1950 Unknown

Labour publicity; a ‘unity of style’ a ‘general 27 Michael Middleton, raising of the quality of the movement’s Soldiers of Lead, an Introduction to Layout printing’27 would help its fortunes. It was clear and Typography for Use in the Labour Party. to the Party that while they couldn’t afford a (London, 1948), p. 3. design agency to produce a campaign, coupled with the suspicion by many people on the left of 28 Dominic Wring, the party of the advertising industry;28 If you The Politics of Marketing the Labour employed the same nous and understanding Party (Houndmills, Basingstoke, of a unified message and aesthetic, those Hampshire ; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, big design agencies brought, in their smaller 2005), p. 46. more anonymous local offices and internal design departments they would be able to produce a campaign with a similar element of professionalism. There is an argument that the ‘DIY’ charm of the Labour produced posters gave them a personable edge in the design war against the more slick, polished and maybe rather cold Conservative campaigns. This effort to unify look and message is evident in 1950 and the campaign marks an evolution of Philip Zec’s series of posters, a singular language with tone of voice, typography, illustration and colour scheme, with the ability to tailor the message to the layout, rather than having a multitude of different styles and designs. We can see this used in the 1950 literature to great effect, although we can argue that this unification is maybe not as successfully as 1945, feeling at times a bit forced. In the areas it was utilised well; colour and illustration, it highlighted how, as Middleton claimed, that a campaign that had ‘brevity’ and ‘unity’ could be 29 Michael Middleton, ‘rammed home’ to voters’29 more succinctly Soldiers of Lead, an Introduction to Layout and memorably. and Typography for Use in the Labour Party. (London, 1948), p. 25. 1950 can be defined as the period in which Labour awoke to the importance of design theory and the importance of a unified message. Visual and Artistic Culture were on the rise, you have the Festival of Britain within this point promoting Britain as a creative culture, and these ideas are replicated in the quick advancement of visual culture within Politics, arguably more people were becoming aware of the influence of the visual. In combination with this, we have the combative nature of politics, although these ideas have soured our interactions with politics in the modern-day, the idea that you don’t have to just sell an idea, but also show why the other idea is bad, influences politics for years to come. Labour in 1945 and 1950 was successful in highlighting their 30 Christopher successes of government, without needing Burgess, ‘From the Political Pipe to to sell socialism, and as Burgess writes, they Devil Eyes: A History of the British indubitably made no specific promise about Election Poster from 1910-1997’, PQDT - UK socialist policy in 1950,30 it was all about & Ireland (unpublished Ph.D., The University remembering how bad the past had been. of Nottingham (United Kingdom), 2014), p. Although I’m keen to not put a large amount 100,