Obama Poster and Plakatstil Movement

Obama Poster and Plakatstil Movement

The Plakastill movement combined both Art Nouveau and Art Deco and was known as the beginning of modernism. The common ideas of this style are eye-catching lettering with flat colors. Shapes and objects are reduced to simpler approaches, and the pieces close in on a central object. In Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, this famous poster design was used to help promote him and help lead him in winning the election. Both posters use similar concepts of minimalism, clean bold lettering, and a centralized focus. The Obama poster is based off of an original picture taken of him and has more of a pop art feel to it whereas the Plakastill poster is more of a generic approach to the overall movement. Both posters use a modern take on art to promote their central focus. The Obama was based on Social-Realism due to it being used for political reasons and having it use a real picture of Obama. Many Plakastill posters have realism in the artwork like the example below however, not all of them did. Also, Plakastill posters started in Germany so most of the language is in German. After the Obama poster came out, a lot of controversy followed because of it using a picture of Obama, the photographer sued the designer as well as many parodies of the poster were created. Both posters use a modern take on art to promote their central focus within their specific time period.