Poster series on the promotion of the Catholic Catechism

This selection of posters, taken from a larger series, was designed by Salesian coadjutor Ambrogio Colombo, in the period from around 1953 to 1956.

Colombo was born around 1934 and became a Salesian coadjutor in 1950. From 1950 to 1953 he attended the magistero (the studies that coadjutors followed at the time) in the graphics sector at Colle Don Bosco (Asti), the birthplace of St John Bosco, the founder of the Salesians. At least until 1956 he then worked at Colle as a graphic designer, carrying out various jobs for Elledici (then spelled Elle di Ci), the publishing house founded in 1941 on the initiative of Don Pietro Ricaldone, then Rector Major of the Salesian Congregation. Today, Elledici is a leader in the field of catechesis, the teaching of the Catholic religion, education and evangelisation, focusing in particular on young people and their educators according to the spirit and teachings of Don Bosco.

After the years spent at Colle, Colombo returned to his native Milan, probably to the Institute in via Copernico. However, within some time he left the Salesian Congregation and opened his own graphic design studio in the city. Colombo was also the author of textbooks in the field of graphics and illustration, full of examples and useful experiments that stimulated new research and applications.

The quality of these posters testifies to the attention that the Salesians paid to the field of graphics and communication.

The dissemination of the ‘good press’ (meaning books capable of enhancing virtues, morals and the teachings of righteous doctrine for the good of souls) has always been a pivotal theme in the work of St. John Bosco, who worked from the outset to equip a printing press, also a pretext for giving employment to boys who had fallen into the underworld. In the Salesian world, the aspect of printing and graphic design has therefore deepened over the years, to the point of having state-of-the-art equipment and high-level professionals trained in their dedicated school. 

The posters in question can be printed by chromolithography, screen printing or even offset printing with Pantone colours. This is due to the colours imprinted on the paper being full and flat, without dithering.

Reducing the representation to two or three colours on a white or coloured background, as well as simplifying and speeding up the printing process and reducing the use of inks, thus also reducing costs, gives great character and recognisability. 

The continuity of the series is not so much in the style used, which seems to vary from poster to poster, but more in the use of colour and the combination of the few colours used.

The interactions between typography and illustrated subject matter, together with the energetic use of colour, are innovative treatments that lend freshness. These design choices make it clear that the target of the posters is a young audience. This is a unique mode of communication in the Catholic religious field, which could be spontaneously referred to the almost contemporary experience of Sister Corita Kent in the United States. Above all, the energetic use of colour expresses an attempt to pursue the aesthetic trends most in vogue among young people in those very years, such as pop and psychedelia.

We are still immersed in the spirit of the post-war period, a time in which there is a flourishing of institutions and initiatives on the part of the Catholic Church, almost a desire to offer itself as a guide for a moral and institutional rebirth after the dark years of the world conflict. The renewed impetus, combined with the urgency of a religious formation rooted in sound doctrine, is clearly perceived in the expressiveness of these manifestos.