LEONETTO CAPPIELLO: ADVERTISEMENT as FINE ART

He is credited to revolutionize the old thinking of poster illustration during his time. Cappiello’s concept of poster art was simple, to simply engage audience faster by creating unconventional visual impact. He was the first poster artist to boldly experiment and innovate new graphical styles at the time. His presentation was straight forward with use of enlarged bold subjects with unconventional colors,contrasted by the very dark background, which make his art “pop out”. By doing so he moved away from illustrating intricate details in his artworks, which was famous at the time as art nouveau movement was popular.

His new functionalist style of graphic art, in which a single bold image would be used to grab the viewer’s attention. This graphic design proved highly effective, not only in drawing attention to the product but also in building a brand. It made Capiello the acknowledged master of the advertising poster in his time for almost 20 years.