Aldermaston to London Easter 62 poster

Poster for the Aldermaston to London march on Easter 1962, designed by Ken Garland. From Wikipedia:

The Aldermaston marches were anti-nuclear weapons demonstrations in the 1950s and 1960s, taking place on Easter weekend between the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, and London, over a distance of fifty-two miles, or roughly 83 km. At their height in the early 1960s they attracted tens of thousands of people and were the highlight of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) calendar.

The design prominently features what now is universally known as the peace symbol (☮︎). Initially it stood for “nuclear disarmament” – Gerald Holtom designed it by superimposing the characters N and D of the flag semaphore. Its first major appearance was at the original Aldermaston march in 1958, which ran in the opposite direction, starting in London. You can learn more about the symbol and its history on 99% Invisible and in Mark Sinclair’s article for Fast Company.

For the typography, Garland combined two typefaces. The wide heavy caps are from Annonce Grotesque, arranged with tight spacing, as if the letters were linking arms and joining a protest march, too. Some of the glyphs seem to be hand-made. At least the repeating numerals (see 2 and 3) aren’t identical, nor do they match the original glyphs. Chances are that Garland worked with transfer lettering – Annonce Grotesque was among the first typefaces to be adopted by Letraset, and is shown in a catalog from 1960. He either ran out of numerals, or, more likely, worked with sheets that didn’t contain these glyphs in the first place: according to a later catalog from around the mid-1960s, the largest size, sheet IL 130 in 26mm/96pt, offered capitals only. For lowercase letters, one had to get sheet IL 131. And those who wanted to use numerals had to settle for a smaller size, IL 132 in 36pt – they simply weren’t available in 96pt.

The condensed sans used for the stations is Monotype Grotesque Condensed (series 318). The digital version is not an exact match in all the details; see a specimen of the original here.

Garland donated nine of his posters to the Design Museum’s permanent collection, including this one. The poster is also in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and on display at V&A South Kensington.

Via Giles Booth