BONAL | POSTER DESIGN

Bonal was a popular French alcoholic aperitif in the 1930s. The company utilised French artists and celebrities of the time to advertise and promote their product by way of various poster designs. The most well known Bonal posters were designed by artists A.M. Cassandre and Charles Lemmel.

A.M. Cassandre was a painter, commercial poster artist, typeface designer, and stage designer. A.M. Cassandre earned a reputation as the designer of bold, stringently geometric posters in the Art déco style. Bonal was evidently a drink which was designed to 'open your appetite' - and so in one of his well known Bonal posters Cassandre uses a key to show how this would happen.

The information on Charles Lemmel is limited, apart from his designs for Bonal posters, all of which feature smiling and virile athletes. Both artist’s work became part and parcel of a pivotal period particularly rich in the history of advertising.

It may seem strange to us now that the majority of these posters use athletes to promote an alcoholic drink. But these posters certainly did work. The posters are now more well known than the product – when searching for information on this topic many sites contained pictures of the posters, however information on Bonal itself was very difficult to find.

http://servo.ottawa-on.ca/portfolio/cassandre/gallery_cassandre.php?a=4

http://www.goantiques.com/detail,orig-art-deco,2268327.html

http://www.internationalposter.com/vintage-poster-inventory.aspx