Twice Daily: The Visual Language of Circus Posters

The presentation explores the rich visual language of circus posters in the twentieth century, through a collection that charts the history of one circus family’s journey from Siberia to 1930s London. These primarily typographic posters provide an insight into the practices and processes of print across Europe at a time of intense technological change. Produced in short runs, posters inadvertently acted as type specimens for printers of the period, showcasing a range of primarily condensed sans serif typefaces that were mixed and thrown together according to size and the availability of characters. These were often local in nature, with posters produced for circuses in the north of England displaying woodletter typefaces designed and cut by Sheffield’s Stephenson Blake Type Foundry (1818—2005). Colours were limited by the nature of the print process, with sizes dictated by the presses available. These restrictions imposed by the physical and time-consuming methods of print production are no longer applicable, yet the vernacular tradition has left a lasting impact upon visual culture today.