This poster was designed to advertise the 99% Invisible episode “You Ain’t Nothin But a Postmark,” while drawing inspiration from Lester Beall’s graphic style. It merges elements of Elvis Presley, American symbolism, and postmark motifs to reflect the episode’s narrative.

You Ain’t Nothin But A Postmark

Lester Beall, “Rural Electrification Administration,” 1937.

These three pieces guided my design approach. Beall often used bold, simple shapes to communicate his poster’s subject matter clearly, especially for rural American audiences who couldn’t read and relied more on visuals than text.

Lester Beall, “A Better Home,” poster for the U.S. Rural Electrification Administration, 1937.

The 99% Invisible episode debates which version of Elvis should appear on a postmark sticker, so I styled the poster to mimic a postmark with Elvis at its center. This allowed me to merge Beall’s symbolic design language with the episode’s theme.

Lester Beall, “S.S. America — United States Lines,” 1940.

I also referenced the American red-and-blue color palette, the collaged black-and-white photography of people, and Beall’s use of modernist sans-serif typography that prioritizes legibility and uses scale and spatial contrast to build visual hierarchy.