How to Make a Poster
About the project
Our How to Make a Poster project (2021-2022), funded by Arts Council England, aimed to uncover and share the commissioning and design process of London’s transport posters, both historic and contemporary.
The project involved digitising 2000 posters and 300 artworks as well as conserving 20 artworks from our collection.
In order to illustrate the process of designing and producing a poster, we commissioned two short films and Young Freelancers conducted four oral history interviews for the collection. We also worked with a freelance artist practitioner and Young Volunteers to produce artworks inspired by our poster collection. This project also included producing guidelines on how to care for our poster and artwork collection.
Film commissions
Sarah McMenemy
In this video, painter, illustrator and poster designer Sarah McMenemy introduces her work on poster and artwork commissions for Transport for London, including the mural at Shadwell station and the ‘Simply East London by Tube and Bus’ poster.
Paul Catherall
In this video, London-based printmaker and illustrator Paul Catherall describes the process of producing a poster commission for Transport for London using lino-cut printmaking. The film features recent poster commissions including Tate Modern, Four Seasons; Summer, London Transformed and East Finchley.
Oral histories
Helen Cammock
British artist and Turner Prize winner (2019) Helen Cammock talks about her recent Tube map cover and poster commission with Art on the Underground ‘Sit alongside me and feel me breathe’.
Doug Fishbone
American artist living and working in London, Doug Fishbone discusses his poster design ‘Untitled’ for the Art on the Underground project ‘100 Years, 100 Artists, 100 Works’ celebrating 100 years of the roundel in 2008.
Janette Parris
Contemporary artist Janette Parris discusses her TfL commission ‘Going South’ which was produced by Platform for Art, the predecessor of Art on the Underground, in 2003.
Esther Cox
Artist and designer Esther Cox discusses her TfL poster commissions London’s Riverside; Thames Barrier park, London’s Riverside; Richmond, Shopping in Southall and Shopping in Shoreditch all from 2017.
Collection Care Guidelines and Glossary
The Museum cares for a collection of more than 30,000 posters, representing up to 7,000 different designs, which include both preparatory artworks and finished printed posters.
These downloadable resources will be useful for Museum staff and volunteers, private collectors and students.
Collection Care Guidelines
These guidelines provide information on handling, storing, and moving posters within museum collections.
Glossary
This glossary provides information on the stylistic approaches, techniques, sizes and medium of posters and poster artworks within the London Transport Museum collection.
With thanks to
This project is developed in collaboration with our Young Freelancers and Young Volunteers as part of the Young People Skills Programme and is part of a digitisation and research project funded by Arts Council England.
Related content
The modern graphic poster came into use in the 1890s, revolutionising the fields of publicity, advertising and propaganda. Read about the birth of London’s transport posters between 1908 and the start of the First World War.
In this longer read, discover how art deco style was used by many designers to create visually stunning Underground and London Transport posters in the 1920s and 1930s.
During the 1920s and 1930s the Underground Group’s posters reached a peak of stylistic quality. Learn how London Transport became a leading patron of the arts, commissioning a wide range of designers, from the famous and established to the new and unknown.
In the years after the Second World War, London Transport (LT) was carrying more passengers than ever before and the pre-war tradition of pictorial posters continued with the commissioning of a range of interesting artists and graphic designers. Learn how this changed and how by the 1970s artists began to be replaced by advertising agencies.
Walter Spradbery was a prolific designer, painter and poet. Read about Spradbery's fruitful relationship with London Transport which spanned over three decades.
