Appreciating Vintage Posters

Understanding the history of posters will make you appreciate more the value of your vintage poster collection. Having knowledge on its history will also help you determine a poster's worth. A poster is any printed material that may be graphic, textual or both. Its purpose is to convey different kinds of messages. This is one of the reasons that posters are made to be very attractive and attention- grabbing.

Different Uses of a Poster

• Advertising Tool. Posters are used to advertise different events, like concerts, stage plays and films. They are also used to advertise and launch various products.

• Political groups also use posters to communicate political propaganda and protests.

• Posters are also used for artwork reproductions. Famous works of various artists are reproduced and sold in the market.

Types of Posters

• Political Posters
Political posters are very famous, especially during the first and second world wars. Most of these posters are calling for awareness and participation of citizens. Examples of some slogans used in political posters are "Uncle Sam wants you" and "Loose Lips Sink Ships".

Political propaganda and motivation are easily communicated through the use of posters. These posters are distributed and displayed on the streets. Political posters had been very effective in raising people's awareness. Examples of political posters that became famous through time are those of the great patriotic war and Rosie the Riveter posters

• Advertising, Events, Film and Affirmation Posters
The most commonly colleted posters are those of movies and concerts. The value of these posters can increase even more as time passes. Posters of dead artists are also given higher value. The limited number of comic book posters also has a high value because copies of this type of posters are very limited. Just like vintage comic books, a vintage comic book poster can cost you a fortune.

Affirmation vintage posters became popular collectibles not really because of how much they cost but because of the messages they convey. Messages like "Hope", "Leadership" and "Love" are some of the most common concepts of affirmation posters.

Cheesecake Posters
As the popularity of posters increases, another type started to circulate the market in the 1920s. These posters usually show beautiful women and commonly have an erratic theme.

A Brief History
Posters have been around for a very long time. The invention of different printing techniques and mechanisms gave birth to the modern posters around 1870. Lithography paved the way to bulk productions of posters.

According to John Barnicoat, with the popularity of posters, they eventually became a vital art form. Almost every artist wants to create a poster. Concepts such as Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Symbolism, Bauhaus and Hippie are commonly used and integrated in posters.

It is said that the Father of advertisement placards is Jules Cheret. He, together with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, created numerous poster arts in the 1890s, when the art of poster making started to spread in Europe.

If you want to start a vintage poster collection, it's always a good idea to choose the type of poster you want to collect and build your collection from there. Be careful in choosing posters to add in your collection as there are a lot of fake vintage posters circulating in the market.