The Treaty 1921 Posters

As part of the promotional book launch for The Treaty 1921: Records from the Archives, we collaborated with the National Print Museum to create a series of limited edition letterpress posters featuring seminal quotes from the book. These were displayed at the book launch event at the State Apartments in Dublin Castle. The limited run was gifted to the many partners and collaborators that contributed to the book.

We decided to have three separate posters. When selecting the quotes to use, we decided on one from Lloyd George – leader of the British delegation, one from Arthur Griffith – leader of the Irish delegation and the final quote as something to capture the everyday personalities of the delegates.

Working with Mary Plunkett we used a selection of wooden type from the museum’s collection. The posters were printed on Fabriano Rosapina using the Vandercook proofing press. Using various different sets of wood type allowed us to enunciate certain words and phrases. The posters are unified as a set by having them all start from the same height and setting the quote credit and archive details in Univers.

We recorded and documented the entire process of the creation of the posters. These were used as teaser videos on social media to promote the book and launch event.

We also designed totems that would stand alongside guest speakers at the launch. These were created by digitising the posters and adding a portrait of each person that made the quote. The totems were made out of 100% recyclable honeycomb board.