DURING the 1970s graphic designer Andrzej Klimowski — British-born and educated at St Martin’s School of Art — travelled to his parents' country Poland  to further his studies at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.

Over the next seven years, encouraged by legendary tutor Henryk Tomaszewski, he began designing posters for the thriving theatre and film industries. It was the golden age for Polish poster design as the state’s generous subsidy of culture meant promotional work was plentiful.

For Roman Cieslewicz, Franciszek Starowiejski, Jan Lenica, Jan Mlodozeniec, Wojciech Zamecznik, Waldemar Swiezy and Wojciech Fangor the streets became a permanent exhibition space in a kaleidoscope of constant change.

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Klimowski joined in with gusto and over time developed a distinct personal style that resurrected much of the photomontage tradition of the 1920s-1930s, developed and practised with such distinction by the likes of a John Heartfield, El Lissitzky or Gustav Klucis.

Much of what has been written over the years about the realities of the formerly socialist Eastern Europe has been for reasons of political expediency, with the proverbial baby thrown out with the bathwater. Unsurprising, then, that only one of Klimowski’s posters of the period fell foul of the censor.

Back in Britain, Klimowski designed for theatres and independent film distributors, but his poetic, ephemeral and allusive images clashed with the hard-nosed marketing of a capitalist environment where, feeding and inducing Pavlovian responses, even culture is merchandise and advertising is aimed not at the soul but the pocket of a punter.

Klimowski's work has an affinity with the great Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar, particularly his short stories. He believes that the writer’s creation of time and space, shifting within a single story, is mirrored within his own photomontage propositions, where juxtaposing elements that don’t “belong” together poses unexpected challenges to interpretation.

A collection of his striking, disquieting work is about to be published by SelfMade Hero.

Harold Pinter once ventured an equestrian-cum-meteorological summation, saying: “He leads the field by a very long furlong, out on his own, making his own weather. He is Klimowski, unafraid.”

His designs have won awards in Poland, the US and Britain and he's now professor emeritus at the School of Communications of the Royal College of Art. Lucky students.

Klimowski Poster Book, price £14.99, is published on March 8 and can be pre-ordered at klimowski.com