The poster has been around for hundreds of years, serving first and foremost as a means of communication. The simplest definition of a poster is any form of paper with a printed design or text that is created to be hung on a vertical surface. The poster’s genesis was purely a textual form, most often used for displaying government decrees. One of the earliest, more developed forms of poster was a means of advertisement, such as for one of Shakespeare’s plays. Eventually, posters came to be used as a way to spread propaganda, especially during wartime. Another common use of posters is as a cheap and efficient way to mass-produce popular artworks for the general public’s consumption.
