Synopsis of Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State

This provocative survey reveals how four of the most destructive dictatorships of the 20th century - Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet Russia and Communist China - used graphic design to sell their messages. Explores each regime's distinctive strategies for seducing public opinion and infiltrating people's lives, in media ranging from logos, flags, typefaces and posters to children's books and figurines Remarkable archival photographs set the disturbingly powerful graphic devices in historical context. The perceptive text analyses how these four regimes established the most effective modes of visual propaganda, which were later adopted and adapted by many other dictatorships.