The evolution of the Health & Safety poster over 80 years

Visitors to the RoSPA stand at the Safety & Health Expo this week would have been able to preview a collection of British safety posters in a new publication being released next month. Safety First, by Dr Paul Rennie from Central St Martins College of Art and Design, features vintage RoSPA posters from between the 1930s and 1970s aiming to provide awareness about occupational, road, leisure and home safety. Scores of this vintage artwork was discovered when a warehouse was being cleared in Birmingham earlier in the year, many of them featuring Tufty the Squirrel, and highlighting the safety concerns of previous generations. As the preferred supplier of current safety and awareness posters for RoSPA, all here at Stocksigns are particularly intrigued to see the evolution of these posters from the hand drawn graphics during the war to the post-war images driving awareness on the road and in the workplace. Although the overall message has not changed in many of the posters, changes in legislation have to be reflected in design and wording, meaning that current posters still have the same scope and longevity when conveying safety awareness.

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