POSTers | Newspaper by Roberta Karni

VINTAGE POSTERS DESIGN GRAPHIC DESIGN NOW HOW TO DESIGH A POSTER? VIBRANT POSTERS AND LOUND TYPOGRAHY FOOD AND TYPOGRAPHY

02 WHAT IS THIS? NEWSPAPER ABOUT POSTPRODUCTION ARTS AND DESIGN, NOWADAYS ARTISTS, PEOPLE WHO ARE RELATED WITH DESIGN INDUSTRY, TECHNOLOGICAL NEWS AND EVERYTHING WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEW AND AFTER!

2015 / 05 / 30 POSTERS

CONTENTS

04 VINTAGE POSTERS’ DESIGN CHERET AND THE BIRTH OF THE POSTER Although lithography was invented in 1798, it was at first too slow and expensive for poster production. Most posters were woodblocks or metal engravings with little color or design. This all changed with Cheret’s “three stone lithographic process,” a breakthrough which allowed artists to achieve every color in the rainbow with as little as three stones - usually red, yellow and blue - printed in careful registration. Although the process was difficult, the result was a remarkable intensity of color and texture, with sublime transparencies and nuances impossible in other media (even to this day). This ability to combine word and image in such an attractive and economical format finally made the lithographic poster a powerful innovation. Starting in the 1870s in Paris, it became the dominant means of mass communication in the rapidly growing cities of Europe and America. The streets of Paris, Milan and Berlin were quickly transformed into the “art gallery of the street,” and ushered in the modern age of advertising.

HOWEVER, MORE RECENT FILM RELEASES HAS SEEN POSTERS FALL INTO SLOPPY AND BADLY-PHOTOSHOPPED EXECUTIONS, OFTEN LOSING THE ELEGANCE AND ORIGINALITY VINTAGE POSTERS ONCE HAD.

Featuring gorgeous type, unconventional colour schemes and illustrations, vintage poster design was the kind that got noticed. It’s not surprising then, that many still celebrate the medium, including EYE SEA POSTERS, who have gathered up the best in vintage poster design. Featuring work by renowned artists including Wiktor Gorka, Waldemar Swierzy, Andrzej Krajewski, Franciszek Starowieyski and Jerzy Flisak, these film, theatre and circus poster designs are beautifully unique and inspiring. If you love them as much as we do, you’ll be pleased to know you can purchase your favourites. With an archive consisting of 22 pages, there’s definitely plenty to fall in love with!

2015 / 05 / 30 FLASHBACK

WORLD WAR I MEANT A NEW ROLE FOR THE POSTER: PROPAGANDA. MONEY, RECRUITING SOLDIERS AND BOOSTING VOLUNTEER EFFORTS, TO SPURRING PRODUCTION AND PROVOKING OUTRAGE AT ENEMY ATROCITIES.

THE BELLE EPOQUE During the 1890s, called the “Belle Epoque” in France, a poster craze came into full bloom. In 1891, Toulouse-Lautrec’s first poster, Moulin Rouge, elevated the status of the poster to fine art. French poster exhibitions, magazines and dealers proliferated, satisfying the public’s love affair with the poster. In 1894, Alphonse Mucha, a Czech working in Paris, created the first masterpiece of Art Nouveau poster design. The flowery, ornate style was born practically overnight when Mucha was pressed to produce a poster for Sarah Bernhardt, the brilliant actress who had taken Paris by storm. Bearing multiple influences including the Pre-Raphaelites, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and Byzantine art, this style was to dominate the Parisian scene for the next ten years and to become the major international decorative art movement up until World War I.

THE NEW CENTURY Art Nouveau continued after the turn of the century, although it lost much of its dynamism through sheer imitation and repetition. The death of Toulouse-Lautrec in 1901 and the abandonment of poster art by Mucha and Cheret (who both turned to painting) left a void in France in the new century. The void was filled by a young Italian caricaturist named Leonetto Cappiello, who arrived in Paris in 1898. Strongly influenced by Cheret and Toulouse-Lautrec, Cappiello rejected the fussy detail of Art Nouveau.

BERNHARD’S MINIMALIZED NATURALISM AND EMPHASIS ON FLAT COLORS AND SHAPES MADE HIS WORK CREATING AN ABSTRACT - VISUAL LANGUAGE.

06 GRAPHIC DESIGN NOW ers, restorers, graphic designers – workers and thinkers – meet each other in a materi-

MIMMO MANES mimmo manes is an italian graphic designer and art director based in uk. he’s driven by a pragmatic approach and the desire to create original and functional works, he’s working for graphic design agencies, private companies, public institutions, artists and publishers and he is creative director for visionaria international film festival since 2005. specialisations: branding & identity, ux/ui design, typography, interaction design, conceptual design, books&magazines, poster design.

ONBETAALBAAR onbetaalbaar (unpayable) is a research project born out of love for objects. it’s at the same time a workshop and a think tank, a place where cabinet makers, upholsterers, writers, philosophers, handymen, product design-

alism with emotion. onbetaalbaar invites people to consider what we throw away, to contemplate the story and the identity of an object, to feel how familiar spaces can look differently, to be confronted with the real costs of a well-made object and to join the brainstorm about how to make things better in a human way.

2015 / 05 / 30 PEOPLE

ELINE ZELOOT i am a dutch designer/ illustrator living in germany. 6 years after graduating as a painter at the royal art school of den haag, i discovered there was such a discipline as poster-design. i developed a special focus on gig posters and started to design and silkscreen most of my posters for the concerts i or-

ganized myself with a friend as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;helbaardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. i love being my own client and art director and i hate to repeat myself (visually). nowadays i am mostly designing posters for cultural events but also started to be more active as an editorial illustrator for news papers and magazines.

INVESTIGATION, RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION OF THE TOPIC STOOD IN THE FOREGROUND OF BOTH APPROACHES. HOW DOES TIME BECOME VISIBLE? THE CLASS DEVELOPED METHODS AND SYSTEMS WITH WHICH TO GENERATE THE LETTERS.

DEADLINE he given framework/ parameters allowed for coincidences and surprising moments to happen, which the students could integrate into their design process. at the end, the process was documented in the form of a work report, with all of the resulting symbols and letters. a poster presenting the features and particularities of each font was also designed.

08 HOW TO DESIGN A POSTER? #1 THE IDEA “Behind a good poster should be a message or idea,” says Jesús Prudencio, the illustrator/designer behind the fantastic Cars and Films series of posters. “It must communicate something and should reach everyone. “One of my passions is movies,” Prudencio explains. “I saw that there were many people making alternative movie posters,” he says, “but I tried to

give another approach. I wanted to create a series, which I’m still working and I hope to grow, but not only legendary films, but also films that I admire and where cars are not as well known.” It’s a great example of a personal project that can generate some serious cash (A3 prints are for sale for €21 each – and great for film fans).

MAKE AN IMPACT #3 BRING THE IMPORTANT DETAILS CLOSER

“I like to follow the trends, but do not usually apply them to my designs,” he adds. “I like minimalist design and simple lines. I try to convey what I want with a few elements that make an impact and have a lasting message.” In other words, before you design a poster make sure you have a good idea, so it will not only appeal to designers due to the aesthetics, but will also appeal to fans through the focus.

#2 MAKE PRELIMINARY DRAFTS Before working on the final version of your project, you should make a preliminary draft. You can make sketches on paper or directly on the computer. Starting with a sketch will make it easier to work faster at a later stage because it will allow you to know the placement of each object from the start. Even a very rough sketch will do.

The important elements of the poster shouldn’t compete for attention with the rest. You need to make them prominent. You can do this through size and color. Larger sizes mean the elements are easier to spot. Big lines of text or graphics will capture the eye. Likewise, use eyecatching colors for emphasis on specific elements. Remember warm and bright colors give the viewer an impression of proximity, while cold and dark colors have the opposite effect.

2015 / 05 / 30 HOW TO:

#4 MAKE IT BALANCED The graphics and text don’t have to be in the center of the poster. Distribute your poster’s elements so they create a pleasing balance. Creating good balance may be tough at first. Use the rule of thirds or golden ratio (1:1. 6180...) grids as guides.

#5 GET RID OF THE CLUTTER The idea that the more you can fit into the poster, the better it will get is wrong. For instance, if you include text, edit it until only the relevant details are left. If you have pictures, make sure you only use the engaging details by cropping out what’s not relevant to your content. If you’re not sure if something belongs on the poster, it means it’s not necessary.

“The core skill is learning how to balance a composition, and looking at how the viewer’s eye will - ideally - bounce around the image, rather than being taken out of it,” adds Gilbey. “That’s no different to creating any other artwork, but if you’re including type as well, then the challenge to weight everything just right can be tougher. “Use a grid wherever there’s a significant amount of type to include, Other than that, it’s about finding your own style, and then within that, trying to find a way to tell a bit of a story with your image.” “Balancing the type and images is essential in that first up you want people to notice the image,” continues Gilbey. “But then, if the actual event is of interest, the info needs to be easy to understand too.” Of course restraint with type is normally advisable, but in this case it was time to let loose. That said, it’s all set in Garage Gothic, so it’s only the style that varies for the different areas of info.”

#6 STAND BACK After the poster is ready, don’t rush off to print six thousand copies of it. Take the time to consider it objectively. One of the techniques that designers and artists use is to stand back and look at their work from a distance. Some even flip it or look at it upside down. You can simply look at a smaller version of the poster on the computer screen. This way you will be less focused on the details and will notice the general composition. If the poster has glaring flaws, you will notice them right away.

BRING IN THE COMPOSITION!

10 VIBRANT POSTERS AND LOUD TYPOGRAPHY TASKED WITH UPDATING THE COLLATERAL FOR CLUB NIGHT GOOD BLOCK, BUNKER LONDON EXPERIMENTED WITH AIRBRUSHING AND LOUD TYPOGRAPHY TO REFLECT THE PARTY’S VIBRANT LOCALE.

The illustration needed to be bold and colourful so that it would stand out either in shop windows or online. The heyday of airbrushing was the late ‘70s and early ‘80s so we really liked how the concept linked in with the night. The type needed to follow suit, so it had to be loud but not overboard. It was important to make the dates and venue clear as well as promoting the line-up, the free entry and the fact that the DJs only play vinyl.

Good Block is focused around African music, left-field Disco, Boogie, and Jamaican music too, mainly from the early ‘80s. The vibe is fun, eclectic and sometimes strange – it can get a bit abstract and Balearic sometimes. Our main venue is Ridley Road Market Bar in Dalston but we also play in Peckham and other venues. We wanted the new artwork to reflect the market and Peckham High Street, so it had to have an African feel. Previously I’d got a bit sick of designing flyers and was just scanning in old record covers and changing the colours, but Paul [Kelly] had started learning airbrushing about a year before and suggested we use it to change up Good Block.

PROJECT EVOLUTION Richard Grainger of Bunker London sets out the stages that led them to the final poster for Good Block club nights.

2015 / 05 / 30 INSPIRATION

GATHERING INSPIRATION Paul spotted some juice cans in the corner shop with airbrushed illustrations. He liked how inviting and hyperreal they looked and that they worked well as a series. We wanted to make use of his airbrushing skills and reflect the area’s exotic flavours, so we came up with the idea of inventing make-believe fruits.

INITIAL SKETCHING

AIRBRUSH APPROACH

Good Block’s name and vibe leant itself to mathematical shapes with an iconic ‘80s style like the prism and cylinder. Once we’d sketched several that we liked and worked well together, Paul and I figured out ways to divide up each shape so that we could reveal the inside of the fruit to add more texture and colour.

Paul wanted make-believe fruits to look edible so he referenced natural fruits but inverted the colours. After sketching the image on paper, he laid the frisket film over it and cut the shape out, masking off the rest of the page to stop overspray. He then built up shadows and texture using the airbrush and hand stencils. We took the artwork to a shop with an A3 scanner. Once we had the files, I tweaked the contrast and used Airbrush in Photoshop to touch them up. I got rid of dust from the scan and any overspray, and added detail, I increased the History States to 60 so I could go back far and placed the cut-out on a light-grey background.

WE WANTED A FONT THAT WASN’T OVER THE TOP AND HAD VARYING WEIGHTS, SO KNOCKOUT CAME TO MIND. I ALWAYS USE FONTBOOK AND TEST OUT REAL TEXT SO YOU KNOW IT WILL WORK. IN INDESIGN I PLAYED WITH HOW THE TYPE COULD SIT, COMING UP WITH RULES LIKE HOW CERTAIN INFORMATION WAS ALWAYS IN CIRCLES AND THE DATE WAS ALWAYS VERTICAL.

12 FOOD AND TYPO GRAPHY Many of you will see typography as art and rightly so - the practise is one of the most creative in the entire design industry. Danielle Evans is one such typographer that crafts some of the most uplifting and inspiring works of type. Here, she puts her skills to use in an advertising campaign.

TARGET DEVISED A TASTY ‘FOOD FOR THOUGHT’ SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO HERALD THE OPENING OF THEIR CANADIAN STORES

2015 / 05 / 30 FOOD DESIGN HERE, SHE PUTS HER SKILLS TO USE IN AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN.

Evans begins. “To satisfy both Franco and Anglophone residents, phrases were devised bilingually in a myriad of food groups. The advertised Archer Farms product was subtly pictured in the top corner of each piece.” Each project rotated on Target’s social media channels and proved hugely popular throughout the campaign. It’s easy to see why, as Evans’ effortless creativity is uniquely and brilliantly put across throughout the entire project.

Many of you will see typography as art and rightly so - the practise is one of the most creative in the entire design industry. Danielle Evans is one such typographer that crafts some of the most uplifting and inspiring works of type. Here, she puts her skills to use in an advertising campaign. Target devised a tasty ‘Food for Thought’ social media campaign to herald the opening of their Canadian stores,” Evans begins.