The Stenberg Brothers

‘The Stenberg Brothers’ Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg were Moscow-born graphic designers from Russia who produced film posters for the Soviet Union during the 1920’s. During this time they created over more than 300 posters with their constructivism style. The two would create street art and propaganda posters with young artists, the two were highly regarded within in the ‘avant-garde’ scene of Moscow at the time. This propaganda style can be seen throughout their posters from the 20’s. Their work was very important for the Soviet Union at the time, as film was used as a powerful propaganda tool to promote their principles to a mostly illiterate country. The brothers also had to communicate this through imagery using clear photographs and typography so that everything can be understood universally.

Examples of their propaganda film posters:

Analysis of Key Poster

‘Gossip’ The Stenberg Brothers

TECHNICAL -VISUAL-CONCEPTUAL-CONTEXTUAL

The striking poster above was created for a film in 1928, in the Soviet era by The Stenberg Brothers. The poster was for the film ‘Gossip’ which attempted to show the danger of careless talk, suggesting that those who spoke about things they didn’t understand or which didn’t concern them would fall victim to fear and confusion. Gossip was used as a propaganda tool across the Soviet Union, its poster was utilised to reiterate the film’s message on the people.

In the foreground, a man can be seen gazing into a street car in open mouthed horror, his expression is seen by the fearful face of a female passenger.  The layout is simple and 2D, this helps to make the point and meaning of the propaganda to come across direct and without confusion, it also seems to be set out as a scene from the film which further reinforces this. The colours used in the poster are generally vibrant primary colours which creates an eye catching poster, and are helpfully seperated by black and white lines to make the intentions and scenes clear to see, this technique is also used with the titles and the writing sections.