Henryk Tomaszewski

1. What it is — Lithographic poster for OZN (Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego, the semi-official state political bloc of prewar Poland), 1939, 53.3 × 72.4 cm; the earliest work in this note, five years before Tomaszewski developed his recognizable hand-drawn language.
2. Composition — Photomontage: a row of cannon barrels in the lower left corner, above them a column of marching soldiers spanning the full width, the silhouette of warplanes in flight at the upper left, a portrait of an officer (probably a marshal) fitted in at the right — all layers of photographs montaged one over another, without a single drawn element. The eye enters through the title at the top, descends through the planes toward the cannons and troops.
3. Colour — Monochrome, sepia-beige tones of photographic paper; the contrast is carried by black printed text, not by colour.
4. Typography — Printed capital letters arranged in three blocks of different sizes ("GWAŁT ZADAWANY SIŁĄ, MUSI BYĆ SIŁĄ ODPARTY" largest at the top; "SWEGO NIE DAMY / NAPASTNIKA ZWYCIĘŻYMY" medium; a small block of text about general mobilization next to the portrait) — it has nothing to do with his later hand lettering, it is entirely conventional propaganda typography of its time.
5. Message — Three-second test: military force (cannons, planes, column) plus a call to defend — readable as a mobilization call even without reading the text. From five metres the motif of marching and weaponry remains recognizable.
6. Why exactly this way — In 1939, on the eve of war, photomontage is the standard language of state propaganda across Europe (a legacy of Soviet and German constructivist posters); the young Tomaszewski (25 years old) is working in a prescribed idiom, not his own.
7. What would kill it — Nothing in this work carries his later signature. Its value is purely documentary: it shows the starting point and thereby measures how complete the later break with this language actually was.

Principles: — To verify against the image: The typeface has not been identified. The name of the officer in the portrait is not confirmed in the record.

1. What it is — Lithographic poster for the Polish distribution of the French film La Beauté du Diable (directed by René Clair, 1950, with Gérard Philipe), 1954, 58 × 85 cm (Stedelijk Fi_P-7); the MoMA record has no image, but preserves a direct quote from the designer about his intent.
2. Composition — Three male figures in a row, with the same silhouette of hat and coat, arranged left to right like a filmic sequence of frames: the first entirely black, a solid silhouette; the second with the outline of the coat thinning into cream, as though losing density; the third entirely green, in a distorted, "melted" run — one figure in three states of transformation. The film's title sits in a small block at the bottom centre, below the third figure.
3. Colour — Three values: black (solid, material), cream/the white of the paper (vanishing), green (diabolical, unstable). Colour here literally measures the degree of transformation, it does not decorate.
4. Typography — Hand-lettered title for the film, small relative to the figures — the text is a signature, the figures carry the story.
5. Message — Three-second test: the same man, three states, the third state is monstrous-green = the "selling of the soul" of the Faust film story readable as a sequence, before a single letter of the title is read.
6. Why exactly this way — According to Tomaszewski's own testimony (MoMA), the Polish state client asked that it not resemble a Japanese, American, Russian or Swiss poster — what was asked for was to "find the essence of the film" in his own language. The essence here is literally the sequence of transformation, a filmic sequence reduced to three static images.
7. What would kill it — If all three figures were the same colour. The entire effect rests on the gradual loss of solidity and materiality across the sequence, not on the difference between individual figures.

Principles: Transformation through a sequence of figures To verify against the image: The exact name of the institution whose copy was photographed at the Stedelijk differs in accession number from the MoMA copy; it is considered the same edition of the poster.

1. What it is — Lithographic poster for an exhibition of Henry Moore's sculptures in Warsaw, 1959, 69.3 × 99.1 cm; a gift from the designer himself to MoMA. According to a secondary source (Seek & Speak / James Victore), this poster is a turning point in which Tomaszewski builds a sculptural garden out of the letterforms themselves.
2. Composition — A saturated indigo-blue field; the word "MOORE" broken into large white letters across the full width, with the gap enlarged between "M" and "OORE" so that a small grey photographic fragment is fitted into the gap, resembling a sample of a sculptural form — an organic, rounded shape, like a Moore hole-through-form. The eye reads the letter as form before reading it as a word.
3. Colour — Two values: a deep indigo field and white lettering, with one grey photographic accent. The same logic of reduction as in the film posters, applied to an exhibition, not a sales, task.
4. Typography — Large, hand-built capital letters. The letter is not a font but a drawn shape whose thickness and spacing are part of the composition, not a later adjustment.
5. Message — Three-second test: the artist's name alone, broken as though it were itself a sculpture — an abstract form (Moore's hole through stone) translated into the gap between letters, before a single word about the exhibition itself is read.
6. Why exactly this way — Moore's sculptures build form around a void (a hole through a mass of stone); Tomaszewski translates that principle into typography — the gap between letters becomes the place where form happens, the same trick as in the sculpture.
7. What would kill it — Even spacing between all the letters. The entire point lies in the irregular, broken spacing that turns the lettering into a sculptural object, not into a legible sign.

Principles: One image, one word To verify against the image: which exact Warsaw institution organized the 1959 exhibition is not confirmed.

1. What it is — Lithographic circus poster, 1961, 67 × 97.5 cm (Stedelijk 1992.2.0115). One of hundreds of "Cyrk" posters that Polish designers made for the state circus administration. Here there is not a single figurative image of a clown or animal.
2. Composition — The word "CYRK" is set in large, irregularly cut letters, each a different colour and different texture (C green, Y black, R red, K black). It is surrounded by six hand-drawn spirals of different sizes (black, green), one black dot and a tiny red diamond, scattered across a cream ground with no grid or axis.
3. Colour — Three colours sit on a neutral cream ground (green, black, red), each used both for a letter and for an accompanying graphic mark. Colour links the letter to the spirals into a single visual system, not a separate decoration.
4. Typography — The letter is a drawing, not a font — each letter is a different shape and colour, as if drawn by a different performer in the show. The imperfection of the cut is deliberate.
5. Message — Three-second test: the spirals carry the dizziness and movement of the circus, the scattered colourful letters carry playfulness. The message "circus" arrives from the energy of the composition itself, without a single image of a tent, clown or animal.
6. Why exactly this way — Unlike most "Cyrk" posters, which show a specific act of the programme, here the task is generic — a poster for the genre itself, not for a particular show. Analogy (the spiral as circus movement) is the only possible route without illustrating a scene that doesn't exist.
7. What would kill it — If all the letters were the same colour and the same cut, the sense of playful discord that the spirals and letters build together would be lost. A single font would turn the poster into an ordinary name, not a visual circus act.

Principles: Hand gesture against the cut Analogy instead of illustration To verify against the image: the name of the specific circus troupe or season for which the poster was made is not given in the record.

1. What it is — Lithographic theatre poster for the production "Juliusz Cezar" (Shakespeare) at the Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw, 1971, 86.6 × 59 cm.
2. Composition — A large portrait head on a black background, shaven skull, with two hollow, purple-rimmed whites of the eyes without pupils — like an antique marble or bronze bust, not a living face. The theatre's name in a white block at the top, the play's title in a white block at the bottom — the head fills the entire centre, framed by two texts like an inscription on a monument's pedestal.
3. Colour — A green head on a black ground — the colour of patina on bronze or mould on old marble, not the colour of living skin; purple only in the eye rims, as the single "bloody" accent on an otherwise deathly palette.
4. Typography — Printed capital letters in white rectangular fields, strictly separated from the image — the only work in this note where the text is not fitted into the drawing but stands as a nameplate.
5. Message — Three-second test: a face like a statue means a ruler or historical figure already dead before the play even begins — the green colour announces in advance the decay and murder that is the central event of the drama, before a single name is read.
6. Why exactly this way — By the time of the production, Caesar is already a symbol, not a person — the statue is the exact right choice because the play begins with historical distance (everyone knows how the story ends); the green and purple palette fuses the monument with the corpse.
7. What would kill it — Realistic skin instead of patinated stone or metal — the moment the face becomes a portrait of a living person, the idea of looking at an already-existing monument, not a man, is lost.

Principles: — To verify against the image: It is not clarified whether the green colour is a deliberate reference to bronze patina or to marble covered in moss — both readings are visually possible.

1. What it is — Lithographic signage poster for the Warsaw edition of the international theatre festival Théâtre des Nations, 1975, 98.4 × 67.3 cm — a functional entrance marker, not an announcement of a performance.
2. Composition — The entire surface is saturated red; at the top a black plate with "Varsovie 1975" (white lettering), below it a cream/gold plate with a gold border and "THÉÂTRE DES NATIONS" — both plates imitate museum or monument nameplates. Below, hand-lettered "ENTRÉE" in large black lettering and a white arrow pointing right.
3. Colour — A single saturated red ground carries everything; the two plates (black, cream-gold) give an information hierarchy (city/year vs. festival name), black/white for the functional, urgent message (enter here).
4. Typography — Two registers: neat, "official" lettering on the plates (city, festival) and hand-drawn, quickly written lettering for "ENTRÉE" — the difference in lettering signals the difference in function (ceremonial announcement vs. practical instruction).
5. Message — Three-second test: red + arrow + "ENTRÉE" readable as "enter here" even to someone who knows neither French nor Polish — functional signage that works as a poster and as a sign at the same time.
6. Why exactly this way — The task is not to sell a show but to direct a physical audience across the festival grounds in a foreign city (Warsaw, international guests) — hence two layers of text: "ceremonial" (name/year/festival) and operational (arrow, entrance).
7. What would kill it — If "ENTRÉE" and the arrow were written in the same neat lettering as the plates above — the functional message would be lost in decoration; the difference in register is the message.

Principles: — To verify against the image: The exact location (which building/entrance in Warsaw) is not confirmed.

1. What it is — Offset lithographic poster for a television theatre adaptation of Aleksander Fredro's comedy "Damy i huzary" (Teatr TV "Kwadrat"), 1977, 96.8 × 66.5 cm.
2. Composition — A saturated yellow field; in the centre a smaller framed rectangle (grey ground) with two figures in profile facing each other: a lady with an ornamented white-green hairstyle/hat and the black silhouette of an officer-hussar with a moustache. Below the framed field, a thin line with arrows at both ends (like a technical dimension line on a drawing) and the text "Teatr TV Kwadrat" — the scene appears literally "measured" by an instrument.
3. Colour — A full yellow field, grey background inside the frame, white-green lady, black hussar silhouette — the contrast of warm yellow against cool grey/black sets the central scene apart as a "sample under glass".
4. Typography — Hand-written cursive lettering for the title (author's name and the play's title) above the framed scene — the cursive carries the written/handwritten tone of the comedy of manners.
5. Message — The lady and the soldier in profile, "measured" by a dimension line = a witty, "scientific" distance toward a drawing-room comedy about courtship and soldiers — Fredro's humour translated into the humour of representation (drawing as diagram).
6. Why exactly this way — Fredro is a writer of light, witty comedies of manners; the dimension line is a visual joke that treats the romantic scene as a technical object of measurement — the same degree of irony as in the comedy's own text.
7. What would kill it — Removing the dimension line — without it, only an illustration of two figures remains; with it, the scene becomes a comment on the very act of depicting/measuring human relationships.

Principles: Hand gesture against the cut To verify against the image: The exact year the TV adaptation aired is not confirmed.

1. What it is — Advertising poster for the French cigarette brand Gitanes (Seita), 1991 — one of the rare Western commercial clients in the body of work, made in the last decade of the career.
2. Composition — A square sign in the shape of a standard traffic prohibition sign (red border, blue diagonal line across the symbol), but inside, instead of a cigarette, stands the silhouette of the well-known Gitanes logo: a flamenco dancer in motion, with legs that leave a trail of smoke or movement behind them. Below the sign is the pink cursive logotype "gitanes".
3. Colour — The red-blue-white palette of the traffic sign, a universally recognisable convention, plus the black silhouette of the dancer and the pink brand logotype. The sign's colours are deliberately borrowed from a system that sells nothing but prohibits.
4. Typography — The existing cursive Gitanes brand logotype, not Tomaszewski's own letter design. The only work in this note where the typography is not his hand but someone else's trademark.
5. Message — Three-second test: a recognisable "prohibited" sign, but with marketing content instead of a prohibition — a witty inversion of a universal visual language. The message works precisely because the viewer first reads "prohibition", and only then realises it's an advertisement.
6. Why exactly this way — By 1991, cigarette advertising in Europe is already under pressure from regulation and no-smoking signs in public space. Tomaszewski turns precisely that visual sign of prohibition into an advertising vehicle — the same logic of analogy, a borrowed form carrying new meaning, as with the Cyrk spirals, here applied to ready-made, borrowed iconography.
7. What would kill it — If the sign were drawn as an original symbol rather than as a recognisable traffic sign. The whole joke depends on instant recognition of the existing visual convention that is then betrayed.

Principles: Twisting a familiar sign Analogy instead of illustration To verify against the image: The exact medium of distribution (street poster, magazine) is not confirmed.