I Want You for the US Army Poster

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James Montgomery Flagg was born in New York on the 18th of June 1877. At the age of twelve, St Nicholas Magazine a popular children’s magazine for that period, paid him $10 for a drawing. Within a couple of years Life Magazine a general interest and humour magazine were frequently accepting his drawings and at fifteen years of age Judge Magazine a weekly cartoon magazine hired him. While Flagg was in his early Twenties heed taken a few years off to travel all over Europe. While Flagg was in Europe heed studied in London and Paris where he met one of his idols, an American artist John Singer Sargent , who was considered “the most celebrated, sought-after and expensive portrait painter in the world".

During the time Flagg was staying in London, and despite taking a vast dislike to Sargent, Flagg continued to be influenced by his work. There are many similarities to be found between Flagg’s and Sargent artwork. When Flagg returned from his travels he decided to undertake a living as a portrait painter. Even though Flagg was unsuccessful in this career, due to his marriage to Nellie McCormick an older, wealthy socialite he was able to carry on this form of living. By 1904 Flagg decided to give magazine work another try due to his lack of interest in painting portraits and accomplished far greater success.

In April 1917 The Committee on Public Information (CPI) led by a “muckraking journalist” called George Creel was formed. The CPI used every medium they possibly could to publicize there message, this included moving pictures, movies, posters, newspapers and the radio. George Creel came up with the Division of Pictorial Publicity, which was the name given to the organisation to specifically spread the message through posters or ...

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...hite goatee to save the trouble and money for arranging for a model. Franklin Roosevelt was impressed by this and replied: “I congratulate you on your resourcefulness in saving model hire. Your method suggests Yankee forebears."

The Uncle Sam poster is a striking and effective propaganda poster the colours and illustration make it eye catching, the design is simple and there’s not a lot of elements and information crammed on it and it’s very direct. But also can have a personal psychological connection too.

Works Cited

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/ww1posters/4979 http://hubpages.com/hub/James-Montgomery-Flaggs-World-War-1-Posters http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lithography http://hnn.us/article/53455 http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm015.html http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/ww1.cpi.html http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa418.htm

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