The War At Home

1944 poster for the Advertising Council-National Garden Program; Dick Williams artist

Those of us who grew up in the postwar years of World War II were not a part of the nationwide movement of planting victory gardens, food rationing, canning and preserving and other programs designed to support the government and armed forces during the years when America’s attention was focused on events overseas. Like many, our family did have a vegetable garden in the backyard, and like middle class mothers everywhere, my own mother preserved a variety of foods. But in those optimistic years following the war there was no rationing and I am unable to recall a time in childhood when many of us were forced to do without the basics that defined life among America’s middle class during that time.

Throughout the years of World War II the average American depended upon a ‘victory garden’ to provide food during a time when the nation’s major production was geared toward providing a food supply for the troops overseas. It was a nationwide effort by government agencies, private foundations, businesses, schools, and seed companies all working together to provide land, instruction, and seeds for both individuals and communities to grow food. Both Americans and the English created gardens from backyards, vacant lots, parks, baseball fields, and schoolyards, where children and adults fertilized, planted, weeded, and watered in an effort to harvest an abundance of vegetables. Any excess was canned and preserved for winter and early spring, until the next year’s victory garden produce was ready for harvest.

1917 Bureau of Education, Department of Interior; Edward Penfield artist

Those gardens are now a fragment of American history. Thankfully, we still have a wealth of catalogs, photos, film, newspaper articles and diaries that tell the story.

Prompted by a colorful outpouring of government sponsored propaganda, canning and preserving surged during both world wars. Citizens were encouraged to start victory gardens with an aim toward reducing their reliance on limited food rations. The next step was naturally preserving the newly-grown produce.

For both the government and the people war became a challenge to elevate the importance of food production and the daily habits surrounding food economy. Circumstances required citizens on the home front to adjust their daily, peacetime routines, an adjustment no one thought would be easy. Canning and preserving at home became a way of relieving pressure on the canning industry that was needed to preserve food for soldiers. With this aim in mind, the government called on artists to create a propaganda poster campaign designed to make canning seem patriotic. The result was an outpouring of posters featuring brightly colored artwork and slogans that recalled a simpler time when life and humor for most was unsophisticated. The posters became a device for bringing the public together around a common need to support the armed forces, conveying the message that Americans faced a vital need for food conservation, rationed goods, meatless and wheatless days, home gardening and canning.

1917 Connecticut State Council of Defense; artist unknown

Posters produced during World War I were for the most part designed in the older style of word outweighing picture or image. At the time of World War II the style was full-color, presented in an enthusiastic tone without mention of war and devoting more space to image than text.

The two posters above and below (both from World War I) speak to American common ground through religion, language, patriotism and the experience of immigrants. Both were produced in 1917 by the US Food Administration-Educational Division; the top poster is by artist A. Hendee, the bottom one by Charles Edward Chambers.

National Food Emergency-Food Garden Commission, 1917

Japanese Manner Posters

A lot has been said about the politeness of the Japanese people. Not a reputation arbitrarily bestowed, it is still one that should be taken with a grain of salt. In a city the size of Tokyo, the hurly-burly of daily life, of getting from point A to point B and of moving in and out of unrelenting crowds all in a hurry, there are occasions aplenty when the last word that comes to mind is ‘polite.’ To be sure, the case is pretty much the same in any bustling metropolis where thousands of virtual strangers brush up against each other in the ever-cycling course of big city life. Certainly no one is going to pull a gun in the Tokyo trains and no one is going take the train hostage, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get your toes trampled, your seat taken and your nerves frayed by selfish behavior. It happens everywhere.

Since 1974 Tokyo Metro has tried to leaven the cooperation and behavior of city commuters by means of posters asking riders to observe certain guidelines toward making everyone’s experience on the train comfortable and stress-free. The practice now is to release a new poster each month emphasizing common behavioral problems, but just how long the once-a-month schedule has been in place is uncertain. The posters are much more prevalent today, posted in greater numbers in more locations, and very likely easier to grasp than some of the older traditional posters.

For the past couple of years Tokyo Metro has adopted a three-color scheme of yellow, black and white showing cartoon-like depictions of antisocial behavior subway riders should avoid doing. Examples include talking on cell phones, taking up extra room on crowded trains, putting on make-up, blocking the doorways and failing to give seats to the elderly and infirm. 

The older style posters while employing more sophisticated graphic techniques and offering a kind of enjoyable puzzle in making the ‘behavior’ connection, are designs less likely to work on Japan’s young population in the twenty-first century. Today everything must be clear in the 140 character mode of modern social networking. These days no one has time to look, read, ponder and slowly arrive at the point with an appreciation for how the idea was presented. 

The first three images below are examples of the newer Tokyo Metro Manner Posters, while the remaining five are from an earlier period, a time when commuters were more likely to take a moment to consider an eye-catching poster before getting the point.

Please refrain from drunken behavior.

Please refrain from putting on make-up in the train.

Please share the seat with others.

Please wait behind the white line.

This poster from May 1979 shows an image of sumo wrestlers teetering on a white line. The large black characters at the right are isami-ashi, literally ‘loss by stepping over the boundary.’ It serves as a reminder for passengers to stand safely behind the white line when waiting for the train. The small characters on the left read, ‘Please wait behind the white line.’

Please give your seat to the elderly and infirm.

I’ll Stand Up is from July 1979 and uses the comic character Uesugi Teppei from the popular manga Ore wa Teppei. With a shout of “Boku, tachimasu.” (I’ll stand up) he quickly stands, offering to give up his seat to the elderly and infirm.

Please do not smoke on the platform during designated non-smoking times.

A poster from January 1979 titled Coughing on the Platform is modeled after the paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. Titled Hômu de Concon (coughing on the platform), the poster makes a play on the words concon (coughing sound) and cancan (French chorus line dance) and urges people not to smoke on the train platforms during the designated non-smoking hours. Today smoking is not allowed at any time inside train stations.

Please do not throw gum onto the platform or the floor of trains.

I Stepped in Gum is a poster from March 1980. The image of a cat stepping in gum is a playful twist on the popular children’s song Neko Funjatta (“I Stepped on a Cat”).

Please do not forget your umbrella when leaving the train.

Don’t Forget Your Umbrella from October 1981 is a reminder to riders not to forget their umbrella when leaving the train. The text at the top of this poster showing Jesus overwhelmed with umbrellas at the Last Supper reads Kasane-gasane no kami-danomi (literally “wishing to God again and again”). The artist is making a play on the words kasa (umbrella) and kasane-gasane (again and again).

From Montana to London

Montana-born artist Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890–1954) ranks as one of the most significant designers of the twentieth century, noted for his avant garde graphic design and poster art. With long years of living in London, connections to the artistic avant-garde in Britain and France put Kauffer at the forefront of developments in the visual language of advertising during the 1930s. Retrospective exhibitions of the artist’s work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Two airbrush illustrations from the 1930 book, World Polity in 2030; both illustrations show the artist working in the style of vorticism which favored machine-like forms.

A Lithograph titled Cricketer done in 1923

By the age of twenty Kauffer was living in San Francisco and studying art at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute. Through connections at the Art Institute, Professor Joseph McKnight of the University of Utah became aware of Kauffer and his work and chose to sponsor the young artist, paying for further study in Paris. In gratitude, Kauffer took his sponsor’s name as his own middle name.

Flea; Lithograph done in 1926 for the London Underground

Before leaving for Paris Kauffer studied briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago. While there he attended the much heralded Armory Show which introduced post-modernism to American audiences. The exhibition had a major impact on Kauffer, and many of the same styles showed up in his later career. He arrived in Paris in 1913 and studied at the Académie Moderne until 1914. He moved to London with the start of the World War, and remained there for the next twenty-six years. After only a year in London he had already become an extremely influential designer of posters, theatre costume, exhibition designs, murals, book illustrations, carpets and textiles. He and his wife-to-be Marion Dorn, also a designer, were a dynamic, glamorous couple in London’s art scene.

On the left is a lithograph from 1924 for Eno’s Fruit Salt; the right shows a lithograph for Gilbey’s Invalid Port done in 1933.

Kauffer is perhaps best known for the posters he produced for London Underground, and later London Transport. Those posters span a number of styles: many show abstract influences that include futurism, cubism, and vorticism, while others evoke the impressionist influence of Japanese woodcuts.

One in a series of illustrations done in 1946 for a 2-volume set on Edgar Allan Poe

The Lodger, 1926; tempura on paper

The artist returned to New York City in 1940 and sought work in advertising. He managed a few jobs designing posters for war relief agencies and the United Nations, but the atmosphere of the New York art world at the time was highly competitive and Kauffer struggled until 1947 when he was asked to do a series of posters for American Airlines. The airline continued to be his primary client until his death in 1954.

1931 lithograph, You Can Be Sure of Shell

Japanese Poster Graphics

Woodblock print handbills from the Edo period (1600-1868) are the earliest form of poster art in Japan. Styles and motifs were borrowed from the ukiyo-e prints, and like those prints, the handbills enjoyed broad appeal among the masses. Then in 1860, following the opening of Japan by the American Commodore Matthew Perry, lithography first came to Japan from the West, bringing new influences in the way of foreign engraving, and novel concepts of design. (Example with baby, ball and top)

At first, the Japanese held to their standards, typified by portraits of traditional, beautiful women, remaining faithful to the format popularized by Japanese painting. However, by the 20th century, modern western styles began seeping into Japanese poster designs. This was especially true with art nouveau and art deco styles. In the 1920s social awareness began to shape the newer designs as well, some posters having a distinct proletarian style. (Example below, in red with the large numeral 4)

Following World War II the production of graphic art and design became more organized with artists forming strong associations, and posters and other printed media began to have profound effect on popular culture. In 1960 Tokyo hosted the World Design Conference and thereafter Japanese graphic designed extended its reach overseas, discovering a worldwide audience.

Today Japanese design continues to embrace its traditional roots, but with a global perspective. Who would doubt that the work of this country’s graphic artists now represents the cutting edge of both concept and digital design technology, respected as never before. (bottom examples: whale and menu)