Posters

The Post Office first experimented with posters in the 1930s as a way of advertising its services to the public. Large poster hoardings were first used in 1932. Special designs were also created for use on the increasing number of mail vans.

The use of posters really took off in 1933 when Stephen Tallent was appointed as the GPO public relations manager. He chose to commission work from talented young artists, including Graham Sutherland, Zero, McKnight-Kaufer and MacDonald Gill, to produce posters for publicity inside and outside the GPO. These artists became renowned as leading twentieth century graphic designers, and Post Office posters became famous as examples of graphic art.

Today we have over 5000 posters in The Royal Mail Archive, dating from the early 1930s to our ongoing collection of the today's designs. You can see a small selection of striking poster designs.

As well as the printed posters, we are lucky enough to have examples of original artwork for posters and other printed material, giving an even greater insight into the process of graphic design.