The New York posters

"To me the poster has always been the queen of media" says Tomi Ungerer. "Its size means you can see it from far off; it doesn't move and you can stare at it for as long as you like. At the same time, it has to be arresting, it has to catch the eye of the busy passer-by or the harassed motorist. Everything depends on the first glimpse, that first glance that leaves a trace." 
Inspired by the French poster designer Savignac, Tomi Ungerer quickly established himself in this field in New York in the late 1950s. His inventiveness and use of visual gags helped him to make a brilliant career as an advertising designer. One of his most important campaigns was for The New York Times, mounted between 1960 and 1965 and entrusted to him by the New York agency BBDO. 24 large format posters, each with 1000 copies being printed, were posted in the city and appeared in the press. In the 1970s and 1980s, he developed this activity in Germany, working for the Robert Pütz agency. Among others, he did campaigns for Bonduelle and for Nixdorf computers. The slogan "Expect the Unexpected", which he coined in 1968 for the top-selling weekly in the United States The Village Voice, remained a leitmotif of his poster work. This is marked by its offbeat humour, fundamentally satirical approach and surrealist spirit, never failing to create a visual shock in the spectator, regardless of the subject.