The Start of the Sprinters' Dash (Tokyo 1964)

Why it works

Six sprinters explode off the line against pure black, with the Olympic rings and "TOKYO 1964" in gold beneath. Yusaku Kamekura's second official poster for the Tokyo Games was one of the first Olympic posters built on a photograph rather than an illustration, and getting that photograph was an ordeal: on a cold February evening in the National Stadium, American servicemen from the Tachikawa air base and Japanese amateur athletes made around 80 false starts over three hours before Osamu Hayasaki caught the frame, with Jo Murakoshi directing the photography. Released in 1962 and printed in colour photogravure, it is studied as a landmark of photographic poster design and of post-war Japan presenting itself to the world as modern, dynamic and technically assured. Toyama's design museum calls it one of the most iconic posters of post-war Japan and the starting point for the spread of gravure-printed posters; it is held by the V&A and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.