The city of Aubervilliers has posted images of hundreds of posters created by members of the French design collective Grapus before, during, and after their official establishment from 1970 to 1990. Grapus emerged from the Atelier Populaire in May 1968.

It’s not the easiest site to navigate — once you click on a category, the tiny page numbers appear to the right, just under the thumbnails.

Grapus was active in Aubervilliers in the 1980’s and deposited their work with the city archives — who eventually posted them online just last month. The archive is the most complete collection of their ouput, consisting of 863 posters spanning 20 years of collective work on social, cultural and political issues. (Thanks, Gilles!)

Two poster mockups. Click above for high resolution PDF’s. Please reproduce and distribute.

Got a another idea? Here’s the unicode text.

Circa 1942-45. Larger version here.

Oh wait, isn’t “terrorism” waging politics by fear?

Too busy to post much lately. But if anyone’s still checking this site, here’s a teaser for you — a couple sketches for a work in progress. Click a thumbnail below for a poster-sized PDF. Feel free to use as you see fit.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved resolution 060442, Peak Oil Plan of Response and Preparation, “acknowledging the challenge of Peak Oil and the need for San Francisco to prepare a plan of response and preparation.”

An SF Informatics / San Francisco Oil Awareness press release notes the role of the U.S. Department of Energy’s own study on peak oil, as well a poster used in its advocacy work:

“Among the high-visibility tools used by the groups is a colorful poster called The Oil Age, created by SF Informatics in association with Global Public Media. The poster traces the history of oil production worldwide and displays relevant energy statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, BP Statistical Review and other industry sources. The poster was hand delivered to dozens of Bay Area elected officials in January, including the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, The Department on the Environment and the Communion on the Environment.

‘The poster is a great way to open up city officials’ doors,’ said David Fridley, a scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and a member of San Francisco Oil Awareness. ‘It’s a very effective passport into the halls of power because of its polished and professional quality.’ Co-member Jennifer Bresee agrees: ‘Plunking down this poster in front of a supervisor is a lot more effective than trying to explain it in words alone,’ she says.

Copies of The Oil Age poster can be purchased at www.oilposter.org. To date, over 1,600 posters have been donated to teachers worldwide. And thanks to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, the poster has been distributed to every member of the U.S. Congress.”

Now on newsstands across NYC is the cover of this week’s Time Out New York, an events and listings rag. The camouflage shopping bag is intended to evoke martial metaphors: tactical tips for your bargain hunting strategy inside.

But it struck me as quite an elegant, visual link between War and The Market!