Look At This: 5 Polish Posters to Draw The Inspiration From
We are all used to taking a very straightforward approach to poster creation: take the main character, add the title in a pretty font, and — voilà — the job is done!
If you take a look at the Titanic movie poster, you will see the beautiful faces of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. If you’re interested in visiting a concert or a music festival, you are very likely to see a photo of a headliner.
However, lately, graphic design is taking a turn back to making posters more creative and artistic. We see this as a perfect opportunity to remind yourself of some awesome work by Polish designers who formed Polish Poster School.
Henryk Tomaszewski (1914–2005) is seen as the “father” of the Polish Poster School. After WWII Henryk started to work for a state-run film distributing company and due to the shortage of supplies had to come up with creative, bold, and eye-catching movie posters.
This poster for Ostatni Wystep Grocka is an amazing example of how abstract drawing in bright colors communicates the story rather than focusing on the actor or decorations.
Andrzej Krajewski (1933–2018) was one of the later followers of the Polish Poster School. He had been creating movie posters in his signature pop-art and art-deco style up until the 1980s and then moved to the United States to continue his career there.
This poster for Różowa Pantera shows another poster trend. Graphic drawing with primary color referring to the movie name and bold black lines with unexpected accents in character’s appearance.
Roman Cieślewicz was working in Poland up to 1963 and then moved to France to continue his professional path there. He had an incredible career being the art director for Elle and Vogue (1965–1969) and then teaching Art at Ecole Superieure d’Arts Graphiques (ESAG) in Paris.
The poster for Zawrót głowy is another example of graphic art used to transmit the idea behind the movie. This poster does not rely on colors so much as they are used only as an accent but instead focuses on metaphorical forms and smaller details.
Unfortunately, Hanna Bodnar’s name is not as well-known as some of her colleagues, although her style deserves just as much recognition. According to Projekt 26, during her career Hanna produced at least 118 film posters and some political ones as well.
The most recognizable poster created by Hanna Bodnar has to be the poster for Śpiąca królewna (Sleeping Beauty) but we want to shed light on another poster. This one, created for the movie Prywatne życie Sherlocka Holmesa (The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes) still represents the unique style with watercolor textures but in a more elegant, modest form to fit in with the story.
Waldemar Świerzy was another co-founder of the Polish School of Posters. Over his working years, Świerzy has produced more than 1,500 posters, not only for films but for theater, circus, music, and social matters as well.
Although the focus on lettering and type was not widespread among the works of the Polish School of Posters, the poster for Sublokator (The Lodger) is just that. Again, we’re facing the bright color and beautiful hand-written words stating the name of the movie. In this case, the rounded and slightly uneven letters only emphasize the status of the comedy, as does the hidden ear drawing on the right.
Of course, the posters that we looked at in this article are only a small part of the diversity that the Polish School has given us. Bright colors, abstract shapes, meticulous graphics, handwritten fonts. All of these, together or separately, can inspire your projects. Or at least encourage you to buy one of the prints and place it at home :)
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