A V&A BOOK of posters documenting the history of the form in Britain includes an innovative design by two graduates of London College of Communication’s Postgraduate Diploma in Design for Visual Communication.

Graeme Rutherford and Alex Edouard’s Scanzine uses QR codes to intrigue passers by, and encourage them to explore the poster’s hidden messages and content.

Their first poster, Horror, had nine tags.  It was fly-postered all over Manchester and London.

“Scanzine encourages people to take a risk. People could scan the [Horror] poster at any time of the day – perhaps on the way to work – and they’d hear this blood-curdling scream,” Graeme says.

After the success of Horror, the pair designed a QR advent calendar, which was similarly enthusiastically received.   

It was through their blog that Catherine Flood of the V&A, and curator/author of the book “British Posters: Advertising, Art and Activism”, discovered Scanzine. 

“She thought it was a timely and innovative idea, and asked if she could include the design in the book  she was curating,” Graeme says.

Graeme and Alex are interested in a more creative use of QR tags.  Up to now, advertisers have usually used the mobile “barcode” as an addendum to a conventional poster.

“QR tags can open up all sorts of content. In a way, a poster is far more rich when it opens the door to things that aren’t immediately visible,” Graeme says.