This diploma thesis summarizes the development of sociopolitical propaganda posters of the Cold War era in the Communist countries to identify the poster as an important graphic medium for advertising the totalitarian political system and to raise awareness of various socio-political issues. The first section focuses especially on the topic of propaganda itself and propaganda posters. It is followed by a brief overview of propaganda posters in the Soviet Union and in the German Democratic State. Afterwards there is a closer look at Slovenian socio-political propaganda posters in the Cold War era and their development from the influence of the Soviet Union, and how they became highly competitive graphic posters to Western Europe graphic design. Finally, there is a look into the new era of the poster in the 21st century, where the striking presence of posters in the streets is no longer the only important factor because of the increasing power of social media. Later on, it is followed by a brief analysis of 12 examples of posters during the Cold War in Slovenia from which 2 were selected, redundantly analyzed and compared to each other. This was especially important for a good understanding of the stylistic directions of those times and so that the creative process was made easier later on. In the experimental part, there is a focus on 5 bigger socio-political problems of modern times, where the problem itself is briefly presented. To trace the detailed descriptions of the research process, where it explored past Slovenian graphic elements of various posters, which later on inspired ideas for our posters. The thesis also focuses on the research in modern poster design guidelines, the interpretation of past graphic elements in a modern way was one of the bigger parts of this thesis and each research work is followed by the author's personal response to the creation of socio-political posters. Throughout our experimental work we have found that it is possible to adapt or completely retrieve past graphic elements and present them in an attractive contemporary way.
|