Pointing the Finger

There's no question where this image is directing the viewer to. The huge red arrow at the top of the page points down towards the crowd below, and all of the soldiers' faces are painted over in red with white arrows leading us towards Hitler. The photo is in black and white, except for the inclusion of red, which creates an on-edge tension. Red can symbolize blood, fear, madness, death, among many other things. The main text is on the big red arrow, which takes up the perfect amount of space to create harmony between the text and the images. There's a red smeary mess trailing behind Hitler, which hints at the damage he is capable of. Since this was created in 1939 as a trade ad for Crowell Publishing Company, the exact idea of what Hitler was truly capable of and what he was already in the works of doing wasn't completely known. Lester Beall created this image in prediction of America's fear of the Nazis and Hitler, and what was going on in Europe. Knowing what we know now and how World War II turned out, it's a scary feeling to see the images American designers illustrated pre-war. I found this image in American Modernism: Graphic Design, 1920 to 1960 by R. Roger Remington.