Learn About Posters

Original posters are our passion. The more time you spend around them, the more there is to learn: why one poster was folded and another rolled, why the same film can have completely different artwork in Britain, France and the United States, why a little restoration can be perfectly acceptable, and why two apparently similar posters can have very different values.

We created the Printed Originals Learning Resource as a practical home for that knowledge. It is for anyone who wants to understand the object behind the image — whether you are buying your first original poster, framing something you already own, researching a piece you have inherited, or have been collecting for years.

There is plenty of terminology in the poster world, but it should not be intimidating. These guides explain the things we look at every day when sourcing, assessing, framing and handling original posters, in straightforward language and with real examples wherever possible.

Our own tastes range widely. We love the colour and craftsmanship of early French lithography, the confidence of Mid-Century Modern graphic design, great travel and advertising art, and the illustrated US One-Sheets of the 1970s and 1980s that made cinema advertising an art form in its own right. The joy of the subject is that there is always another artist, format, country or story to discover.