Most war posters tell you what to do. This one shows you doing it. A huge black work glove closes around a steel wrench, the wrench’s open jaws bite on a red bolt, and the bolt head is the O in a word printed so big it runs off the edge of the picture: PRODUCTION. Above it, in slanting blue italic, the government gives its slogan: America’s answer!
A poster for the factory wall
The poster was made for the Division of Information of the Office for Emergency Management, the agency President Roosevelt used to run the defense build-up before Pearl Harbor. A Library of Congress photograph records that it was issued on 23 June 1941, “the first of a series of production posters” for display in defense plants across the United States. It measured 30 by 40 inches and was meant to hang where workers would see it every shift.
That date matters. In June 1941 America was not yet at war, but Lend-Lease had begun in March and the country was trying to become what Roosevelt called the “arsenal of democracy”. Factories were turning from cars and fridges to aircraft, tanks and shells. The question the poster answers is how a nation not yet fighting could help win the war, and Carlu’s answer is a working hand.
Hand, tool and word
The design is built on one idea. The glove, the wrench and the letters lock together so tightly that you cannot read one without the others. The wrench sits on the O of the word, so the act of tightening the bolt is literally the act of making PRODUCTION. Nothing else is in the picture: no flags, no soldiers, no enemy, just a clean white ground, the black hand, the steel and the red.
Carlu cut the forms into flat, hard-edged shapes, a lesson he had taken from Cubism, and he let the lettering tilt across the sheet on a sharp diagonal so the whole poster seems to be turning, like the bolt. It is a modernist advertising poster, the kind Carlu had made in Paris for brands, aimed this time at a workforce.
Jean Carlu
Jean Carlu was born in Bonnières, France, in 1900, into a family of architects. At 18 he lost his right arm in an accident, gave up architecture and turned to graphic design, drawing with his left hand. By the 1930s he was one of the leading French poster artists, alongside A.M. Cassandre and Paul Colin, and in 1932 he set up an Office of Propaganda for Peace to campaign against fascism.
In 1939 he came to New York to organise the French pavilion at the World’s Fair. When Germany occupied Paris in June 1940, he stayed. He worked for American government agencies and for companies such as the Container Corporation of America, and America’s Answer! Production won him a medal from the New York Art Directors Club. He returned to France in 1953 and died in 1997.
The 1942 printing
The poster was printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office, and the best-known copies carry the GPO number 1942-O-454042, with Carlu’s signature at lower left and the eagle seal of the Office for Emergency Management at lower right. Copies are held by the Library of Congress, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and the University of North Texas.
The restored edition
Our edition was restored from a photograph of an original print. The fold lines, creases, stains and yellowing were removed, the white paper brought back, and the black glove, red lettering and blue slogan returned to full strength, while the lettering and Carlu’s signature are kept from the original. You can compare the archival source with the restored edition in the before and after slider on the product page. It is printed in landscape format as a paper print in three sizes, or framed in black, white or natural wood, printed to order in the USA.
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the America’s Answer! Production poster?
Jean Carlu (1900–1997), a French Art Deco poster designer who was in the United States when France fell in 1940. He designed it for the Division of Information of the Office for Emergency Management.
When was it made?
The design was first issued on 23 June 1941 as the first of a series of production posters for defense plants, before the United States entered the war. The best-known printing carries a 1942 Government Printing Office number, 1942-O-454042.
What does the design show?
A black-gloved hand tightens a steel wrench on a bolt, and the bolt head forms the letter O in PRODUCTION. Hand, tool and word are one image: factory work is the nation’s answer to the war.
How big was the original?
The original was a large landscape poster, about 30 × 40 inches, made to be hung on factory walls.
What sizes are the prints?
Paper prints are 16.5 × 11.7, 28 × 20 or 33.1 × 23.4 inches in landscape format; framed prints are 17 × 12, 28 × 20 or 33 × 23 inches, in black, white or natural wood.
Historical sources
- Library of Congress: Production, the first of a series of production posters designed by the OEM (photograph, issued 23 June 1941)
- Library of Congress: Production, America’s answer! (OEM Division of Information, GPO)
- Library of Congress: America’s Answer! Production, colour halftone poster by Jean Carlu
- University of North Texas Libraries: America’s answer! Production (GPO 1942-O-454042)
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: Poster, America’s Answer! Production
- Cooper Hewitt: Jean Carlu biography