Jesse Willcox Smith
Jesse Willcox Smith, a native of Philadelphia, studied at the Pennsylvanian Academy of Fine Arts, a school of designs for ladies. She was a Red Rose Girls member and a student of Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute. She was hired by the American committee for public information to produce propaganda posters during World War 1, and in 1918 she made a poster for the Red Cross. "Have YOU a Red Cross Service Flag?" asks the poster.
In Jesse Smith poster the Red Cross Christmas rolling call presented one of the finest arts and studies of children painting in history. The poster is of a window scene, which was made with the hopes of recruiting every home in the nation during these hard times of war. From the photo, it showed a little boy fixing a Red Cross flag service flag in their window as an illustration to the open world that his home is fully enrolled. A Christmas wreath is hanging above the boy with the window curtains drawn to offer the world with a clear view. Besides promotion, it was used to acknowledge the efforts put in by people who support the war. The title of the poster was a question asking whether we have a Red Cross service flag. It was a portrait of a boy putting a Red Cross service flag on a window.
Red Cross Poster by Ludwig Hohlwein in 1914
Ludwig Hohlwein was a well-known German Artist and designer. He created a poster titled “ROTE KREUZ-SAMMLUG”, whose sole purpose was to seek aid for the volunteering Red Cross nurses. Three-quarters of the poster is a wounded soldier who is standing in front of an enormous red cross with his arm in a sling. The title and the message of the sign are positioned at the bottom in black ink. Moreover, the poster addressed the topics of politics, soldiers, nurses, volunteering, charity, and propaganda. It is a combination of a graphic and a pictorial symbol with an appeal of emotional power with a strong visual attraction. Ludwig balanced realism and power in proportionate compositions while tapping into the emotions of the intended audience to achieve its objective. The posters show that the war is real and the soldier is a symbol of power. The naturalistic imagery and painterly style were employed in designing the poster.
Similarities between the two posters
It is only rational to say that the two posters were designed and created in the same historical period as they all were designed during the First World War. Even though they were done with different artists, it was only logical for them to address the topics of propaganda, charity, and politics since, at the time, countries were at war and the only information to be communicated revolved around the three subjects. However, at this moment in time, the printing industry had perfected in the art of color lithography, so it is not surprising for the artists to exercise this conventional technique. Both the headings of the posters use a large font of with the words are well tracked. There is a mixture of both capital and small letter so us to attract then reader and bring out the uniqueness. They utilize the white color as a symbol of peace. Both posters have the year that they were designed printed at the bottom. Ludwig uses a great combination of white background and red color to design the Red Cross. In a similar way, Jesse utilizes a yellow background to enhance the red color of the cross in the flag. Addinitionally, the posters were an excellent combination of literature and imagery as they use the words in association with the images to convey the message. In the part of the analysis of the signs, they were similar in the sense that both had a red cross at the center. Furthermore, they are printed using the same material, which was paper and ink. Additionally, they designed in such a way that they could appeal to the emotions of the people. For example, Jesse utilizes the image of a boy who is adorable to attract more people to enroll while Ludwig uses an image of a wounded but brave soldier. Finally, the posters were created with the main aim of helping the Red Cross either by recruiting volunteers or by collection funds.
Differences between the two posters
It is evident from the dates on the posters, which were 1914 and 1918 respectively. Also, the artist was from two different countries - the USA and Germany. It is evident from the posters that the two designers were from different nations since the data is written in English and German. Ludwig kerns the letters in the heading in a different manner forming diverse attractive patterns while Jesse capitalizes the key word "YOU" for emphasis. Additionally, she uses different colors to bring out the hierarchy and scale. The poster by Jesse has many different images that are combined to bring out the beauty while driving the point home. Ludwig makes use of only two images - the wounded soldier and a red cross. It is only rational that since the two posters were made for different audiences, they would contain different information because Smith's poster was designed with the primary aim of recruiting more members while Ludwig’s poster had a sole objective of seeking aid for the Red Cross volunteer nurses. In the analysis of the posters, the apparent contrast is that Jesse’s poster uses a boy appealing to the emotions of the people while Ludwig’s poster has a wounded soldier. One of the posters was done during the festive season while the other is done on the war front. The Christmas wreath over the boys head signals a celebratory season, while the fully uniformed wounded soldier depicts a battle scene. Finally, since the two were from different countries, it follows that the posters were made for two distinct Red Cross groups - the American Red Cross for Jesse Willcox Smith and the German Red Cross for Ludwig Hohlwein.
The Posters
Poster by Ludwig Hohlwein designed in 1914
Poster was done by Jesse Willcox Smith in 1918
Bibliography
Bull, Charles Livingston, Charles Bosseron Chambers, Howard Chandler Christy, Haskell Coffin, Casper Emerson, Harrison Fisher, Dan Sayre Groesbeck et al. “Photographs from Enlisting a Nation.” (2015).
Lopez, Patricia J. “American Red Cross posters and the cultural politics of motherhood in World War I.” Gender, Place & Culture 23, no. 6 (2016): 769-785.
McCarthy, Megan Kathleen. “The Empire on Display: Exhibitions of Germanic Art & Design in America, 1890–1914.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 2015.
