could secure a mass market” (D.Judd. 1972).

At the time there was no radio, no television, the motion picture industry was in its infancy, so it was the regularity of broadsheets therefore, that were bound to play a vital role in shaping public opinion.

Design techniques, strategy and distribution

“The development of mass and multi media offered a fertile ground for propaganda, and the global conflict provided the impetus needed for its growth” (D. Welch. 2013).

The next major evolution in propaganda came in the form Government backed Print Poster campaigns. The Parliamentary Recruitment Committee was set up in 1914 at the start of the War, its primary purpose was to campaign political issues through the circulation of leaflets and posters, organising rallies and other public events. At this point the British army was entirely voluntary. To combat poor recruitment numbers the committee commissioned a number of detailed poster designs intended to pray on the morality of the public. The recruitment problem however, only lasted until May of 1916 when conscription was introduced and enrolment became mandatory.

Fig 1: S. Lumley, 1915

Fig 2: E.J. Keeley,1915

Daddy, What did you do in the Great War

Women of Britain say go!

During this period considerable social pressure was put on men to volunteer, those who did not risked being labeled cowards by their peers. For many, it was their own sense of responsibility towards their families as wage earner, that proved enough motivation to enlist. Posters such as Fig:1 used that powerful sense of duty to family, but twisted it to imply that potentially in the future, children would hold their fathers accountable on the actions that they performed for their country rather than the protection that they provided their immediate family. The examples I have provided are among the most recognisable, and more commonly reproduced posters from the period.

All of these example were printed using traditional Lithography, a printing process that uses a flat stone or metal plate on which the image areas are worked using a greasy substance so that the ink will adhere to them, while the non-image areas are made ink-repellent. In colour lithography, a keystone or plate is created which holds the outlines. Subsequent stones for each different colour have then to be created and inked up and then overprinted. Although the quality of work that could be achieved was undeniable, due to the complicated and slow nature process however this was level of detail was not common practice, most British recruitment posters from this period were much simpler in design