FTLOP by Mike Patterson

FT LO +P FOR T H E LOV E

OF P OS T E RS

FTLO P FO R TH E LOVE O F P O S T ERS

f t l o p ( f o r t h e l o v e o f p o s t e r s ) m a g a z i n e wa s m a d e b y m i k e pat t e r s o n a s a w s o c a s s i g n m e n t i n 2 0 1 1 . i w o u l d l i k e to t h a n k e v e ryo n e w h o pa rt i c i pat e d to m a k e t h i s h a p p e n . pa p e r : s c a n d i a 2 0 0 0 p r e m i u m 1 0 0 g f o r m at : 2 4 0 m m x 3 1 6 m m t y p e fa c e : g i l l s a n s s t d t e x t : m i k e pat t e r s o n p h oto : d e s i g n e r s people: m a r k b l a m i r e : p r i n t - p ro c e s s . c o m & b l a n k a . c o . u k k r i s t i a n h a m m e r s ta d : k r i s t i a n h a m m e r s ta d . c o m j a a r g e e r l i g s : p o s t e r s i n a m s t e r da m . c o m erik spiekermann: spiekermann.com pa u l s a h r e : pa u l s a h r e . c o m f e l i x p fĂ¤ f f i : f e i x e n . c h c o p y r i g h t ÂŠ 2 0 1 1 b y m i k e pat t e r s o n . n o . a l l r i g h t s r e s e rv e d . no

pa rt

this

p u b l i c at i o n

m ay

r e p ro d u c e d

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f o r m o r b y a n y e l e c t ro n i c o r m e c h a n i c a l m e a n s , w i t h o u t w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n f ro m t h e p u b l i s e r . i s s n : 1029 8848

07 L E T T E R F RO M T H E E D I TO R

What is FTLOP?

09 F E L I X P FĂ&#x201E; F F I

Poster design by a young and upcomming designer from Switzerland.

17 MA R K BL A MI R E

Founder of Blanka.co.uk and Print-process.com an unbelieveable collection of both classics and exiting new ones.

25 PO S T ER B R EAK

Get inspired.

35 ER IK S PIEKER MANN

A legendary type designers view on the role of typography in posters.

41 LEV I & KR IS T IAN

60 minutes with the very talented illustrator and designer.

51 PO S T ER B R EAK

Get inspired even more.

55 PAU L S AH R E

The man who wants you to design the things that you want.

61 JAR R GEER LIGS

The art director that has a collection of over 2700 posters online.

69 PO S T ER MAR K

Probably the biggest bookmark youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever seen.

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f or the love o fâ&#x20AC;Ś

P O STE RS T YP E B OOK S … “For the love of” is our concept. We love what we do and we want to share it. In every issue we change the subject and share diffrent designers, opinions, styles and so on. For every topic we investigate the relevant themes within different subjects. In this first issue we investigate posters. Living in a time where the printed media is threatned by the digital era posters seem to be relativly untouched. We see digital magazines like Katachi and all types of campaigns online but it seems it still doesn’t affect the power of the poster. Mark Blamire says in Adrian Shaugnessy’s book “Designers still love designing posters. It is one of the sexiest formats in their repertoire and, even with the decline in clients commissioning the poster for print, I can’t see it dying out completly.” Maybe this is one of the reasons that it has survived for so long. We won’t stop designing them because they are sexy.

FE L IX PFÄFFL I

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WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE SELF INITIATED POSTER SCENE ? MAYBE YOU DO SOME OF THESE YOURSELF ?

Felix Pfäffli (feixen) was born in 1986. In 2010 he graduated and started his own studio “Feixen”. He was also awarded a lecturer position at the Lucerne School of Graphic Design to teach in the fields of typography, narrative design, and poster design. He has been a member of the “Detective Bureau” which is an alliance of graphic designers, illustrators and politically highly committed people, but also a psace for young art, discussion, design and coffee.

Basically it’s not really my thing to work without content. For me it’s important that I have a particular reason that leads me to the design. What I really like are self-initiated posters like the one Nikulaus Troxler made in 1996. It is a political poster about Switzerland and the European Community which caused at this time quite big uproar. I think it’s important that a self-initiated poster is not only witty and beautiful, but also that there is a real need for it. PLEASE TELL US ABOUT THE POSTERS FOR THE POSTER PROJECT:

A good poster speaks the language of the content that it carries.

“Posters for the Poster” was the theme of this years student competition which was proclaimed by the Weltformat Festival in Lucerne. The idea behind this title was that once one focuses on the poster itself. What is a poster? What are the strengths of this medium? What position has the poster in our everyday lives? That may be the fundamental issues with which the students were confronted.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE REAL LOVE FOR POSTERS?

WH AT IS YO U R PRO C ES S LIKE WH EN YO U MAKE

WHAT I S A GOOD P O S T E R I N YO U R D E F I NI T I O N?

P O S TER S ?

For me, this is clearly the process. I simply like to design things. DO YOU THINK THAT POSTERS MIGHT BE A SPRINGBOARD INTO GRAPHIC DESIGN?

Yes, I think so. The poster is a very simple, very loud and focused medium. It’s probably the most accessible medium in graphic design and therefore it enjoys such great attention. So, as a young designer it is perhaps also the desire for attention, that leads you to the poster.

colors or shapes can I associate with it? If the music is fast and spontaneous, then I’ll trying to design equally playful. If it sounds strict and reduced, then I´ll work carefully and focused. In contrast to the subjective attitude, there is as mentioned the objective attitude. This one makes sense if the content is clearly defined. Such as in a traditional play or an exhibition. Here I focus mainly on the content. I read the play and try to reduce the story to an image or a simple scene. The imagery, the choice of the font and the design elements are direct results from the content. If for example, the piece plays in the 18th Century, I search for fonts and images that had been used at that time. Meaning, I put together something like a fundus, a tool kit of creative means that later results in the eventual design. WH AT AR E YO U R TAKES ON COMMERCIAL LY DE S IGNED PO S T ER S V ER S U S SEL F-INITIATED WHEN WE AR E TALKING AB O U T POSTER L OVE.

I can imagine that for some designers, a self initiated poster could be a way to work for once without limitation. In that case, I guess it can be very liberating to work without a client sometimes. However, in my work I do not really see a big difference in terms of love to the poster. Maybe because I only accept jobs that offer me the necessary freedom to bring in my opinion, to implement my own ideas… yes, simply to operate without boundaries. Of course, I also like the confrontation with a customer. It is very inspiring and productive to have a counterpart. Nevertheless, I think the designer must always have the last word. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PRINT PROCESS OF POSTERS, THE MORE HAND MADE THE MORE LOVE?

As I mentioned in the first question, it is important to me that the design is consistent with the content. In this sense, I have to start from scratch each time to find out what design language fits in the specific case. Basically, I think that you can start from two design attitudes. A subjective and an objective attitude. For example, music is objectively difficult to grasp. That is why I focus here primarily on the feeling that I connect with the respective music. I ask myself simple questions like: What landscape do I see when I hear the music? What

No, I think that’s of no importance at all. In the end it’s about wheter a poster is good or not. How a poster is produced should never be predetermined. Sometimes it is necessary to produce a poster enormously cheap and ugly to make the message work. Sometimes it makes sense to make a super clean ten color silkscreen. This is different from case to case. The love of the poster should depend on the quality of the idea plus the execution and not on the print process.

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Zufall: Computer-generated poster series for an exhibition about coincidence in art.

f e xe . c

e i en ch

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Felix and Hi at SoirĂŠe Graphique 2011 which is an Exhibition, an after show and auction at the same time. Nine studios were asked to design a poster for the exhibition and also to present their works. The posters were later interpreted by different photographers and published in a large-format newspaper.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Posters for the Posterâ&#x20AC;? The idea behind this title was that once one focuses on the poster itself.What is a poster? What are the strengths of this medium? What position has the poster in our everyday lives? That may be the fundamental issues with which the students were confronted.

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Poster done for Funk am See Festival in 2010. Funk am See is a free open-air festival which takes place once every 2 years at the lake in front of the Transport Museum in Lucerne.

MARK BL AM IR E

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Mark Blamire is the founder of Blanka.co.uk, Print-process.com and also Neue Laboratories. The two first being excellent sites for poster distribution featuring some of Brockmann’s best work, Experimental Jetset, Spin and all the way down to Eivind Molvaer’s beautiful Italic poster. He is also known for his poster series for the 1995 action movie Trainspotting. WHAT D OE S P OSTE R L OV E ME A N TO YO U A ND HOW D O YOU P ORTR AY YO U R P O S T E R L OV E ?

For me to like a poster it has to be good design, well crafted, clever idea, simple and effective or engaging. I also lean towards modernism although it’s a rule i sometimes ignore (I have a few film posters from the 70’s in my house). I portray my love of design by collecting posters and running two shops which promote poster design, and I do it to promote good designers and good design in a format which is commercially in decline.

I A M NOT FAMILIAR WIT H T H E T ER M F LY PO S T ING. D O E S IT MEAN T H AT YO U C AN’ T H ANG PO S T ER S W H ER E YO U WANT ANY MO R E?

Yeah, what used to happen is a load of lads (for hard cash) used to go out in the middle of the night with a bucket of wallpaper paste and rolled up sheets of paper and decorate the streets. It used to really annoy local councils so they changed the law to prevent it. When you designed a poster for a musical release (say a jamiroquai single) if it was going in store it had the record company logo on it. If it was being glued up on the street the record company logo was taken off so they couldnt be sued.They changed the law so it became impossible for flyposting companies to exist (it was all illegal anyway even before the change in the law). WH AT DO YO U T H INK AB O U T S ELF INIT IAT ED

WHAT D O YOU THI NK O F P O S T E R S B E E I NG A

P O S TER S ?

so it’s a different direction and purpose and therefore you can’t really compare them with one another. WH AT IS YO U R FAVO R IT E POSTER THAT YOU DE S IGNED YO U R S ELF ?

Trainspotting I guess, although I did it 15 years ago, so there are things on there that I wish I had spent more time on. I found out last year that it was in the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) in the 20th Century wing (next to designers who I respect and grew up on). I like this fact, that when it gets exhibited it’s always alongside designers whom I admire and it still flatters me that it’s alongside other colleagues works and it still stands up as being a valid piece of work.

SPRI N GB OA RD I N TO G R A P H I C D E S I G N, WA S T H AT TH E C A SE FOR YOU?

Not at all, I dont see poster design as a starting off point. I think you have to learn your craft and understand good design before you can even start to take on creating a poster of merit. I designed record covers for 3 years (and the ads and posters that went with them) most of the posters I did back then were appalling. It’s only through improving and setting yourself better standards or tighter restrictions on what you are working towards as a designer before you can start to grasp how to make a poster and really push it somewhere interesting, look at all the bloody awful film posters that come out by untrained people working in film production companies.

If it’s self initiated it’s a print. If it’s commissioned by a client it’s a poster.You can only design a poster to a set brief supplied by a client. If it’s self initiated it becomes a different format. One is design and the other has stepped across into the art world. BY T H AT PO S T ER S LIKE “T H E ITALIC PO S T ER ” AND “ T H I S PO S T ER IS H ALF EMPT Y /F U LL” AR E ALS O P R I N T S , AND NOT PO S T ER S .

Yeah I would see both of them as prints (really good prints all the same) although the italic poster is cleverly titled as it’s supposed to challenge the conventional poster format it’s technically in my mind still a print rather than a poster. WH AT AR E YO U R TAKES O N C O MMER C IALLY DE -

IN TODAYS TE CHN OL O G Y, W H AT D O YO U T H I NK

S I G NED PO S T ER S V ER S U S S ELF - INIT IAT ED WH EN

IS THE FUTURE OF TH E P O S T E R ? A R E T H E Y MAY BE

W E AR E TALKING AB O U T PO S T ER LOV E.

INTE RACTI VE ?

Not really, I think interactive posters are clever but if they dont bring anything extra to the table then it’s the tail wagging the dog. At the end of the day the simplicity of ink on paper is a wonderful thing and if it’s done well.You see less 60 x 40 inches and 30 x 20 inch posters now since flyposting was made illegal which I think is a shame, as the streets were a prettier place to walk around.

The best posters are commercial posters. You can’t put self initiated poster in the same bracket, some of the best self initiated work is when the designer has sat down and worked out a brief and then created the piece to their own restrictions they imposed on themselves, but it still lacks the magic of answering a commercial brief set by a client.To me a poster usually has a message and copy to convey, and with a self initiated project you can say whatever you want to

WH AT DO YO U T H INK O F THE PRINT PROCESS OF PO S T ER S , T H E MO R E H AND MADE THE MORE L OVE OR?

Yeah absolutely, embossing, dye cutting, screenprinting, thermal inks etc. It all makes it alot more sexy, but you can still design something amazing in black and white. I run a flickr poster archive via blanka and Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Beethoven poster on a daily basis for the last 5 years gets the most amount of views, more than anything else. I like the print-processes but I think some designers get bogged down in it too much, they can’t wait to get the foiled blocked silver type onto the posters before they have even finalized making a good poster, it’s one of the reasons why I run two businesses, blanka is for specialist editioned printed work and print-process is for open ended archival giclee printing, the difference being, blanka has to buy all of the print up front and have it made before we can sell it and because Print-Process is all made digitally, then we only have to make a print when somebody orders one. It’s nice if a poster or a piece of print has something additional or sexy about it but at the end of the day I collect something personally because I like it if it’s not special print techniques or not editioned then I can still like it just the same. It all boils down to good or clever design rather than fancy printing techniques.

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Number two of four in the Trainspotting poster series. Done by Mark Blamire in 1995 with Neue Laboratories.

B L N K C O U

L A K A O . K

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Lars Müller describes the 1955 Beethoven poster as showing “musicality of the design,” Available at Blanka.co.uk (127 cm x 90 cm).

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Amsterdam film Night by Experimental Jetset. Amsterdam film night 2004 is available at blanka.co.uk (594mm x 420mm).

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Originally entitled The fastest poster alive inspired by the graphics of Nascar he thought it would be funnier naming it the italic poster, in spite he fact that the correct terminology would be the oblique poster. Executed as a self-initiated project by Eivind Molvaer. Available at Blanka.co.uk.

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Screen-printed white on A1 240gsm holographic mirri. Edition of 50 posters. The design celebrates 50 years of the optical disc whilst paying homage to gottlieb solandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1957 grammografik poster. Printed by k2 screen. Unfortunately sold out at Blanka.co.uk.

poste r b r e ak

MIKE.pdf

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1:49 PM

B O Y S M A Z E * B Y M I K E PAT T E R S O N

B*YS M*Z**

Landfill library Poster. http://www.landfilleditions.com/.

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Cd cover and promo poster for Tropicoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gooch MixTape #2. http://soundcloud.com/tropicool-official.

Scam* poster series done by Pam et Jenny. www.pametjenny.be

e rik s p ie k e rm an n

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Erik Spiekermann is a legendary type designer. Displaying his love for type in movies such as the 2007 documentary Helvetica where he referes to type as his friends or maybe even girlfriend. “They (the letters) are my friends… Some people look at bottles of wine, or whatever – girls’ bottoms – I get kicks out of looking at type.” He has designed typefaces such as ITC Officina, FF Meta, FF Info. He is also the founder of the german mega-firm Meta Design and also FontShop which was the first online font distributor.

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WH AT AR E YO U R T H O U H GT S O N T H E RO LE O F T Y PO GR APH Y IN PO S T ER S ?

I actually think that posters are dead as a relevant medium, except for those big 18 sheet commercial hoardings. Graphic designers still like to make posters because they look good in reproduction in the annuals and they’re a good opportunity to show off as a designer. Typography’s role is pretty obvious: as we live in societies that are totally dominated by visual messages, type combines visual and verbal. As you need to spell out your message, you spell it out with type, giving it form. Type is visual language and communication doesn’t exist without language. –e

Le vi & kristian

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Levi Bergqvist is a graphic designer at Dinamo and has done projects for major companies like The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet and Norrøna. Kristian Hammerstad a freelance illustrator who has done illustrations for Penguin Books, AOL,The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. Both working at different places and doing very different things they have spent much of their youth together and going to school in London together. One of their first projects together was painting graffiti on a graduation buss. Levi doing the type and Kristian making the illustrations much like how it works today. Were you making characters? Yup, really Yo characters replies Kristian. Going to school together and also being the same age has been an important role in their inspiration, having the same references. Having the same refrences makes it a lot easier for them, when discussing new projects, on how to visually execute it. Starting of I guess one of the biggest issues was not to make the project bigger then yourself. Making the project so big and so incredible that you were afraid of doing anything at all says Kristian. Although we did that anyway replies Levi, at least in hours. Kristian continues The first year was the worst, but when we got rid of the nervousness on how our things were going to work together things got a lot better.

Making alot of event posters together they view it as a use and toss art. They don’t spend alot of money on expensive printing, inks, paper and so on. The poster usually has a life span of a couple of weeks max and then they are thrown away. They don’t see the point in overdoing a poster with expensive techniques or inks for a simple gig at a local club. They believe in embracing the simplicity. It’s nice to see that poster can do just fine by itself without a lot of fancy techniques says Levi. The club scene is kind of a shitty place anyway (shitty meaning dirty not as in the place sucks) so it’s appropriate to make a poster that suits it. And living in London during the rave and grime scene they’ve experienced a lot of what a poster is and what it does. Also the budget is a something you can’t ignore.The budget is the budget says Levi. Usually posters is a medium which the designer is free to do whatever he or she pleases in order to showcase him/herself. But with this duo it’s different. With a lot of hours spent on feeling each other out they have worked themselves into a system where they both make place for each others freedom and play. Also having a lot of the same references as kids helps the process thoroughly. In the beginning it was a little on top of each other. Then we realized that it was just as good just to give ourselves no limits in our fields and then talk a lot during the making.We don’t work at the same place so we send our sketches back and forth and then we meet up for a cup of coffee or pint of beer says Kristian. They really enjoy graffiti as they both started out in that field. They enjoy the freedom in graffiti, that it’s not necessary to be the worlds best painter to make something that is cool and interesting.They enjoy the tagging or bombing part of it more then the street art part. Although we were never tough enough to actually do it ourselves says Kristian. Almost everyone they know having similar careers derive from graffiti. Big and small agencies across the country says Levi. It’s a great place to learn, I probably learned the same amount if not more, doing graffiti then attending school says Kristian.

They portray their love of poster by making them together and also collecting a bit, or at least Levi does. I think that for graphic designers it’s much more satisfying to work with posters because of the freedom that they don’t possess in a lot of their daily work. But for illustrators it’s drawing, and that is basically what we do all the time. But this is for something more specific something that I enjoy more then other projects says Kristian. I agree. I think that graphic designers aren’t used to being as expressive in their daily work replies Levi. They also think of Are Kleivan when mentioning the love of posters. The LotLot project, which is one their most known poster collections, started out with Levi and Kristian’s previous work for Bitch Boys. Jonas, who is one of the Bitch Boys, together with Mattis runs LotLot, and the question about them doing the design came quite naturally. We met up with them and they had a lot of the same ambitions as we had for this project. And it’s always fun to work with friends says Levi.They both relate to the electronic genre which lotlot’s concept is based on. The thing is that LotLot is a mashup of many different styles within the electronic genre says Levi. Yeah, the first thing we did was really inspired by scifi. I think that it was a result of our love for scifi, and also because when we were about eighteen we listened to aphex twin and warp music and that this was our visualization of electronic music. Now it’s more of a medieval type combined with some aliens not really sure what that is supposed to be says Krisitian. They see the poster as a still strong medium due to the over marketing on facebook. Every invite is almost like spam nowadays, you don’t even look at it anymore says Levi. Their clients still think it’s very important to get their message out on the street. They still see the walls as a necessary place to post their message. Unless people stop looking at walls and only on their mobiles replies Kristian. During the LotLot project the posters were actually quite important. After Øya (a norwegian music festival) it was important to inform the crowd on where to go after the festival. So we posted a lot of posters on the route out of the festival area says Levi.

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Poster for Bitch Boys feat. Martelo. Illustrated and designed by Kristian Hammerstad.

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LEVI B E RGQVI ST

WHAT M A K E S A P OST E R A G O O D P O S T E R ?

Underground Garage Barbecue

It’s surprising or nice enough that you stop to look at it.

WHAT I S I T THAT YO U L I KE A B O U T D E S I G NI NG P OSTE RS?

Dattera til Hagen Søndag 12. Juni fra kl. 14.00

The spontanousness, simplicity and the ego trip. WHAT D O YOU HAT E A BO U T D E S I G NI NG P O S TER S?

Walking carelessly down the road only to discover that you’ve made som mistake that you’ve done when it’s hanging in the street. IF YOU COULD D O ANY P RO J E C T I N T H E WO R L D. WHAT WOULD I T B E ?

Right now it would be to do a book together with Kristian. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?

A professor in chemistry. WHE RE D O YOU GE T YO U R I NS P I R AT I O N F RO M?

“I hear a voice.A man’s voice, but he speaks in German so I have to get a translator.” — Jerry Seinfeld. WHAT I S THE M OST E X C I T I NG P RO J E C T YO U ’ V E WO RK E D ON ?

Impossible to say, but Organ 3, Norrøna, The Norwegian National Opera, Vestre and Lot Lot would have to be the most important projects for me, all of them in different ways. WHAT D O YOU E AT WH E N YO U WO R K?

I only drink coffee, I rarely eat in front of the computer, maybe a banana?

The Dahlmanns

WHAT D O YOU D O W H E N YO U G E T S T U C K O N A P ROJ E CT?

The Beat The Cocktail Tornados Slippers

Back to where I started or maybe visit Wikipedia or stretch it, bend it.

Levi Bergqvist / Henrik Tandberg

WHAT D O YOU D O TO R E L A X A F T E R A H A R D DAYS WORK ?

Drink beer or watch Seinfeld whilst I play Solitaire or Tetris.

DJ Little Steven

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K RI STI A N HAMME R S TA D

W HAT M A K E S A P O S T E R A G O O D P O S T E R ?

Everything that gets notices in the jungle of information. WHAT I S I T T H AT YO U L I KE A B O U T D E S I G NI NG P OSTE RS?

The freedom that follows. It’s rarely any money involved, so the things you make posters for is usually something that you really want to do. WHAT DO YOU HATE ABOUT DESIGNING POSTERS?

There is nothing I hate about it, but usually the most difficult part is the typography. I F YOU COUL D D O A NY P RO J E C T I N T H E WO R L D. W HAT WOUL D I T B E ?

That’s really hard to answer. I work with something that I am so passionate about that I feel as if I am doing it already. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?

I don’t remember, but I’ve always had the need to make and draw things. So naturally I’ve become what I had to become. WHE RE D O YO U G E T YO U R I NS P I R AT I O N F RO M?

All sorts of stuff, usually anything that doesn’t invovle design and illustration. Movies, litterature, music and that sort of things. WHAT I S TH E MO S T E X C I T I NG P RO J E C T YO U ’ V E WORK E D ON?

A project where I got to work with the comic book writer Alan Moore something that’s still in progress. WHAT D O YO U E AT W H E N YO U WO R K?

Sandwiches or something else that’s fast to make. WHAT D O YO U D O W H E N YO U G E T S T U C K O N A P ROJ E CT?

Browse around the internett or watch news on BBC 24. WHAT D O YO U D O TO R E L A X A F T E R A H A R D DAYS WORK ?

I watch a movie or a tv series, work out or maybe even a beer.

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Posters for Japan â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 100 ting til ettertanke 2011 (c) Levi Bergqvist

p aul sahre

si ma FTLOP

We sendt a mail to Paul Sahre after his brief at AGI 2011 were he was talking a lot about that you should design what you want. We asked him what he thought about the freedom in the poster as a medium and what he thought about that in regards to his talk at AGI this is what he replied. Hello FTLOP about posters.

ze at FTLOP

j arr g ee rl igs

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An obsessive collector who turned his obsession into something really inspiring and beautiful. Jarr Geerligs is a creative beeing who lives and works in Amsterdam. He is currently an art director and designer for Selmore Creative Agency. He also runs the beautiful webpage postersinamsterdam.com which is a personal poster archive that he has been collecting since 2002 and contains more then 2700 posters. WHAT M A K E S A GOO D P O S T E R F O R YO U ?

Choices. It is all about hard choices. How is this poster going to stand out? In colour. In shapes. In its message. In its idea. A good poster has or creates contrast in its self or with its surroundings.

WH AT DO YO U T H INK AB O U T T H E S ELF INIT IAT ED P O S TER S C ENE?

WH AT IS YO U R PRO C ES S L IKE WHEN YOU MAKE PO S T ER S ?

I like it. It is a self created opportunity for designers to make some great work without the fuzz of a client. It creates a lot of space for experimenting. To come up with something new or interesting. Maybe you do some of these yourself? Yes, I did some self initiated posters, but they were pure fictional to try out some of my own made typefonts.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE REAL LOVE FOR POSTERS? WH AT AR E YO U R TAKES O N C O MMER C IALLY DE -

I am not sure if I can define it. But I can illustrate it by a few examples. Like coming to late for meetings, because I had to take a picture of a nice poster. Or letting my colleagues and family wait in the cold and rain for me to take a picture. Mostly I take pictures of posters while I am bicycling through the city, but I even stop for them when I am by car. I started in 2002 and I am still taking pictures of posters.Yeah, you can call it love alright. C AN YOU

RE LATE TO T H E

POSTER

BE I NG A

SPRI N GB OA RD I N TO G R A P H I C D E S I G N, A ND WA S TH AT THE C A SE FOR YO U ?

My springboard were flyers and websites. But before I started designing I noticed that I was a sucker for well designed stuff. From logo’s to products. From flyers to books. So I started to collect nice products and books.With everything I liked I asked myself why I liked it.This way I found what worked. But I didn’t get there right away. When I look back at the first things I designed when I started they were very hideous. I am getting a bit better now. But you have to keep breaking out of your comfort zone. What also really helped me was reading essays written by designers about design. Steve Heller initiated a whole lot of these books. (By that I mean that many designers start out just making posters for fun and then develop a big interest for graphic design).

S I G NED PO S T ER S V ER S U S S ELF - INIT IAT ED WH EN W E AR E TALKING AB O U T PO S T ER LOV E. IS T H ER E

It depends on the task at hand. But for the SubTone posters it mostly started with me coming up with a theme or fraise for the clubnight. Than I try to find the form in which I want to tell the theme. I used to make a lot of designs with an illustrated idea in for SubTone. After which I went for a more typographic style. Using fonts I liked and creating something different with them. The route I take now is one of creating the fonts myself. For other projects I first come up with an idea, and then I try to find the best fitting style to work it out.

A D I F F ER ENC E B ET WEEN T H ES E O R AR E T H EY T H E S A ME?

WH AT ’ S T H E MO S T EX C I TING DESIG N PROJECT YO U EV ER WO R KED O N?

With self-initiated posters you can go very far in stripping the design to its bare essentials. Making the poster stronger. Unfortunately most clients want to put in extra’s. More logo’s, a website, some extra text and the clutter goes on. If there is to much clutter the poster won’t stand out. It will go unnoticed. With self-initiated posters you can be your own worst and best client at the same time. But there are as far as I know not many designers who could live from self-initiated posters alone. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PRINT PROCESS OF POSTERS, THE MORE HAND MADE THE MORE LOVE OR?

I love the printing process. My stepfather used to work at a press factory. The print process is a magical process. But I have to admit that I am a very digital guy. And I don’t print that much. It also has to do with time for me. I do my designing mostly next to my day job. It makes it harder to do my own printing or creating more tactile designs. I think things made in on the computer can be hand made as well. You can put your love for design in every decision. Which ever brush you use to make your designs.

The work I do for SubTone. I get a lot of freedom to do what ever I like. As long as it is fresh and has a link to the style of music they play. TELL U S AB O U T YO U R PO STERSINAMSTERDAM?

After going out to clubs and collecting flyers for years. A printed medium I really love. I was looking for other ways to collect graphic designs for my personal archive. By biking through Amsterdam I noticed the shortness of time for posters to be up on the walls. And all the different design approaches by designers. This made me start to photograph the ones I liked with my first digital camera in 2002. It is like I am giving the posters an afterlife. Or giving the city a memory of their existence. WH AT DES IGN PRO JEC T ARE YOU CURRENTLY WO R KING O N?

It is a poetry booklet about love in Dutch. I design and illustrate it on the basis of a special font. Kim Triesscheijn and I write the poems together. Hopefully it will come next year.

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A selection of posters form the wonderful website postersinamsterdam.com.

poste r b r e ak

SAMEDI 6 FÉVRIER 2010

NOUVEL AN VIETNAMIEN SALLE DES AVANCHETS

´ TÊT COSU

NAM 2010 ANNÉE DU TIGRE ` CANH DÂN

DÈS 18H

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