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Propaganda Font
Hello there! I am about to start campaigning and I would like to base my posters around the communist propaganda style favoured by countries such as the Soviet Union and North Korea. My biggest problem is finding the right font! The text needs to be easy enough to read, so no backwards Russian-style letters or anything, and the capital D and O need to be distinguishable, since my name is ADO on the posters. I want the font to be imposing and cutting, perhaps with a little jaggedness. Most importantly, though, the font needs to be easily recognisable as a propaganda-style type! I hope that's not too specific for you; I've struggled, having tried a few such as VKB KonQa and Propaganda but not being satisfied. Thank you.
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27 Nov 2010 — 10:18am
Are you running on a communist platform, or representing the ironics?
27 Nov 2010 — 10:20am
I'm simply aiming to imitate their unique style of propaganda, as a humourous way of publicising my campaign.
27 Nov 2010 — 10:46am
There are books you can Google on that and get plenty of examples. The word "Soviet" and "Propaganda" are good key words.
I have a book titled "Soviet Posters" by Maria Lafont that would be a start. If you look at that book on Amazon, it will show you a bunch in the same vein.
27 Nov 2010 — 11:22am
Most importantly, though, the font needs to be easily recognisable as a propaganda-style type!
Take a look at my Downturn family. Downturn has a constructed style similar to constructivist-era Soviet lettering but is based on American industrial letters so you won’t run into the legibility problems and general silliness of Latin fonts that mimic Cyrillic.
27 Nov 2010 — 11:47am
"constructivist-era Soviet lettering"
The propaganda era was in the late 1940s and 1950's--well past the Constructivist era (30 years prior). Stalin had either sent those guys to Siberia or they had wisely escaped the country by then.
The old standard 1990s Windows Cyrillic condensed bold sans probably would work fine.
27 Nov 2010 — 11:35am
There are lots at MyFonts.
Simply enter "propaganda" in the search field.
I wouldn't shy away from the backwards R, if your audience is lay people rather than graphic designers.
They will still be able to read it -- there is more danger that they won't get the joke.
27 Nov 2010 — 12:18pm
There are lots at MyFonts.
In particular, Ryoichi Tsunekawa's Prop-A-Ganda fonts.
27 Nov 2010 — 1:23pm
Yes! Those Propaganda fonts are perfect!
Here are a few images going through a few Soviet decades:
1923 before constructivist ejection
1921 Typical
1947 early post war
1948 worker propaganda
1955 Typical Cold War
1963 Castro Krushchev era
BTW, I grew up during the "Duck and Cover" or "Better Red than Dead" era and saw some of the propaganda images of the 50s and 60s when the CIA released them to the media under either the "Know thine enemy" or else the "Keep defense spending fueled" reasoning depending on your bias. :-)
I even made a few spoof posters myself several years back.
1 Dec 2010 — 2:59am
You could also try Mostra Nuova by Mark Simonson.
1 Dec 2010 — 6:38am
Mostra Nuova is very beautiful but a bit too Italian for this.
1 Dec 2010 — 8:09am
Interestingly, both the Constructivist and Socialist Realism Soviet styles, although poles apart, employ bold condensed sans all-cap headlines.
Although the Constructivist lettering is hand-lettered and more blocky.
1 Dec 2010 — 8:45am
Mostra is propaganda of the Fascist persuasion. ;-)
1 Dec 2010 — 1:00pm
Maybe something from Fenotype might help, say, Ural or Lakmus...
1 Dec 2010 — 2:59pm
There's an app for that!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istalin-create-your-communist/id327879128...
1 Dec 2010 — 6:29pm
Some inspirations
10 Dec 2010 — 4:57pm
Not quite Soviet, but free: Parole.
Then again, these prop-a-ganda ones are really awesome ...