The Story behind Famous Graphic Design Posters

A Graphic design poster is a method of exploring the language of visual communication, excite the eye and tell a story. By creating a graphic poster you convert a complex image into something really powerful and compact.

To create a really good graphic design poster, an artist needs to have the basic tools that can help communicate with pleasure and ease to people. Many people assume that poster is dead and that they will no longer exist in the near future. This assumption is quite wrong and people need to open their eyes and see that posters are everywhere.

All through history, there have been many graphic poster designs. They vary from political campaign posters to movie posters or even event posters. Listed below are some of the most influential graphic design posters in history based on how aesthetically pleasing and influential they are.

“Keep Calm and Carry On”

This simple poster with its solid background and sans serif font made quite the impact when it was first released. Not many people know that it was first designed for the British army to encourage them to fight against the German Nazis. The design back then had a Union Jack emblem on it. Since its rediscovery in 2000, it has taken the poster world by storm with its simple yet powerful message.

Ben Franklin’s “Proto-Poster”

This design of a dismembered snake with the caption come together or die, was kind of propaganda type promotion to get various classes of America to band together and fight the British for independence. Today the design is so popular that they have been used as logos for popular event based companies and skateboarding companies.

“World War I Recruitments”

Americans know the very famous “Uncle Sam wants you!” campaign, it is effective and speaks volume just with its detailed graphic design, but not many know that this was inspired by the Brits in a world war I poster featuring Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener.


Above are just a few examples of many beautiful graphic design posters that managed to make a powerful impact so much that it still resonates with some modern day posters as well. It is very visible that the graphics in the posters of the past were visually drastic but managed to convey the intended message and that is why they were so successful.