The Ypsilanti District Library, 5577 Whittaker Road, opened the touring poster exhibit, “Say it With Snap!: Motivating Workers by Design,” on Jan. 29.
The exhibit will be open Monday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until March 15.
Forty-eight original workplace posters from 1923-29 designed by Mather & Company, a Chicago based printing company, are on display.
Assistant Director Lori Coryell chose to feature this show on loan from Exhibits USA. She said people looking at the posters through contemporary eyes will see them differently than the workers they were aimed at.
“At the time, the posters were something that was utilitarian, now we look at them as art,” Coryell said.
A team of artists used a three-pronged text design to address work place concerns.
A bold and catchy slogan sat at the top, a statement in the middle explained the slogan and a clincher sat at the bottom. A graphic image inspired by the artistic trends of the time reinforced the text.
“It’s visually stimulating,” said Rhonda Foxworth, an Interim Communications Coordinator. “I love the artistic quality of the posters. They represent an era where there was craftsmanship.”
Mather, the head designer at the company, offered businesses an 18-week cycle of 78 posters. He designated a suggested poster for each week.
A poster titled “The Teamworker!” from 1929 channeled nature with an image of a bee sitting on a flower, suggesting that working as part of a team is only natural.
“You are Working for Yourself. You Can Succeed Here” from 1924 was part of a group of posters focused on self worth. They captured the American idea that moving up in the world is as simple as being the best you can be.
A set of posters offered workers moral instructions. The posters discouraged gossiping, spreading rumors, and acting like a “know-it-all.”
“The posters were designed to teach people were just coming to work in industry for the first time,” Coryell said.
Many posters featured images of both industrious and athletic power. A speedy and accurate worker was a quality worker.
“One Second Late Will Miss a Train. Unless Your Work is Right it’s Wrong” from 1924 promised workers that “almost right will miss perfection.”
The company created over 350 posters, displayed in over 40 thousand firms nationwide. Lithography, their method of production, made it easy to mass produce images of drawings on blocks of limestone.
The 1929 stock market crash raised unemployment rates and drove down the demand for wok incentive posters. Mather & Company went bankrupt in 1931.
Modern posters are also on display. They take a more comical approach than the original work place poster.
The words “Consistency: It’s Only a Virtue if You Aren’t a Screwup,” sit under an image of arrows shot consistently off target.
Dwight K. Schrute, a character from the TV show “The Office” got his own poster. A picture of him accompanied some of his funniest lines from the show, including, “I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me.”
“It’s fun and it’s interesting to see how all of this is still applicable today,” said attendee Stephanie Hawken.
EMU history professor, Russell Olwell, gave an informal lecture on Jan. 29 to give the posters context.
The library typically has one exhibit a year, each one with both an educational and entertainment element.
