Poster design in Turkey began to develop with the declaration of the Republic as to prove the fundamental interconnection with economic and therefore the political and social structure like graphic design started to develop with the industrial revolution.

Since the Ottoman Empire was closed to outside, and hence did not deal with commerce or industry, there was no tradition of making commercial posters. The only posters of entertainment that can be found are consisted of largely typography in Arab script, which were sometimes decorated with ornamental borders and clip-art illustrations (Alt›ntas 6). The republic brought with itself the posters, mainly of social and cultural content to inform people about the cultural and social changes. Also there were posters advertising consumer goods as well as the entertainment posters of national theatre and Turkish cinema.

Like Turkish melodrama itself, the posters for melodramas were mixture and under the influence of so many design disciplines like firstly German and French, and later Hollywood, Italian, Mexican, Indian, and Egyptian posters. The posters of this period were generally imitations or re-presentations of foreign originals. It might be the result of the lack of time that comes out with serial production, the lack of technical possibilities, and the effect of European and American culture on visual arts. The poster of first Turkish film in sound, Istanbul Sokaklarinda (On the Streets of ðstanbul, Muhsin Ertugrul, 1931) was under the influence of the typical geometrically simplified style of Art Deco, illustrates a stylisation of a scene, which was directly taken from the film itself (Ozkal 75). But its design and illustration may be considered as successful taking into consideration the possibilities of those times, when compared to other works of the same period produced by hand due to the primitive technology.

When we observe Turkish movie poster history we come across several stages of graphic design: typographic posters of old alphabet, monochromatic posters, posters with illustration, posters with photography and illustration, photographic posters, and posters with caricaturistic illustration. These stages are closely related to the technical possibilities and hence the conditions of their time. The well-known Turkish film poster designers and illustrators are Mithat Agakay, Erol Agakay, Firuz Ask›n, Mehmet Bal, Kemal Borticin, Cemal Dundar, Ibrahim Enez, Munif Fehim, Karlotti, Bedri Koraman, Oral Orhon, Cetin Ozkirim, Mehmet Tekdal, Remzi TUremenÖ Some of them were not graduated from a design school, but v ery much experienced in illustration and advertising.

The movie posters of 1960s and 1970s were created taking into consideration the studio owners', producers', stars', directors' wishes and hence the audience's assumed expectations about the arrangement of the composition (the positions and sizes of the names, photographs etc.). Promotion was crucial for both the film producer and the theatre owner because they were very much involved in the marketing process, which was the most important part of the film production.

For the promotion large theatrical displays commonly called "circus fronts" which were not necessarily in rectangular shape but in various shapes were painted while fliers (50- 100 thousand per region, 500 per theatre), brochures for festivals or competitions, and lobby cards were printed as well as posters. Of course some directors like Hulki Saner, Metin Erksan, Muzaffer Arslan, Nevzat Keser were also directly interested in the poster designing process. B–ke mentions seriously that the last word about the poster design belonged to the tea-house keeper who was uneducated but a real audience himself. Sometimes the directors, theatre owners, or stars wanted the details of movie poster design to be added to the film contract, as an item.

During the poster designing process, firstly the synopsis was given to the designer. Producer or director explained what he wanted exactly from the designer taking into consideration the popularity of the stars, target market, and censorship (Erol A•akay mentions because he wrote "ðnce Memet" as the title of the film ðnce Mehmet, he was adjudicated for promoting an ideology, but for erotic posters he was rarely bothered). Then the photos were taken or chosen among the recent ones or the illustration was prepared. Typography was added afterwards in the print house.

Agakay, Erol. Afiste Yasayan Turk Sinemasi 1951-1986. Istanbul: Mimeray, 1986.
---. Personal interview. 23 July 1997.
Altintas, Yurdaer. Posters From Turkey. Istanbul: Grafikerler Meslek Kurulusu, 1992.
B–ke, Azmi. Personal interview. 23 July 1997.
Ozkal, Ozlem. "The Use of Visual Idea in Illustrated Entertainment Posters and Approaches in Turkey." Diss. Bilkent University, 1992.