Urgent Messages: Direct messages from the ORC

In the Osborne Robinson Poster Collection, the University of Northampton owns one of the largest and most varied poster and printed ephemera collections in the country.
In early 2017 an exhibition held at Avenue Gallery (University of Northampton) was curated to specifically showcase clear and direct graphic communication in an attempt to reappraise the power of printed material as a means of mass-communication in the internet age. Pieces designed with ruthless graphic efficiency, with little room for exposition or explanation sat alongside others almost majestic in their illustrative beauty. Each exhibit was selected for its ability to distil disparate and sometimes desperate social and political issues into singular, powerful visual statements. Unlike the internet, printed matter navigates to us. A poster or handbill stops us in the street. They do not need a power source or a broadband signal, a like, a re-tweet or a share. They get in our way; they reside in the community, not just within social media echo chambers. You can’t swipe a poster left or right, or up and down. Using the posters as a point of departure, first year Graphic Communication students then reacted to issues they considered urgent (pollution; conflict; poverty etc), creating a series of printed and digital works which were displayed in the same gallery space.