Decade - 1980s

Sample image from 1980s poster By the 1980s, nearly all advertisement work was conducted through agencies. Posters, which were mainly photographic, formed a minor part of the new marketing strategy. In 1986, Marketing and Development Director Dr Henry Fitzhugh launched Art on the Underground. This new poster commissioning initiative was quite separate from the Underground’s main publicity campaigns. The objective was to fill unused advertising space with art posters. This would improve customer environment and act as a means of corporate art sponsorship. Every year they commissioned two 'easy subjects', two avant-garde works, and two in-between. Six thousand of each were printed and displayed for between seven months and a year.