Thesis Writing #4: Pose A Question.

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 Clearly the format has been replaced by more efficient, manageable mediums, but the more I study my growing list of Globe favorites, posters that aren’t posted seem kinda sad and silly.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.

Well, hello there.

An introduction seems in order. The purpose of this blog is to keep interested parties up to speed on the goings-on during my tenure here at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art). I ‘m 1/4 of the way done with my MFA in Graphic Design and although I’m just starting this blog, I will keep a more regular schedule for updates. That is, more regular than once every 4 months.

In the meantime, I have an entire semester’s work to go through, so let it begin.