THE INFLUENCE OF UKRAINIAN FILM POSTERS OF THE 1920s AND 1930s ON CONTEMPORARY GRAPHIC DESIGN

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the influence of the system of compositional techniques and graphics of the All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration Film Poster School and Ukrainafilm on domestic graphic design. Research methodology. The author has applied historical, art history, and comparative analysis. Scientific novelty. Through the similarity matching in the world and Ukrainian design and the study of the use of design schemes, techniques and tools that are permanently used in graphic design, we reason the influence of the Ukrainian Poster School of the 1920s and 1930s on contemporary graphic design practice. Conclusions. Despite a long break for ideological grounds in the functioning and study of Ukrainian graphic design in the middle of the twentieth century, we record a noticeable influence of the means and techniques of Ukrainian poster art on modern trends. These are general compositional techniques: placing a formatted face or figure as a dominant on the entire plane of the image, designing a composition on the principle of a “playing card”, deliberately replacing grounds on the inverted perspective. There are local techniques: concentric circles as a compositional dominant, filling the main character’s glasses with visual elements or font content, and rhythmically repeating visual elements or font groups. The identified similarities can be valuable in the young designers training, taking into account the general development of Ukrainian graphics’ history and its single branch graphic design. It is also possible to use these schemes, techniques and tools in contemporary design education as a methodological basis for teaching poster design, designing, composition, layout and modelling.