Explore the images of the street

The software that runs the archive can no longer be upgraded. We are moving the database to a new system. The poster collection will be available again in a few months.

With the strength of a megaphone, posters have been demanding the attention of passersby for more than 100 years – posters are the images of the street. These democratic pictures were pasted onto specially-created columns, bulletin boards, and entirely spontaneous surfaces, and were supposed to have a brief life in the ongoing rush of the modern world. Nevertheless, many have survived and achieved a status as iconic images in both Danish and international history.

The Design Museum’s poster collection documents the commercial, cultural, and political developments in poster history both in Denmark and around the world, from the boom in posters in the 1800s to today.

Countless designers have created a unique and rich world of images within all of the poster’s genres and themes – seductive advertising posters, hardcore political propaganda, and a vast reflection of culture, from concerts, film and theatre to transport and tourism. Since its founding in the 1890s, the museum has collected posters, and all of the stars of poster history are represented.

Posters from the collection are displayed as part of the museum’s permanent collection.

* The posters are protected by Danish and international copyright law. Please note that republication of the images usually demands the permission of the copyright holder. The copyright holder is the designer or the persons or company to whom the designer has assigned copyright in full or in part.