Globe Poster Printing made the cover of Baltimore’s City Paper a few weeks back and scored a nice write up and photo essay. Some of my comments wrap up the article.
Is a poster a poster if it’s not posted?
For the past few months I’ve spent time at Globe Poster Printing getting to know their work. They’ve produced street posters for nearly 80 years and I remember seeing them around Baltimore when I first moved here about a year and a half ago. What struck me the first time I saw a Globe poster wasn’t the florescent colors What really struck me was the fact that they were posters that were posted.
A graphic designer may or may not like making logos or laying out a publication, but I haven’t met very many who don’t like making posters. They are complete visual experiences- there’s no clicking, no unfolding, no page turning. The scale engages us from across the street. Quick, smart and lean usually make for the best solutions. Hierarchy, functionality, typographic fussing- it’s everything that gets a graphic designers off.
But is a poster really a poster if it’s not posted? And I will be very liberal with my definition of “posted.” If a majority of the run hangs, mounts, displays for audience viewing, serves the purpose of communicating the who, what, why or whatever, then it counts.
So what are those things- the signed and numbered documents that are sold and traded and collected and framed and hoarded in stacks? While the worst offenders are usually from the gig poster crowd, who count carefully taping the corners, carefully hanging them in careful locations as posting, it’s not hard to find some kind of poster-as-excuse-for-making-a-poster event. Clearly the format has been replaced by more efficient, manageable mediums, but the more I study my growing list of Globe favorites, posters that aren’t posted seem kinda sad and silly.
There’s something refreshing about Globe posters. They have a short life span, including the time they are laid out to the time they get ripped off a boarded-up building by grad students. They aren’t self conscious or grand. They are authentic communication.
Lindsey Muir and I, with the help of recent alum Kelley McIntyre, led a workshop during the most recent AIGA educators conference at MICA. Titled “Happy Accident Letterpress Lab” we lead 16 participants through a mid-day printing exercise. With presses inked and loaded with wood type and assorted blocks, each person printed and printed and printed 12×12 pieces of paper not 100% sure what they would end up with. The results were occasionally predictable but always surprising.
We had 50 minutes to lead folks to the Dolphin Building (MICA’s printmaking headquarters), print and return them safely across the street for the remainder of the day’s lectures. Time passed so quickly that we were unable to document the great work produced. The above images are from our early morning prep.
As my thesis continues to tighten up and my research and experiment focus, I’m thinking more and more about the form it will take. Recently my thinking turned a corner as I now know that not all my research equals my thesis- some of what I’m currently pursuing will assist me in the future should I pursue publishing a book on Globe Poster. This may seem obvious, but it has proven to be an important realization.
The goal of my thesis has sharpened to sharing an interesting glimpse into a specific genre of graphic design in America- the street poster of the mid-twentieth century. Physical processes produce interesting, inadvertent traces of their creation and the work will illuminate those manifestations.
That said, I will organize a showing of the work. It will not consist of the display of physical objects of past technologies as if to say “here is something I came across- how interesting.” While such an exhibit has value, I feel it inappropriate to represent my work as a graduate student.
Photography will be important. The poster format will be important. Letterpress and screen printing will be important. Given these elements, the work will take the form of several prints of large size. I will produce them appropriately and in a manner that best fits given the space.
A diagram in my sketch book serves as the inspiration of this entry. The sketch examines the domains that apply to Globe.
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Graphic designers find the work that Globe produces interesting because it represents an authentic form of communication. Their posters simply and effectively inform the public of an event: its location, time and how to attend. A Globe poster uses clear typography, an appropriate heirarchy and cuts through competing visual clutter.
Globe posters appeal to printing enthusiasts as well. Screen printing and letter press celebrate the work of the hand. A trained eye reveals the physical process required to manufacture the artifact. Whether setting wood type or cutting rubylith, the imperfections stand as a monument to manual craft.
The scarcity of authentic Globe posters make them highly sought after by collectors of ephemera. Made as disposable objects, posted cardboard carried no value past conveying information. For this reason very few posters survived.
This thesis is not a chronological history of a printing company, but rather an attempt to investigate and illuminate the rich heritage of Globe Poster Printing. Using the resources available to me at MICA, this thesis will serve as a means to generate a body of work based on the vernacular and aesthetics of the Globe’s American street poster through the last century. It will be based on technological research (letterpress and screen printing), typographic and graphic investigations and publishing.
This thesis is not a history of the American street poster, but rather a case study of Globe and how their work and approach to communication fits into the larger domain of graphic design. It is an investigation into the intentional and unintentional aesthetics of a physical process (setting wood type, cutting film) and a documentation of a nearly 80-year-old business.
The Ciceros have been gracious and open about their company and I want to share that story with others any way I can- though exhibitions and publications, both public and private.
This is not a thesis that will exist in a gallery for 10 days and then evaporate. It is about building a relationship between myself, MICA and Globe. It is about rigorous documentation and dissemination.
My goals are: continue to collect information, document artifacts and create work that examines and harnesses Globe’s approach to printing and design. This material will lay the ground work for a book about the company.
In a few short weeks, MICA will be hosting the next AIGA Design Educator’s conference: Social Studies- Educating Designers in a Connected World. We are currently producing materials, crafting experiences and executing some last minute visuals for what will be an interesting opportunity to discuss the field as it relates to design education. I will be part of the MFA panel discussion that will take place Sun morning as well as co-lead a workshop with the real Lindsey Muir.
The above images are of some mailers that Lindsey and I produced to inform other grad students about the conference and ways they could participate. We screen printed over books that we deemed as being “social” in nature- etiquette guides, gender studies, urban studies and one book about careers in the beauty industry.
Last April, I participated in the inaugural outing of HungUp.org, an online gallery/publication/freakout. It was April Osmanof’s thesis project for MICA’s GD MFA. I was happy to produce a piece based on typewriting instruction and magic.
Want your fast food faster? Simply commit these magic spells to memory and cast them anywhere for instant satisfaction. Click the image for a larger view.
Participants submitted a digital file (via MassiveGraphic.com) of their favorite letter form which was then reinterpreted by the Lab and committed to paper via the screen printing process.
From the infinite to the finite.
For their involvement in the study, each participant received the letter they submitted as a 4×4 screen print. Wanna see the study in person? It’s currently hanging in the MICA Faculty Exhibition (reception Oct 2, 5-7pm). There are also a handful of uncut 24×36 posters still available for purchase.
We participated in a workshop with guest artist Laurie Rosenwald. She encouraged us to work fast and trust our intuition. I created a heap of posters and penned an elaborate story about an alcoholic skeleton who maintains a blog on animal curiosities.
