bio_id=14&artid=JH1&defval=Artist_Biography, accessed October 3 2003.