If you’ve seen our Creative Brief with 1939 Games, you’ll likely be putting some ideas together for an artwork submission in the style of the WWII era. 

While the team at 1939 Games are happy to see artwork in any style you like, it’s important that you reference the WWII style of artwork and create your art in a way that seems authentic to the era. But how to do that?

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Firstly, have a good look at the moodboard provided by 1939 Games for some strong visual references. Remember that there are three categories that you can submit to, and each category has its own rules:

  • Japanese WWII infantry unit - Any soldier or combination of soldiers, in combat or marching to war. Important to have uniforms, equipment and military markers (if any) correct, but please do not use the Rising Sun symbol or flag.

  • Japanese WWII airstrike order - Graphic print/poster style artwork, depicting bombs or aricraft. Important that aircraft type (if aircraft) is based on some actual japanese bomber or tactical bomber type used in the war even if in a simplified graphic style.

  • French WWII infantry unit - Any soldier or combination of soldiers, in combat or marching to war. Important to have uniforms, equipment and military markers (if any) correct.

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Inspiration for WWII art:

Heavily influenced by art deco, WWII posters were strong and colorful, focusing on simple designs and saturated color patterns, to portray important messaging in an easily digestible way.

Some artists to look up for inspiration include: Eric Kennington, Walter E Spradberry, David Pollack and DeAgostini. 

Posters of this time generally focused on courage, grit, shared sacrifice and determination. The images showed the power of the troops and the aircrafts, and the symbolism of the uniforms. 

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Points to remember when creating your submission:

  • If you prefer to create work that doesn’t include any people, you can submit to the ‘Japanese WWII airstrike order’ category.
  • You can of course be inspired by photographs, just as you could be inspired by image collections on Pinterest or elsewhere. But of course, your work must be entirely original and not directly copy any element from another artist’s work. 
  • It’s possible to win both a Selected Creator AND a Finalist spot if you submit multiple work to more than one category, outlined above.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

See the full brief, here.