How to purchase/trade
The main goal of the POST-SOC website is not to create a marketplace but a reference site that is accessible to everyone. Also, it is not a secret that we are open to grow the collection. The second aspect is the main reason that we decided to exchange or to sell some posters that we could get in two or more exemplars.
POST-SOC isn't an online shop at all thus you won't find "buy it now" or "shopping cart" buttons. We do prefer a more personal way of communication with fellow collectors. Buying and exchanging can be only the result of email communication where we can discuss all details individually (shipping costs, shipping of multiple items, exchange etc.).
If your intentions is to buy one of our posters, send an email to peter@post-soc.com with the link of the item and your shipping address so that we can give you a proper quote. We promise to answer in a timely manner. The posters will be packaged very carefully – the last thing we want to happen is that some of the posters get damaged during the shipping process.
We are quite often on the road and sometimes – but not often – it can happen that we answer with some delay and can't ship out posters instantly. Please consider this when you order something.
We try to answer emails within 24 hours and we try to give you as precise shipping date and delivery service information as possible.
All kind of questions, requests and thoughts regarding posters are welcome on the website – there aren't too much topics that excite us more than posters. If you contact us in relation with posters we will read your email with great excitement for sure.
What is POST-SOC
POST-SOC is a private collection of several thousand pieces with a focus on movie posters created in ex-socialist countries from the early days of cinema until the beginning of the 1990s – the fall of the Iron Curtain. These were very exciting times since national movie distribution companies recruited local graphic artists to create advertising posters.
For example, for the first screening of “Star Wars - A New Hope”, countries of the Western world used the original posters to promote the movie, while in the Eastern Bloc dozens of completely different designs surfaced. Some of them really brave and stunning – even from today's perspective. The artists used almost surreal elements to promote one of the biggest hits of the 1970s.
Since in the selection of movies played in socialist countries there used to be more important factors (usually political, cultural reasons) than maximizing profits, artist didn't have to care if their works have a big enough advertising impact. The artists' fantasy could flourish and they were allowed to experiment freely, without paying attention to current graphic design and advertising trends.
This artistic and free form of advertising posters can't be imagined by American distributors neither at that time nor today. Thanks to the missing control of Western distributors over the advertising in the Eastern Bloc this era has left a unique and breathtaking heritage of pop cultural treasures. Some of them so astonishing that they could have been made for the very same films - but from a parallel universe.
The exciting and adventurous exploration of this strange parallel universe lead to the creation of the POST-SOC collection – and this website that is the online catalog of the collection.
What we do
Right now we are digitizing the posters, collecting and organizing data to make them available online. Meanwhile we started executing the idea which lead to the creation of the POST-SOC collection. The posters shouldn't end in the lonely darkness of flat file archives but displayed in rattling limelight. The walls of galleries and exhibition halls flooded with light streams are waiting for them.
Since these posters can be living and breathing pieces of art again and come back from their undead state for a short time if they can interact with the audience. To deliver the proof that they still fulfill their purpose and they convince another generation of moviegoers to watch or re-watch that special movie.
In November 2016 we showcased our first selection of works from the POST-SOC collection in Sofia. The reaction of the audience pointed us to the direction our hearts used to point us naturally: to introduce the works to new audiences at even more exhibitions.