Explore the Posters
Below is an interactive map of the 200+ posters I collected in the past year. Click on each photo icon to see the poster and description.
Poster Cateogories
In analyzing the wheat paste posters from the past year, I have divided them into five distinct categories: organization awareness, event promotion, call to action, artistic protest, and information spreading. Of course, these categories are subject to interrogation, and there are a variety of posters in the map above that do not fit into these categories. However, I found these categories best, as they are determined by the function of the posters themselves. By analyzing the posters based on function, rather than location, design, or a multitude of other possible methods, it becomes possible to better view how they achieve that function within a space.
Organization Awareness
These posters do not call toward any specific demand of the viewer. They do not highlight any event, protest, donation, or call that is necessary for the viewer to take. However, they do raise awareness for a specific organization. While they often presuppose a baseline of information, these types of posters are making claims that are often strong and divisive, then associating their brand to these claims. This allows for a strong amount of brand recognition without a lot of work that is placed onto the viewer. This recognizability and brand association can be assumed to be the primary outcome of the posters.
Event Promotion
The wheat paste posters in the event promotion category have a clear goal, which is to raise awareness of an event. These events can be varied: from town halls to protests, they highlight movements where community attendance is required. These may have brands or organizations associated with them, and the posters often make this clear. The primary call to action of these posters is to facilitate event attendance.
Call to Action
While most of the wheat paste posters I have included in this study are asking the viewer to learn something, scan a QR code, attend an event, or seek out something similar, these wheat paste posters are asking something more. I am categorizing these call-to-action posters as ones that ask the viewer not to attend something from the organization or member posting the signs, but beyond that into more intrinsic workings of government. Overall, the classification of the call-to-action posters is categorized when the call to action of the poster is not an event, and when it supersedes the brand awareness given in the poster.
Artistic Protest
What categorizes these posters as artistic protest wheat paste posters is that they have no clear call to action or organization attached to them. They do spread information, but unlike information spreading posters they are primarily image based. The categorization of these posters is not determined at all by artistic ability or resonance. Instead, they are determined if the visual images are one of the primary points of focus of the poster, and if there is no other direct call to action of the work.
Information Spreading
Similarly to the artistic protest wheat paste posters, these posters have no identifying organizational information, or specific calls to action that they require of the viewer. Instead, these posters provide the community with direct information. Therefore, this poster functions as a purer form of community benefit, rather than asking the viewer to conduct any outreach. Since there is no feature on the visual or graphic art on these posters (though it is worth noting that there are visual decisions made in the text), they are classified as information spreading. They have no organization, no ask of the viewer, and are a text-based poster providing information to the local community.
