Cassandre is considered to be one of the greatest and and most influential poster designers of the 20th century. Born Adolphe Mouron in the Ukraine in 1901, his family were forced to migrate to Paris due to the hostile political climate. He originally studied painting at the Ecoles des Beaux Arts in Paris but, at the age of 22, he started designing posters under the pseudonym 'Cassandre'.
Cassandre's style is typically Art Deco and his posters have become iconic images of the mid 1920s to mid 1930s period. He designed his images by fusing a combination of Art Nouveau's stylised curves with the geometric abstraction of 'cubism' & 'futurism'. Cassandre believed that 'Designing a poster means solving a technical and commercial problem....in a language that can be understood by the common man.' For example, he introduced the idea of the serial poster, a group of posters to be seen in rapid succession to convey a complete idea.