I have been looking at 2 different aspects of graphic design from the past, the 1st image I have is The Uncle Sam Range (1876) by Schumacher & Ettlinger, and the 2nd image is a poster by Savlie Lumley. The 1st image is an aspect of advertising, which at a 1st glance is quite hard to understand, as the oven is not the center of attention. The main focus is on Uncle Sam himself and his dinner party. The image is very in your face and is primarily promoting America. The image depicts 100 years of Independence and is gloating America’s triumph. On the over hand image 2 is a lot subtler, there is no use of big bold text and bright patriotic colours and symbols like in image 1. This image has been created to try and guilt trip men into joining the war. The poster was made in the time where the army was voluntary; it is a clever way of persuasion as it kind of emasculates men, the hand written style font makes the type read differently, it’s a bit more informal unlike image 1 where big bold gold western text has been used to grab your attention, the gold text represents wealth and power, they have made the U and the S capitals just for extra emphasis. Images 2’s text has underlined and capitalized the word YOU, which automatically links the viewer with the image. It directs the focus of the propaganda directly onto the reader. I feel Image 1 is fairly racist, the character on the right has a cartoon like face imitating Africans which is racist, they are trying to make it acceptable which would appeal to lower class as it is quite a low sense of humour. They have gone with the approach of making out America to be top dog, and insinuating America has better food and a better country. They mock the different countries with the list they have, for example saying the Irish just eat potatoes. Although both images exploit the audience the 2nd image is a lot subtler. It kind of paints a picture of the scenarios that men in that time would want to avoid. Men will kind of feel they have to join the army to prove themselves and be a hero to their children. The little boy is playing with soldiers and the little girl is looking at a book on the war, the father looks like he’s trying to avoid the question, he looks kind of intimidating which I feel works well to pressure into the decision. Both Images glorify an aspect of their message. Image 1 just glorifies America completely; making you want to help out your country and image 2 refers to the war as The Great War, which is only a presumption that they were going to win as the war wasn’t even over. I feel that image 1 is aimed towards men, probably middle and lower class; it kind of depicts the American dream. Image 2 is aimed at Men obviously and probably mainly fathers that want to do their children proud.
