10 Iconic Political Posters

Image via Complex Original

Designer: Lester Beall
Purpose: Poster for the Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
Year: 1937

In 1935, President Roosevelt started the Rural Electrification Administration to bring electricity to rural areas. Lester Beall created a number of posters to promote the government campaign, using bold imagery and colors to convey the need to get power to these farm communities.

Designer: Jean Carlu
Purpose: Poster for the Office for Emergency Management
Year: 1941

Jean Carlu’s classic propaganda poster inspired American citizens during World War II to get out and work. Carlu’s bold, Art Deco design has been noted as one of the best examples of WWII propaganda art.

Designer: Glenn Grohe
Purpose: Poster for the Office of Emergency Management
Year: 1942 

Glenn Groche’s poster for the Office of Emergency Management depicts the image of a dark menacing German soldier watching the viewer. The poster was intended to scare the audience into adhering to wartime rules about secrecy and warn them about the possibility of spies. Unfortunately, a survey of the American public revealed that many of the population were confused by the image, either thinking the helmet was representative of the liberty bell, or mistaking the “he” for a boss character and not an Axis spy.

Designer: Seymore Chwast
Purpose: Vietnam War protest
Year: 1967

Illustrator Seymore Chwast has created numerous political and socially charged pieces, but “End Bad Breath” is one of his most famous. Chawst created the poster to protest the bombing of Hanoi in Vietnam. 

Designer: Jim Trelease
Purpose: Democratic Presidential Primary, Robert Kennedy 
Year: 1968

One in a set of 8 psychedelic posters designed and illustrated by Jim Trelease. This poster captures Kennedy’s appeal with youth. 

Designer: Photographed by Larry Gates
Purpose: Vietnam War anti-draft campaign
Year: 1968

Singer Joan Baez and her two sisters, Pauline and Mimi, sat for this anti-draft photograph. The message of  “girls say yes to boys who say no” was intended to contradict the idea that draft resistance or dodging was unmanly.

Designer: Reagan Campaign
Purpose: Presidential Election, Ronald Reagan v. Jimmy Carter
Year: 1980 

This poster, for the 1980 presidential campaign, painted Reagan as a government “outsider” and someone who was in-touch with the common man. The picture of Regan in a cowboy hat, with drawings of the Statue or Liberty, New York City, Washington D.C., farmland and the American flag as a backdrop, worked to further propelled this idea. Reagan went on to win this election. 

Designer: Gran Fury/ACT UP
Purpose: Anti-AIDS/Pro-Gay Rights poster
Year: 1980s

Gran Fury acted as ACT UPs unofficial creative ministry. The activist/artist collective created propaganda pieces in order to shed light on the AIDS pandemic and point out the government’s lack of action towards informing the public or finding a cure. This poster highlighted New York City Mayor Ed Koch and his lack of action for the NYC community. The collective’s notable posters—"AIDSGATE", which criticized Ronald Reagan, and "Silence = Death,” which re-appropriated the pink triangle, used to denote homosexuals during the Holocaust—represent the consequences of not speaking out against the spread of the disease.

Designer: Guerrilla Girls
Purpose: The Public Art Fund of New York pro-feminist campaign.
Year: 1989

This Guerrilla Girls poster, created for The Public Art Fund of New York, commented that while there was a lack of women artist represented in U.S. museums, the amount of artwork in the museums that depicted nude women was almost double that of those piece depicting nude men. 

Designer: Shepard Fairey
Purpose: Presidential Election, Barack Obama v. John McCain
Year: 2008

Shepard Fairey designed this now iconic poster after a suggestion from publicist, Yosi Sergant. Even though the design was created independently, it still had the approval of the Obama campaign. Fairey and Sergant claim to have printed 300,000 posters and 1,000,000 stickers. As we know, Obama went on to win this election.