Propaganda Design: Inspiration, Tools, Resources, and Techniques

Propaganda is often thought of in negative terms. It evokes thoughts of wartime and misinformation campaigns by governments trying to deceive people or bolster support for what might otherwise be unpopular policies. But propaganda and the techniques it uses are prominent throughout our modern lives.

Every time you see a political poster, you’re seeing propaganda. Advertising in all forms almost always uses at least some of the usual techniques used by propagandists. Virtually anything created to persuade a person to do a certain thing or think a certain way has roots in propaganda.

As designers, it’s important that we understand the principles behind propaganda and the way it’s designed if we want to create more effective designs. After all, most designs are created with the end goal of getting people to take specific actions. Even if your designs don’t outwardly resemble propaganda, incorporating the techniques and principles behind successful propaganda pieces can greatly improve the effectiveness of your designs.

Background Information

It’s important, when studying propaganda design or designing your own propaganda, to have a basic understanding of what ‘propaganda’ actually means and what its goals are. The resources below have some excellent background information.

Propaganda Critic

This is a great primer site on propaganda. It covers common techniques, wartime propaganda, and modern examples.

What is Propaganda

Another analysis of what propaganda is and how it works:

Inspiration

Before we get into any propaganda design tutorials and resources, let’s take a look at some propaganda from the past hundred or so years. Below are collections of propaganda from around the world, most of it war-related. There’s also a section of fictional propaganda, mostly created around pop culture.

Amazing Propaganda Posters

This post from Oddee offers up a bunch of examples of propaganda posters from around the world. Included are WWI and WWII, posters from Cuba, Vietnam, and Chile, and even modern propaganda posters from the last ten years.

Propaganda Posters: United States of America

This gallery from FirstWorldWar.com offers a ton of propaganda posters from the US used during WWI. There are roughly 400 posters included in the collection.

Propaganda, Posters and Postcards

This site offers up propaganda posters from around the world, mostly from WWI and WWII, thought some date from before and after.

‘Unintentional’ Propaganda Posters

This post from Cracked.com pokes fun at a number of propaganda posters from around the world. It provides great examples of what not to do when designing propaganda.

Soviet Posters: Revolution by Design

The International Poster Gallery offers not only a collection of Soviet propaganda posters, but also a fairly extensive history of the time periods in which the posters originated. The posters on the site are all for sale.

Powerful Messages: Inspirational World War II Propaganda Posters

This short roundup from The Inspiration Blog showcases some very high-quality propaganda posters from WWII, all from the Allied countries.

Propaganda Design & Aesthetics: Soviet Retro Posters

Here’s another roundup of Soviet propaganda posters, with a bit of explanation for each one.

We Love Propaganda

Here’s a Flickr set that’s filled with propaganda posters from around the world. There are more than 500 images included.

Propaganda Inspired by Pop Culture

The propaganda posters here are based on video games, TV shows, and movies, but display many of the same characteristics of real-world propaganda designs.

Propaganda Posters, Showcase of Dramatic Artwork

The posters here have been created by graphic designers from all over the world. Some are based on fiction but others are based on previous real-world conflicts (and some combine the two).

Incredible Star Wars Propaganda Posters

Star Wars has been such a huge part of popular culture since it debuted in the 70s, that of course there would be propaganda posters created to exist within its world. There are posters here from both sides: the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.

Tutorials and Techniques

The tutorials featured below teach you how to create mostly vintage-style propaganda posters, reminiscent of posters created during WWII.

Create a Constructivist Inspired Poster

This Photosohp tutorial from Psdtuts+ shows you how to create this poster in the style of Russian Constructivism.

Create a Retro Style Poster with Shapes, Patterns, and Eagles

While not strictly a propaganda poster, the imagery is definitely in line with traditional propaganda design in the poster in this Illustrator tutorial from Vectortuts+. Just add a propaganda message and it would fit right in with posters from WWII and the Cold War era.

Tools and Resources

Here are some tools and resources for creating your own propaganda-style artwork and designs.

Propaganda Font

A free, slightly-distressed free font from DaFont.com.

Australian War Memorial Collection

A lot of propaganda designs use military imagery. This collection of photos from the Australian War Memorial is available through Flickr’s The Commons project.

World War I Panoramas

This collection of panoramic photos from The Library of Congress is available through Flickr’s The Commons.

Dafont.com Russian Fonts

DaFont has a number of Cyrillic-style fonts, perfect for a Russian or Soviet-inspired propaganda design.

FontSpace Propaganda Fonts

FontSpace has a small collection of interesting fonts for propaganda design, including some really great symbol fonts with appropriate imagery.