Abram Games: Posters for the British War Effort and its Aftermath, 1937–1955

Your Talk May Kill Your Comrades, 1942
Publisher: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
Lithograph, 14 1/8 x 9 9/16” (35.9 x 24.3 cm)
Click here for Naomi Games’s note on this poster.

Born at the outbreak of the First World War, Abram Games (British, 1914–1996) was a generation younger than pioneers of British poster design such as E. McKnight Kauffer and War Artists such as Christopher Nevinson and Paul Nash. Games came of age professionally during the Second World War. Called for military service in 1940, he was appointed Official War Poster Artist in 1942 (a title Games held alone). He created some 100 posters for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office during the war years, many of which are marked by his distinctive adaptation of avant-garde aesthetic strategies pioneered by his predecessors. These include his arresting use of geometric forms (the circle and the spiral, for example), fields of flat color, sharp juxtapositions, and positive/negative inversions derived from photography. While Games is best known for his wartime posters, he continued to work in the postwar period, offering a visual language appropriate to the great task of rebuilding England’s cities, infrastructure, and economy.

The posters included here represent a selection from the collection. Our cataloguing relies on that of the Estate of Abram Games, as published in Naomi Games, Catherine Moriarty, and June Rose, Abram Games: His Life and Work (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003). Dates reflect poster design rather than publication. We have taken the liberty of quoting some of the excellent notes compiled by Naomi Games from her father’s recollections in links in the captions.

Radio Location: Train with the Army or with the A.T.S.
(Auxiliary Territorial Service), 1941
Publisher: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
Lithograph, 30 x 19 7/8” (76.2 x 50.5 cm)

Horse Play With Weapons May End Like This…, 1942
Publisher: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
Lithograph, 19 3/4 x 14 1/2” (50.1 x 36.8)
Click here for Naomi Games’s note on this poster.

Join The A.T.S (Auxiliary Territorial Service), 1941
Publisher: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
Lithograph, 28 3/4" x 19 1/8” (73 x 48.6 cm)
Click here for Naomi Games’s note on this poster.

He Talked—They Died, 1943
Publisher: [Her Majesty’s Stationery Office]
Lithograph, 14 5/8 x 9 5/8” (37.1 x 24.4 cm)
Click here for Naomi Games’s note on this poster.

Talk Kills (double image), c. 1943
Publisher: [Her Majesty’s Stationery Office]
Lithograph, 14 3/4 x 19 5/8” (37.7 x 50.5 cm)

Series: Your Britain, Fight for it Now, 1942
Publisher: Army Bureau of Current Affairs
Top: Health (Finsbury Health Centre)
Middle: Education (School in Cambridgeshire)
Bottom: Housing (Worker’s Flats, London, 1936)
Each: lithograph, 20 1/4 x 29 1/2” (51.4 x 74.9 cm)
Click here for Naomi Games’s note on the top poster.

A Train Every 90 Seconds, 1937
Publisher: London Transport
Lithograph, 39 7/8 x 24 15/16” (101.3 x 63.3 cm)
Note: This is the first of eighteen posters Games designed for London Transport.

5 Million Guiness Daily, 1958
Publisher: Arthur Guinness Son & Co. Ltd.
Screenprint, 20 x 30” (50.8 x 76.2 cm)

Note: In this playful poster, the inclusion of a vertical beer glass allows the “G”
of Guinness to also be read as a rotated “5.” In a related poster Games also designed for Guinness (V&A, E.155-1980), the beer glass occupies the stem of the “G.” Click here for Naomi Games’s note on this poster.

From a series of eight posters for The Financial Times, 1951–59
Publisher: The Financial Times
Left: Men Who Mean Business read The Financial Times Every Day, 1951
Right: Men Leading Ahead in Industry read The Financial Times Every Day, 1955
Both: lithograph, 30 x 20” (78.7 x 53.2 cm)

Belfast–Heysham, Express Night [Ferry] Service, 1951
Publisher: British Railways (London Midland Region) 
Lithograph, 39 5/8 x 24 7/8” (100.6 x 68.2 cm)

See Britain by Train, 1951
Publisher: British Railways (London Midland Region) 
Lithograph, 40 x 25” (101.6 x 63.5 cm)

August 2, 2023