TÜRK GRAFİK TASARIMINDA AFİŞ TASARIMININ İLK DÖNEMLERİ VE

KÜLTÜREL TÜRDEKİ AFİŞLERİN TÜRK GRAFİK TASARIMININ

GELİŞİMİNE KAZANDIRDIĞI İVME

Banu İnanç UYAN DUR *

ÖZET
Afiş sokaktaki insana en yakın sanat olarak kabul edilmektedir. Sokaklarda ve kamusal alanlarda ister istemez her
yaştan, kültürden ve sosyo-ekonomik seviyeden pek çok farklı insanın karşısına çıkan afişler geniş kitlelere hitap
edebilmekte, kalabalıkların ideolojilerini etkileyebilmekte ve estetik beğenisini şekillendirebilmektedir. Afişler,
sosyal, kültürel ve ticari olarak üç başlıkta incelenebilir. Genel olarak bakıldığında afişin amacı duyuru yapmak, bilgi
vermek veya her hangi bir ürünü tanıtmak ve reklamını yapmaktır. Fakat afişin geniş kitlelerin düşüncelerini,
beğenilerini ve alışkanlıklarını yönlendirebilme özelliği, ona artı bir işlev daha yüklemektedir. İnsanların
davranışlarını etkileme gücüne sahip olan afiş, estetik algı düzeyini de şekillendirebilen önemli bir grafik tasarım
ürünüdür. Türkiye’de, cumhuriyetin ilk dönemlerinde çoğunlukla halkı eğitme, bilgilendirme ve bilinçlendirme
amacına hizmet eden afişler üretilmiştir. Bu dönemde, yeni yönetim şekliyle beraber ülkeyi çağdaş medeniyetler
seviyesine çıkarma ülküsüyle yapılan inkılâpların bilgilendirmeleri, açılan yeni kurum ve kuruluşların tanıtımları ve
reklamları, çağdaş hayata yönelik halkı eğitme amaçlı afişler dikkat çekmektedir. Bu bağlamda afişin yönlendirme ve
belli davranışlar edindirme gücünden yararlanılmıştır. İlerleyen yıllarda, sanayinin gelişimi, sanat ortamlarının
şekillenmesi ve grafik tasarım eğitiminin daha profesyonel olarak verilmesinin de etkisiyle afiş tasarımlarındaki
estetik nitelikler gelişmeye başlamıştır. Özellikle sanatsal ve kültürel etkinlikleri duyurma ve izleyeni o etkinliğe
çekebilme amacıyla yapılan kültürel afiş çalışmalarındaki yeni görsel denemeler, biçimsel anlamda farklı
yaklaşımlar, içeriğe yönelik farklı çözümlemeler, grafik tasarımın Türkiye’de yerleşmiş profesyonel bir alan olma
sürecine önemli katkılarda bulunmuştur.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Grafik tasarım, kültürel afişler, Türk afiş tasarımı.

FIRST PERIODS OF POSTER DESIGN AND THE ACCELERATION

CONTRIBUTED BY CULTURAL TYPE POSTERS TO TURKISH GRAPHIC
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT
Poster is admitted as the closest art for people in the streets. Posters, which are appearing willy-nilly very much
different people of every age, culture and socio-economic level on the streets and public areas, can address wide
masses, can influence the ideologies of crowds and can form aesthetical taste. Posters can be studied in three titles as
social, cultural and commercial. In general, the aim of the poster is to announce, to inform or to introduce any
product and to advertise it. Yet, poster’s attribute of directing wide masses beliefs, tastes and habits, adds another
function to itself. Poster, has the power of influencing the people’s habits, is an important graphic design product
which is also forming the aesthetical perception level. In Turkey, posters produced mostly subservient of the aim to
educate, to inform and to make people conscious at the first periods of the Republic. In this period, posters are
attracting attentions which were about the information of the revolution, made with the ideal to bring the country up
to modern civilizations level together with the new regime, about the introductions and advertisements of newly found
institutes and enterprises, and aiming educate people about modern life. Contextually benefited from poster’s powers
of guidance and obtaining certain behaviors. Aesthetical qualities were budding in advancing years in poster design,
also with affect of the development in industry, embodiment of art environments and much professional graphic
design education. New visual experiments in cultural poster studies, which were especially made for announcing
artistic and cultural activities and also magnetizing audience to this activity, different approaches in formal means,
different analysis’ about content, contributed very much to the process of graphic design as an confirmed
professional area in Turkey.
Keywords: Graphic design, cultural posters, Turkish poster design.

* Gazi Üniversitesi, Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi, Görsel İletişim Tasarımı Bölümü, Tunus Cad. No:35
Kavaklıdere/ANKARA, inancuyan@gazi.edu.tr
INTRODUCTION

Poster is agreed to be the art which is closest to the people on the streets. Posters, which
appear willy-nilly to very much different people of every age, culture and socio-
economic level on the streets and public areas, can address wide masses, can influence
the ideologies of crowds and can form aesthetical taste. Posters can be examined in
three titles which are social, cultural and commercial. In general, the aim of the poster is
to make announcements, to inform or to introduce and advertise a certain product.
However, poster’s feature of being able to give direction to thoughts, tastes and habits
of the masses attributes it a further function. The poster which has the power to
influence people’s acts is an important graphic design product that can shape the level
of aesthetic perception.

In Turkey, during the first periods of the republic the posters that serve the aim of
educating, informing and raising consciousness of the people were produced. In this
period, the posters that aim to give information about the reforms that were made with
the aim of raising the country to the level of modern civilizations with the new form of
governance, to introduce and advertise the new institutions and establishments and to
educate the people about the modern life attract attention. Within this context, the
poster’s power of giving direction and establishing certain habits have been used.

THE FIRST PERIODS OF POSTER DESIGN OF TURKISH GRAPHIC

DESIGN

İlhan Hulusi Görey, who has an important place in Turkish graphic design history, has
created Turkish Republic’s institutional identity with his works in a way. Having been
educated in Germany, İhap Hulusi has made designs for Ziraat Bankası (Agricultural
Bank), Sümerbank, İş Bankası, Türk Ticaret Bankası (Turkish Trade Bank), Garanti
Bankası, Ministry of Finance, Türk Hava Kurumu (Turkish Aeronautical Association),
Devlet Demir Yolları (Turkish State Railways, Kızılay (the Red Crecsent), Yeşilay (The
Green Crescent), Tariş (Turkish Olive and Olive Oil Agricultural Sales Cooperation),
Zirai Donanım Kurumu (Agricultural Equipments Institution), Tekel (General
Directorate of Tobacco, Tobacco Products, Salt and Alcohol), Milli Piyango İdaresi
(National Lottery), and the like. The works of İhap Hulusi in photorealistic style, which
is the result of his education in Germany, has made him reflect more clearly the new
social structure that is attempted to be formed by the new form of governance during the
first periods of the republic. The modern looking and elegantly dressed human figures
in his posters gives the individuals of the young republic a message about the expected
and desired order and appearance. It is known that, İhap Hulusi who also used
photomontage technique, selected his models from his close social environment. The
modern reflections of educated and sophisticated people that constitutes his close social
environment, have in a way undertaken the mission of giving direction especially to
urban masses. (Visuals 1, 2, 3)

After the Alphabet Reform that was made in 1928, Arabic letters were replaced by the
Latin alphabet. In this period the posters people encountered in all public spaces,
interior and exterior, have contributed to the learning and proliferation process of the
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alphabet. İhap Hulusi, during the transition to the new alphabet, has also designed the
first alphabet book with Latin letters which is known by everyone with its cover design
having Atatürk and his adopted daughter’s visuals.

Visual 1, 2, 3: 3 posters of İhap Hulusi Görey.

The sensibility that also results from this, attracts attention. İhap Hulusi has used
different figures such as urban, rural, farmer, housewife, sportsman, and kids depending
on the content. In the poster of The First Village Reading Book (Köy Kıraat Kitabı)
together with the other elements in the composition, a figure which is understood to be a
farmer with his outfit and facial image is reading the book that he holds (Visual 4). In
his another work, the Sümerbank poster which states that women from every section of
the society can find the cloth that they want, is designed by using urban and rural
women’s images (Visual 5).

Visual 4, 5: 2 posters of İhap Hulusi Görey.

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Posters are among the most important tools in the period when there was no television.
Whether they have cultural, social or advertorial aims, it is seen that the posters during
the first years of the Republic had the functions of educating and leading the society.
When it comes to the beginning of the poster art in Turkey, Kenan Temizan as well is
an important name. Like Hulusi Görey, Kenan Temizan have been educated in
Germany, has worked as a professor in the academy that he studied, made the fashion
graphic designs of important magazineS and designed the movie posters of German film
industry companies until 1943. Temizan who returned to his homeland in 1943 and
became the head of the Fashion Iconography Department at the Academy of Fine Arts,
designed only few posters in Turkey since he had been abroad until that year. The first
periods of poster design in Turkish design history are represented by İhap Hulusi Görey
and Kenan Temizan. After them artists like Selçuk Önal, Mesut Manioğlu and Fikret
Akgün are seen in our graphic design history; later on in the 1960s Mengü Ertel and
Yurdaer Altıntaş attract attention with their distinct approaches to poster design.

CULTURAL POSTERS IN TURKISH GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY

The posters that make announcements of activities such as theatre, cinema, exhibition,
concert and festival constitute the cultural posters. When the early period of cultural
posters in Turkey is examined, the theatre posters that are produced by a few graphic
designers’ attempts and efforts are seen. The aesthetic level in the dimension of graphic
expression of theatre posters which brought in movement to Turkish graphic design is
the outcome of the value given to art by the theatre circles and actors. Mengü Ertel
(Visual 6, 7) and Yurdaer Altıntaş (Visual 8) who were among the graphic artists of the
period and who used this opportunity well are the leading persons that transformed
poster to a respectable tool of expression.

Visual 6, 7: 2 posters of Mengü Ertel. Visual 8: Poster of Y. Altıntaş.

After the 1980s the cultural activities (exhibition, opera, ballet, cinema, festival, etc.)
that increased in number for to the needs of the social order led to cultural posters
increase in variety. In poster design, artists like Mengü Ertel, and Yurdaer Altıntaş has
reached modern interpretations of traditional culture and repertoire, the designers such
as Sadık Karamustafa (Visuals 9, 10) and Bülent Erkmen (Visuals 11, 12, 13) who

 
belong to the later period has searched for different ways of analysis whether in
handling the concept, or in designing the formal structure.

Visual 9, 10: 2 posters of Sadık Karamustafa. Visual 11: Poster of B. Erkmen

Visual 12, 13: 2 posters of Bülent Erkmen.

These two important designers who discussed, criticized and kept in the agenda the
notion of graphic design, its place in our country and in the world, who supported
theoretical field as well with their publications, have attended numerous international
biennales, collective and personal exhibitions, special publications, special projects,
speeches and performances. In addition to these, there were others among the graphic
designers in that period who have been given many international awards with their
cultural poster works, and many of their works especially their posters have been
exhibited in museums, biennales, festivals, etc. abroad. The aesthetic level in the
dimension of graphic expression attracting attention in the international arena, gave
pace to the development of graphic design in Turkey which have been moving in itself.
This pace continued until today with the designers like Savaş Çekiç (Visuals 14, 14, 16)
and Esen Karol (Visuals 17, 18) who attracted attention with their simple typographic
works again in cultural posters and young graphic designers who utilized from
technological tools’ benefits.

 
 Visual 14, 15, 16: 3 posters of Savaş Çekiç.

Visual 17, 18: 2 posters of Esen Karol.

CONCLUSION

‘Visual’ in ‘visual culture’ can be defined as “everything that is visual, functional,

communicational and/or having aesthetic purpose produced, interpreted or formed by
people” (Barnard, 2002; 34). Accordingly poster is not only a tool that transmits a
message, information or that introduces or advertises a product but also a visual cultural
element. Just like other visual cultural elements, poster as well is in interaction with the
society. In this two way interaction while society’s culture, political and social
perceptions, level of education, aesthetic tastes influence the production process of the
poster, the posters too influence and transform the society. In this context, the posters
during the first years of our republic can be seen as elements of culture that aim to
reshape and educate Turkish society, and orient it to certain behaviors. As Barnard

 
states (2002; 248) visual culture has impacts that produce, product and transform the
society.

Poster works in later years, when analyzed considering the facts that they belong to the
artists who are educated in Turkey, produce for the society that they are raised in and
nurtured from the same resources, the influence of poster on social processed and the
influence of the society can better be observed. Social, economic, intellectual and
technological transformations in Turkish society have influenced the elements,
principles, and style and production techniques in poster design. The poster as a visual
cultural element that has many active features, despite its passive structure, can affect
the transformation of social processes with its structure that questions, supports or
criticizes social structures and attempts to change them by producing them again. In this
sense, it is a natural outcome when competent poster artists and designers influence the
level of aesthetic taste of the society with their works. Subjective and independent
design understanding in cultural posters have made important contributions to the
development of Turkish graphic design in addition to influencing society’s aesthetic
taste and visual culture.

In Turkish graphic design, the development period that started with the search for an
aesthetic level, different and original graphic approaches in cultural posters, continues
today in every field of graphic design. Today, new designers open their eyes to a more
established field of graphic design and yield products that is aware of the local and
global positioning of the field, and that is more original and conscious. Not only posters
but also other graphic works of contemporary young designers, who are a generation
that is open to try what is new, different and risky, are exhibited in biennales and
exhibitions, taken to museums and collections and take their place in foreign
publications. It is necessary for the contemporary graphic designers that produce more
not only in local but also international contexts, to produce meaning, create value, get to
know the social structures that influence their designs and be aware of the visual
culture’s power on societies.

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