Graphic Design

USA Military Poster Recreation

Published 03/27/2012

WWII Iwo Jima Poster Recently one of our customers (who would like to remain nameless) contracted us to take an iconic piece of US Historical art and rework the design a little to suit a purpose.

The World War II Bond poster shows members of the 28th Regiment, Fifth Marine Division raising the American flag on the summit of Mt. Surabachi, February 23, 1945. This U.S. victory came after four days of bitter fighting on Iwo Jima, 750 miles south of Tokyo.

Without degrading the original artwork, our customer wanted to “brighten up” the imagery and give it a semi-watercolor feel. Mutliple colors were asked to be removed (primarily yellows) and colors like the red of the flag needed to be livened. We were also asked to remove the 7th War Loan portion and enlarge the NOW–ALL TOGETHER text to fill across the width of the sign.

Our first step was to redraw the image in a vector format allowing us to manage colors individually and to give the watercolor effect.

Once the vectorization was complete, it was a matter of trial and error with the customer to settle in on the final draw.

Below you will see a rendering of the final art as well as pics of the finished product hanging in the lobby of the client.

Thanks again to our client for an opportunity to work on such a great piece of American history!