- Paris in the late 19th century
was full of optimism and excitement.
Peace and prosperity gave people more leisure time
and allowed for the expansion of all the arts.
The industrial revolution produced thousands
of ordinary products that needed advertising.
This, and the new prosperity, created new luxury goods
and multiple forms of entertainment to enjoy.
And these also required a new form of advertising.
We call this period La Belle Époque, or The Golden Age.
The limitations of printing technologies
created the look of the wood-type poster.
By the 1860s, new advances in printing
provided the opportunity to use color
and imagery with higher quality.
Jules Chéret expanded on the typographic
wood-type posters and is considered
the father of the modern poster.
He moved away from type-only solutions
and introduced illustrations and a more painterly approach.
The images convey a sense of frivolity and fun.
He used exaggerated lighting and energetic movement
to communicate excitement and pleasure.
Many of the posters use a strong X axis to maintain harmony.
The colors are carefully chosen
to give the illusion of artificial or stage lighting.
For example, a Sarah Bernhardt poster
uses blue on her face to simulate a stage-lit shadow.
And Chéret integrated the typography
into the image with hand drawn and painted letter forms.
Chéret presented women in a new and modern way.
Previous depictions in posters and art
were of prostitutes or holy figures.
His women were called "Cherettes"
and showed the new attitudes.
Women in Paris in the 1890s had a less restrictive role.
Chéret showed this with lower cut dresses,
smoking, energetic dancing, and even
operating new machines, like an electric lamp.
In the same time period, the flat forms
and simplicity of Japanese woodblock prints
influenced Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
He took Chéret's approach of an image-based poster
but moved toward a flatter and simpler form.
His posters also use theatrical lighting
and dynamic movement to create excitement
for the entertainment events he promoted.
Lautrec's posters integrated the typography as well,
but the style was less refined than Chéret's,
following a looser approach.
Lautrec also used large expanses of negative space
and implied form, as Japanese woodblock prints did.
He doesn't paint the detail of May Milton's dress,
we are only shown a large area of white.
The viewer is forced to fill in the blanks
to complete the elements in his or her head.
Other artists such as Théophile Alexandre Steinlen
shared Lautrec's passion for Japanese
woodblock art and impressionism.
His poster, Le Chat Noir, mixes
the solid shapes and high contrast of Lautrec's work
with a tighter and less fluid form.
The excitement and energy of this period in Paris
allowed for the explosion of creativity and innovation.
The posters reflect the vitality of the era and the place.
The idea of an energetic, image-driven design
replaced the informational and static posters from before.
Over a hundred years later, we assume
a poster will be dynamic and exciting.
Otherwise, it's just a sign.