By Meg Gage Williams, Co-Founder & Director, Stick No Bills
It was on a business trip to Vienna in the summer of 2023 that the director of Design Austria, Serverin Filek, first introduced me to Lilli Hollein, General Director of the MAK.
I was grateful for the introduction not just because MAK is recognised as one of the most important museums in the world but also, more specifically, because the institution, established in the 1860s, serves as custodian of the Estate of Joseph Binder, the Godfather of the modern poster. Both my late husband Philip James Baber and our Chief Poster Artist Mads Berg had spoken of Binder as a seminal source of inspiration, equivalent in importance and pioneering role in the art of the travel posters as Frank Wootton.
The Vienna Connection
The Joseph Binder collection represents everything we've worked to build. Binder (1898-1972) pioneered the "Viennese style of two-dimensionality" in the 1920s and 30s, reducing complex subjects to geometric forms and bold colors. His work caught international attention early—by 1926 he'd won the Republic of Austria's National Design Prize. Clients like Julius Meinl coffee and Thonet furniture commissioned his distinctive modernist designs.
The three posters we're launching span a pivotal decade in Binder's career. Musik und Theaterfest Wien (1924) was created for Vienna's City Music and Theater Festival, one of his first major commissions. Carnavale de Vienne (1936) promoted Vienna's carnival during a politically tense period—the same year Binder and his wife Carla emigrated to New York. And the 1939 New York World Trade Fair poster, depicting the iconic Trylon and Perisphere, won the fair's national competition and became one of the most recognized American Art Deco images ever created.
Why Licensed Vintage Posters Matter
I learned early in my career—first in security intelligence, then building Stick No Bills—that integrity matters. In the vintage poster market, integrity means proper licensing. It means working directly with museums like MAK Vienna and estates like the Legat Carla and Joseph Binder. It means paying royalties to the true owners of copyright.
When you purchase an unlicensed reproduction, you're supporting copyright violation. You're denying proper compensation to artists, estates, and cultural institutions. At Stick No Bills, we believe the greats of the vintage poster art medium deserve better.
From Vienna to the World
After permanently settling in New York in 1936, Binder's studio flourished. During World War II, he used the same modernist aesthetic that defined his Viennese work to create propaganda posters for the U.S. military and American Red Cross. In 1948, he was appointed Art Director of the U.S. Navy. His recruitment posters combined patriotic messaging with sophisticated design.
Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Binder continued to receive awards for posters promoting Travel in America, the American Red Cross, and the United Nations. Or particular note was the campaign he created for United Airlines in the 1950s, creating beautiful place-centric poster art to inspire a new generation of Americans to explore their country by plane. He never stopped creating until his death in 1972, when preparations were already underway for a major retrospective at MAK Vienna.
Our Remastering Process
Each Stick No Bills 21st century edition Joseph Binder poster has been co-produced under authorisation from archival first edition lithographs provided by MAK Vienna, one pixel at a time. We printed the Bon a Tirer samples couriered to MAK for their approval in 2025 on premium matte finish paper stock and superior quality cotton canvas using archival quality pigmented inks at our Global Printworks at Imprenta Nueva Balear in Palma de Mallorca, run by the remarkable Aguiló family who've operated the same 113-year-old printing company since 1913.
Roberto Aguiló, fourth generation manager of the printworks, is our Master Printer and together we have produced the museum grade limited editions that honor Binder's original designs, while ensuring they'll last for generations to come.
Giving Back
Every poster we sell supports a humanitarian or environmental cause in the place that inspired the image. Proceeds from net income on the Joseph Binder Collection go to Médecins sans Fròntieres, re-connecting this collection to global humanitarian work that Binder supported throughout his career.
This has been core to our mission since the beginning. When Philip and I founded Stick No Bills while raising our two daughters in the palm-fringed paradise of Sri Lanka, we used proceeds from all sales of our early Ceylon posters to fundraise for local heritage and wildlife conservation projects. That principle of giving back has underpinned every collection we've built since.
Why This Matters Now
In an era of AI-generated content and rampant piracy, Stick No Bills remains a real place created and staffed by real people who are passionate about preserving authentic, place-centric poster art. Our galleries in Galle Fort, Palma de Mallorca and Dubai are places you can walk into, touch the velvety paper, see the craftsmanship and - we hope - have your spirits lifted by the vibrancy and optimism of the place-centric graphic art we project.
The Joseph Binder Collection
All three Joseph Binder posters are now available in multiple sizes—from Premium Open Edition posters to Limited Edition Museum, Rare and 1/1 Master fine art prints. We print, frame and ship to most places in the world.
Browse the complete collection and explore our other licensed vintage travel poster collections from Pan American World Airways, British Airways, Lufthansa, Braniff International Airways, and archives worldwide.
This is authentic vintage poster art, properly licensed, beautifully remastered and revived, and connected to causes that matter. Thank you to Severin Filek, Lilli Hollein, Thomas Matyk, Joseph Binder’s descendents and the many great archivists working at Design Austria and the MAK for your trust in us.
©️ Stick No Bills®️ 2026 courtesy of MAK - Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna / Legat Carla and Joseph Binder. All rights reserved.
