The 50s and 60s marked the Golden Age of Polish poster design. Under Communist rule the poster was the only allowed form of artistic expression and often the only colorful image one would see on the street. The only career path for the country’s highly trained artists was to become professional poster designers so they threw themselves into the humble medium, creating unexpectedly beautiful, surreal and often provocative works of art. Unlike the studio-driven movie posters of the West, these artists often designed their posters without ever having seen the film in question and were free to interpret the idea of the film in any way they saw fit.