SELECTED BY
KEN CARBONE
PEACE POSTER
DESIGNED BY
ROBERT BROWNJOHN
There are iconic works of graphic design whose timeless quality transcends stylistic fashion. In rare cases, some achieve a mythical aura. One such example is a peace poster designed by Robert Brownjohn in 1969. It was a radical departure from the peace posters of the time. Absent the Day-Glo colors, acid-trip type, and hippie imagery, it is oddly haunting and potent.
Brownjohn, known to his friends as BJ, was a founding member of Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar. In 1959, he moved to London, where he became renowned as the creator of title sequences for classic James Bond films including the audaciously sexy Goldfinger.
I was fortunate to work for Chermayeff & Geismar after graduating college in 1973. It was my first job. This poster hung in the office, and I saw it on a daily basis. Unaware of Brownjohn’s notoriety, I was initially puzzled by the poster’s cryptic symbolism, but when I finally put the pieces together, it was an epiphany. Uncovering the message embedded in the visual code was revelatory and deeply impressionable to me.
Despite its simplicity and apparent immediacy, I see this poster as a very refined design and continue to find meaning in the image. However, I want to believe it was created in minutes. It is fast, fierce, and transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. I often try this in my own work but rarely execute it at this level.
This is purported to be the last design by Brownjohn before his untimely death at 44, perhaps from complications related to drug addiction. This adds even deeper mystery to the poster. Why the ace of spades, a symbol of death, and not hearts? Was he questioning the futility of achieving world peace? Or was it BJ’s final quest for peace?