Margaret Timmers

Exploring Shell's remarkable advertising archive, which includes an extensive poster collection, as well as film, cartoon graphics and guidebooks, this book is the first to present a comprehensive overview of the company's artistic heritage. The key contributions made by some major artists and designers including Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson and Edward McKnight Kauffer are highlighted and beautifully reproduced from original archive material, and broader questions are explored, such as Shell's position within contemporary debates regarding the aesthetics of 'Commercial Art'. By delving into the ways in which Shell's publicity was conceived, commissioned and disseminated in the 20th century, the authors examine the historical and social contexts of Shell’s advertising and assess the work's broader cultural significance in shaping an era defined by travel, prosperity and mass democracy.

Even in the digital age, the printed poster retains an important, much-loved role in connecting with audiences in a way that both entertains and informs. The V&A was one of the first museums to start collecting posters and to recognize the importance of doing so. Far from ephemeral, posters are both a representation of the time in which they were produced and distributed and, in many instances, have shaped the societies in which they were seen. The story of the poster is both one of changing styles and new innovations in design, illustration and printing, and a visually compelling social history. The Poster brings together over 300 examples that tell a comprehensive visual history of poster design and the various ways the poster has been used to tell, to sell, to charm and to spur on change. Organized into seven thematic chapters that tell the story of the poster as a medium, each poster is accompanied by a concise commentary that explains the work in terms of its design, printing, content, message and the commercial, social or political impact it may have had. Featuring works by the masters of poster design that have become popular and highly collectible classics, charting the ebb and flow of styles such as Art Nouveau, Modernism, Art Deco, Psychedelia and Punk and featuring the nostalgic glow of muchloved brands as well as posters that shook and changed the world, The Poster will be an essential visual resource for graphic designers and illustrators – a reference for anyone with an interest in collecting posters and an engaging design and social history for all who appreciate this most popular of art forms.

As four-yearly snapshots through time, Olympic posters provide a fascinating record of our world - a lens through which we can explore links between sport and art, politics and place, commerce and culture. They offer an intensely visual representation of the modern Games, sometimes heralded as the 'Greatest Sporting Show on Earth'. "A Century of Olympic Games Posters" draws largely on the V&A's poster collection and shows the evolution of the Olympic Games poster, from the first official poster for Stockholm in 1912, right up to the present. This diverse collection of images includes official posters for the Summer and Winter Games set in their historical context, and linked to pervading themes such as politics, commerce, the Olympic symbols, cultural and physical diversity, and urban regeneration. It accompanies an exhibition at the Museum of Childhood.