Posts in Posters

ISO50 Studio Edition #008, Madrone, is now available through the ISO50 Shop. This print features updated artwork from the original poster for the Madrone show in San Francisco. Four limited edition formats are available: 14×24″, 18×30″, 24×40″, and 36×60″. All are printed on Hahnemühle German Etching 310 gsm (120# cover, 100% alpha-Cellulose white mould-made) using the Epson 9900 10 color UltraChrome HDR™ pigment-based ink system.

You can view the Madrone print here and view other Studio Editions here.

I was really taken by this poster by Jason Hill. All of the elements are appealing to me; the type, the illustration style, and even the words chosen. I would imagine anything held at the “MonOrchid gallery” must be kind of awesome to live up to such a sexy name. I wasn’t familiar with Jason’s work previously, but he has some really interesting pieces in his portfolio. His Dreamscape series is pretty rad.

Qubik Design is a graphic studio based in Leeds UK. I like everything about these pieces except the color. The layout and type compositions I find very interesting; personally I just don’t prefer the chosen hues of green, blue or gold. Otherwise I think this work is fantastic. Especially that first one! I also like how clean and organized their site is. I’m starting to appreciate this much more now as a writer; recently I’ve come upon a number of sites that are so poorly laid out I give up researching, even if the work is amazing.

I met Christopher and Edward from The Silent Giants at a show a while back where they gave me this beautiful The National poster along with a couple even beautiful-er hand-screened business cards. Being firmly planted in the digital world, I’m always fascinated by artists going the traditional route. The Giants are all about screen printing and their work is oozing with hands-on goodness. I especially like their packaging work.

Check out their portfolio and blog for more (the blog is highly recommended for some nice process shots)

I am very excited about the work of Sulki & Min. I saw these on but does it float this morning and they jump-started my mind. I’ve been in a bit of a creative funk recently and these posters were just what I needed to get excited about design again. I’m not exactly sure what specifically it was, though I suspect the type lockup in the top right quadrant of the 2nd poster down may have had something to do with it.

I also love the subtle details in the first poster — the line weight of the circle around the D, the differences between the two fours — simple yes, but boring no. (I’m sure some may disagree with me on this, but I can’t help but admire the restraint/confidence it takes to call a poster like this finished.)

Sulki and Min are Korean designers who both got their MFA in design from Yale. They have an astonishing body of work and have been exhibited many times. I am also a big fan of a few of their typefaces designs.

via bdif

Over the past year I’ve been going through the process of scaling some of my posters for large format (e.g. the Knitting print: Old | New). Most of these were originally designed for 12×18″ format so they had to be re-created from scratch. It’s been a painstaking process at times, but it has also allowed me a chance to approach some of the designs from a fresh perspective. Something about stripping a design down to nothing and building it back up again gives you a clearer view of the essential nature of the piece allowing for more objectivity when making design decisions.

The latest print to be scaled up is the poster for the Terrabyte music festival (pictured above — view original). As you can see, I’ve made some changes and cleaned a few things up. I’ll be posting a process piece detailing the various earlier versions of the print and the transition from small to large format next week. The print is currently available as a giclee from the ISO50 Shop.

On a side note, if you’re partial to any of the older designs in the small formats now would be the time to grab some, they will not be reprinted. They can be viewed in the prints section at the shop.

ISO50 Studio Edition #007: Terrabyte

Great new series of posters by the Heads of State. I love the colors! (Vaguely reminiscent of the 826LA Time Travel series, with less type or floating people…) I wish travel agencies packed their walls with anything nearly this cool looking. I might actually decide to go somewhere based on the poster — as opposed to questioning my travel plans as I stare at a 1980’s US Air sponsored photograph of “Miami”.

Don’t forget their Legal Weed packaging too. Hilarious stuff. The Travel series is available for purchase here.

I’ve seen these posters floating around the internet for a while. I searched long and far to try and find anything at all about them, always to no avail. It was tough when all I had was the letters NR and my feeble attempts to describe their excellence to Google. Recently I saw them again on Shelby White’s blog and was very excited to at least have a small lead as to their origin.

Turns out they were designed by Wolfgang Weingart for Kunstgewerbeschule Basle in 1974. These, and a number of other Swiss poster designs, are at The Swiss Poster Collection at Carnegie Melon University. I would love to see one in person; I’m very curious how large they are. I like to imagine them as these massive wall sized super posters, best viewed at a distance. Ready to intimidate any graphic designers that unwittingly wander underneath.

*Favorite is definitely NR1

Every time I’m at Faye’s Video (btw they’re not just about VHS tapes and employee film ratings, they make awesome espresso too) I notice the cover for Jaques Tati’s Trafic. I’ve never seen the film but the cover art is striking to say the least. I finally decided to look it up to get more info and came across this post at Balduin about the various versions of the poster for international release. While the cover is great, I was really blown away by the titles (second image), that’s got to be my favorite part. Now I’ll have to rent the DVD just so I can screenshot it and print it out.

Via Balduin

These images are taken from a 1970’s era Chinese poster series entitled “Modernization Cannot Be Achieved Without Energy” (click for full versions). I love this illustration style; particularly the technical diagrams. I’m not sure if you can still score any copies, but they were for sale at The East is Red.

Via The East is Red