The Poster Must Sing - Inspiration from outside your comfort zone

Towards the end of July I was lucky enough to be booked to DJ a couple of nights in Poland. The second night I was playing at was in the city of Poznań, the fifth largest city, which is in the west of the country.

In the spirit of Poznań's recent nomination as a candidate for "European Capital of Culture" for 2016, the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu) happened to be showing an exhibition called "Plakat Musi śpiewać!" (The poster must sing!) which was scheduled to end on the last day of my trip.

As a slightly-less-regular-than-I'd-like-to-be attendee of the excellent Long Lunch talks held in Edinburgh and Glasgow, I'm a big supporter of grabbing the opportunity to expand your influential horizons. I also believe - like a number of other web designers that I know - that you shouldn't restrict your inspiration to your chosen field of practice, because it's just far too insular and inward looking.

This means as a web designer or primarily digital creative, I would be well advised to seek inspiration within other non-digital creative areas, such as sculpture, product design, photography or more appropriately in this case, print and graphic design.

Curated by Zdzislaw Schubert, the exhibition in Poznań was of almost 350 posters (from apparently almost 30,000 included in the museum collection) presented to depict how "the poster" has changed throughout the 20th century, and what poster artists had the greatest influence on these changes. Arranged by style, and by date, there were some incredible examples of illustration, layout, design principals and rules being both closely adhered to and completely broken.

Personally, while walking round, I collected a few names to research based on posters that caught my eye, or made me think, which I'd like to share with you. These designers or illustrators and their work has made me think about the way I put sites together, and as an excercise in gathering inspiration, I think it's well worth trying yourself.

Koichi Sato (born, 1944)
As a fan of Japanese art in general, Sato's use of very tight, clean, thin lines, simple, spacious typography and carefully considered layout intreagued me.

1 - Gakuya (1983) / 2 - Poster Celebrating 10th Anniversary of "Tategumi Yokogumi" Magazine (1994)

Yusaku Kamekura (1915 - 1997)
Co-founder of the successful Nippon Design Center and founding member of the Japan Graphic Designers Association (JAGDA), Kamekura's perfection is clear, though his work is very expressive. His best-known work was for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games and for Expo '70 in Osaka.

1 - Full line of interchargeable lenses for Nikon camera / 2 - Expo '70

Roman Kalarus (born, 1951)
Currently a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, Kalarus also studied there. In 1995 he won the Grend Prix prize at XIV Biennale of Polish Poster in Katowice, Poland. His illustrative work and playful style took me by surprise after being so immersed in modern geometric styles recently. His clever free-hand approach really caught my eye. There's something quite dark, edgy and seductive about some of his work.

1 - Jazz BWA Olsztyn Plakaty z kolekcji Piotra Dabrowskiego (1994) / 2 - Rawa Blues (1988)

Per Arnoldi (born 1941)
A Danish designer and artist, apparently best known for the logo and curtains of the Copenhagen Operah House, and co-designing London's National Police Memorial. His bright flat colours felt bold and vivid, and his use of simple shapes was very striking.

1 - American Jazz Orchestra Concert (1980) / 2 - Jazz Festival Montreux (1994)

Lex Drewinski (born 1951)
Born in Szczecin (the first city I visited in Poland) Lex Drewinski worked as poster designer and animated cartoon director from 1981 - 1985. After emigration to West Germany in 1985 he studied digital graphics. In 1992 he became a profesor of University of Applied Sciences in Postdam where he has been running an independent workshop of graphic design. Since 1985 he has taken part in the most important poster exhibitions in the world.

Right away I was drawn to his bold, thought provoking graphics. Almost pictogram or iconic in nature, his work is immediately issue-driven, suggestive and often demands a second-look.

1 - Antony and Cleopatra / 2 - Racism (1993)

Pekka Loiri
A Finnish graphic designer, Lori worked for advertising agencies and book publishers before establishing his own studio in 1984. He has been a lecturer at varous universities in the Nordic countries, and has been listed in the "Who's Who in Graphic Design in the World", not to mention "Graphic Designer of the Year" in Finland. his work is a mix of illustrative work and blocked out colours, as well as clever use of shape and form.

1 - Vouden 1986 Perhaat Julisteet / 2 - Ihanne Aviomies

Kenya Hara (born 1958)
A Japanese graphic designer and curator, and art director of Muji since 2001. He designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Nagano WInter Olympics in 1998 and published the book "Designing Design". He's considered a design personality in Japan.

These photography based posters were at the exhibition - the scenes are so serene, and the placement of type really caught my eye.

1, 2 & 3 - Kenya Hara, MUJI posters

So having looked at these, and the plethora of other posters on display at the exhibition, I felt inspired. I felt compelled to look at the principals and techniques employed by these (and other) designers and consider how these might be implemented to the work I'm doing with QueryClick.

Perhaps I'll use these designs and their principles to create a layout change for an email marketing campaign, or use them to initiate a different approach for the look and feel of a masthead area on a website design.

Perhaps all this art is a bit more hypothetical than that and maybe a case of thinking outside the box in the way that these designers may have done to reach their conclusion.

Regardless of how I implement my inspirations in to the work I do, I think it's a great excercise to go and experience things out-with your specialism. Take yourself outside your comfort zone, or give yourself a different perspective. I can't recommend it enough.

Have you seen a good exhibition recently? Have you seen anything that has changed your perspective? Comment and let us know!