Affiche van uitgever Holkema & Warendorf te Amsterdam 1903

This poster by an anonymous artist advertises Holkema & Warendorf publishers in Amsterdam. It’s not precious, it gets right to the point. I love how the books are treated as objects, all lined up like actors on a stage. There are the spines that are designed like the buildings and interiors of these books. The drawings are simple, almost cartoonish, but that simplicity belies a real understanding of form and composition. Look at the way the artist uses line to create depth. The texture is flat, matte, and smooth. It's like a page in a book, it invites you to touch. The color palette is very muted and understated. A kind of humble design, nothing too slick. This poster reminds me a little of the work of Ben Shahn, who also used simple, direct imagery to convey a message. But really, it's part of a long tradition of commercial art that goes back to the beginning of printmaking. Like art, it embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed or definitive meanings.