Vintage Poster Archives
Save a Loaf a Week 1917 | WW1 Propaganda Poster Cooper
Save a Loaf a Week 1917 | WW1 Propaganda Poster Cooper
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A hand slices a loaf of bread on a round red board. Below it, Frederick G. Cooper's lowercase hand-lettering occupies the full width of the sheet: 'save a loaf / a week / help win / the war'. Two horizontal red rule-lines frame the top and bottom. Cream ground, three colours, no background detail. The composition communicates through a single domestic action and a direct typographic command.
Designed in 1917 by Frederick G. Cooper (1883-1962) for the U.S. Food Administration, the agency Herbert Hoover directed to manage civilian food supply during WW1. Cooper was commissioned for several USFA designs as part of the agency's 'Food Will Win the War' voluntary conservation campaign, which aimed to reduce American wheat, meat, fat and sugar consumption so reserves could reach Allied forces. A founding member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Cooper served as art director at Life magazine and was noted for all-lowercase hand lettering that gave his wartime posters a directness that more elaborate poster designs of the period could not match. USFA Poster No. 3, lithographed by W.F. Powers Co., New York; held in the MoMA, Library of Congress, and Smithsonian collections.
Reproduced as a giclée print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, with pigment-based archival inks that hold Cooper's black letterforms and burnt-orange cross-hatching at full contrast on the natural cream ground.
A concise piece of WW1 American graphic design history, documented in four of the country's leading public collections.
