Having read a lot about ways to influence people’s behaviour via poster design, I started to wonder about what the purpose of Social Poster Design actually is. Especially when looking at history, the term propaganda pops into one’s head, which comes with a strong negative connotation. Before continuing my research, I thus wanted to clarify for myself how to differentiate the Social Poster from the aforementioned term.
First of all, it seems clear that a Social Poster has no commercial purpose, the goal is not to sell a product or service. But what else is its purpose then?
To begin with, I looked back at the definition of Social Visual Communication Design I used in my first blogpost, which frames the term as “a form of visual communication design that had social qualities or properties embedded” (Hananto, 2020). Applied to poster design, one could thus say that a Social Poster would be a poster that has some social properties embedded. However, this statement is not specific enough.
When researching possible definitions, a certain lack of sources and information became apparent. Among the few sources I could find, there was a blogpost from Graphic Art News containing opinions of different designers. In the article, the Finnish designer Pekka Loiri states that in his view, the purpose of the Social Poster is “to awaken, alert, warn and remind. […] We cannot change the world with posters, but we certainly can influence people’s minds and thoughts by/with Posters. This has been always known by both opponents of the war than the war mongers. Posters have always been one of the most effective and used method when making propaganda” (Papaefstathiou, 2012).
This statement pushes the frame wide open for now also posters promoting war and violence are regarded as Social Posters and I do not wish to focus my research on those. In an attempt to clarify this, I looked up the definition of propaganda. Propaganda is defined as “dissemination of information—facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths, or lies—to influence public opinion” (Smith, 2022). It includes the “more or less systematic effort to manipulate other people’s beliefs, attitudes, or actions by means of symbols” and can be distinguished from educatory motivations by deliberate manipulation and selectivity (Smith, 2022).
In addition, I found another definition of the Social Poster from Vasilenko et al. (2021), who define its purpose as orienting “the viewer to the commitment to the highest social values – such as humanism, love for people, for life, and nature”. It seems that there is an underlying moral component to the issue. Unfortunately, a deeper exploration of this, albeit necessary, would go beyond the framework of this blogpost. For now, I will define the Social Poster for myself as a poster that aims to inspire their viewers to behave more ethically and sustainably or to draw attention to injustice and marginalization. This would entail posters advertising for woman’s rights, equality, LGTBQ+ rights, POC, environmental issues and general health and safety. It should be noted, however, that this definition claims neither to be exhaustive nor well-founded and requires closer examination.
After this provisional definition, I was wondering what the purpose of the Social Poster now is? The designer Luba Lukova stated in the blogpost that in her opinion Social Poster Design “provokes discussion, thinking, emotion. That may look not enough to transform the world, but that’s how art works: it has the power to change perception and increase empathy” (Papaefstathiou, 2012). Antonio Casto adds that he believes that “the only thing that a poster can do is calling people into action and it is a way for an artist/designer to channel his/her frustrations towards a particular social problem”. In addition, Susana Machicao also adds the Social Poster’s function of reflecting the prevailing zeitgeist: “Today social posters are the thermometer of the society and become an strong measurement of what happens and moves people. They become the historic registration and, in the future, young generation will be able to interpret a time period in our history”.
In the following, I want to dive deeper into this and find out if there is any scientific proof behind this. What effect can a Social Poster actually have?
References:
- Hananto, B. A. (2020). What is Social Visual Communication Design? Proposals on How to Identify and Define it. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 27-31.
- Papaefstathiou, M. (2012, April 17). What is Social Poster Design? 8 Significant Poster Designers Advice! Graphic Art News. Retrieved January 2, 2023, from https://www.graphicart-news.com/what-social-poster-design-is-7-significant-poster-designers-advice/
- Smith, B. Lannes (2022, October 6). propaganda. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda.
- Vasilenko, E., Vasilenko, P., Pallotta, V., Barsukova, N., & Sichkar, T. (2021). Features of the design of social posters of the XXI century and their role in the formation of ecological culture. E3S Web of Conferences, 311, 02008. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202131102008
