Earlier on I did a posting displaying a few of the items in the Library of Congress' WPA poster archives (they have made these posters images public record). These recent times of discontent, anger towards the establishment, and the horrifying unemployment rate made me think back to the depression era and the public works projects created by the government through the New Deal. This is an example of an iconic time period of American History that is not wildly far off from what is going on now.

The WPA stands for the Works Progress Administration and created almost eight million jobs between the years of 1935 and 1943. A great deal of the jobs established for the WPA (along side the ones that were aimed towards improving the country's infrastructure) were related to the arts, drama, and literacy. These programs birthed an immense amount of awesomely designed poster art that became very important to the history of graphic design. Although mostly due to printing constraints of the time, these minimal and powerful layouts get the message across in a simple way without being cluttered or unnecessary. These compositions are widely used for design inspiration purposes in current times.

I understand that there are current programs along these lines, but perhaps more aggressive Works Progress Administration programs like these from the past could help the people of today and spread creativity. Displayed are a few more examples of the WPA posters.