Death of the Poster

Having recently done a poster design that, if I do say so myself, did not suck, I've been thinking a bit about poster design - or more specifically the lack thereof.

Computers mostly enhance our lives these days including making it really easy to "design" a poster/ postcard, etc. that is really crappy.

I'm not a professional graphic designer, but I've done many posters over the years (from grade school contests to the above mentioned and below blogged Parallel Lives poster) and I've always taken a great deal of pride from a well executed design. It is difficult subtle work that ultimately has to look effortless. A few lines and colors that convey the viseral excitement of _______ and get the viewer to experience that and want to participate - no easy feat.

This type of design work seems to be disappearing, maybe not in the corporate world (they know the power of a logo) but from our communities, schools and even universities. And ultimately facebook is where everyone advertises everything these days and its no coincidence that facebook is the largest repository for these bad designs.

This is where I place the blame squarely on technology. No one designs a poster anymore - they don't have to. Let's say your doing a play. It's much easier to take a photo* of the cast and then use photoshop or some such program to pick a font to slap the title across it and you're done. The only problem is it's exactly as good as the time you spent on it. Congratulations, your poster sucks. It conveys nothing about the show to the viewer and doesn't make anyone want to come see it. You wouldn't spend just twenty minutes rehearsing the play to get it ready for a performance; it's not an appropriate amount of time to spend on your poster either.

*I'm not knocking photography. If you have a photographer with an idea I'm all for it.

I'm not knocking computer design programs either, but the people really making art with those programs have a design background and an art education/experience because whatever the tool its still only as useful as the person using it.

I know I'm on my soapbox but only because this means something to me. The poster is an integral part of the production. It is the graphic interface between your production/event/cause and your audience (even if it is on a computer screen). It deserves respect, and failing that - at least consideration.

Okay, I'm done now.

Parallel Lives show poster (printmaking+photoshop=oh my!)

This is the poster design I just completed for a production of Parallel Lives (formerly Parallel Lives: The Kathy & Mo Show) being produced by Terrific New Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama (& starring my dear, dear friend Carolyn!).
This project was a marriage of old school and new. The image is a hand-cut linoleum block print while the text and colored background are all photoshop. I'm fairly pleased with the results. I think the design is true to my style and represents the show well visually and thematically. I've designed posters over the years, but I've just done the art. This is the first time I've done the whole thing (art, layout, text, etc.). This was mainly because of a really tight deadline, but I also wanted to challenge myself to learn more about this here computer program. It was very satisfying to talk to the printer on the other side of the country about file format and then just send them an email - blap! Done. Let me just say I can only imagine how much the graphic design industry has changed over the last twenty years.


This is the linoleum print in black ink that was scanned in and cleaned up. Normally when printing a lino block, you have to do a couple of proofs and then go back and re-carve areas to clean up the image. It was very nice to be able to do all of that digitally in photoshop - click, click, click. The print itself becomes a manipulable tool instead of being the final product that has to be perfect. This part I like.

This is the final sketch. This was scanned to be laid out on the lino block. Any printing plate has to be cut, etched, etc. in reverse so that the final image is correctly oriented. Photoshop is great for this - flip the image horizontally, size it to fit your block and print. Then I transferred the image to the block and spent many, many hours cutting it out by hand (old school).