Travelin' Man

What better way to gear up for the summer printing season than a little escapism? While slaving away at our C&P Pilot in the ol' basement, our thoughts often drift to far-off lands....

Movie Posters Reinvented

Reinterpreting classic movie posters is a popular pastime of designers. A collection of particularly great ones was done by Brandon Shaefer, a selection of which appear above. Buy your favorites here. (And while you're at it, buy us one, too.)

Hammering it Home

Jeff Holmberg has found an inventive way to use the metal type he bought at an antique store. Above is one in a series of wooden posters he produced using stencils, rubber stamps, paint, ink, and reclaimed wood. For a unique finish, he pounded the type into the wood fibers to leave a blind impression.

There are more photos of the posters here, as well as a lively comment thread on whether roughing-up type in this manner is a desecration. Why not weigh in?

Cashspiel Smackdown

Since you did such a great job last time, we're again turning to you readers for some design feedback.

Above are two possible designs for a poster. The task is to create an announcement for the National Capital Cashspiel at the Potomac Curling Club. Basically it's a tournament for seasoned curlers to compete and maybe make a few bucks. The design brief that the poster should be "very DC".

I decided to take two design paths. To the left, the political convention design, celebrating 19th century broadsides that advertised political party gatherings. On the right is the monument design, with a nod to the federal architecture of DC.

Since we can only use one, do you have a preference—convention or monument?

Click on image for larger view.

City Maps in Lettering

If I ever get lost in a city, I want it to be this one. No, not Washington, per se, but a city that's built entirely from type. Axis Maps has created a series of five city maps that weave together nothing but letters to shape the city form. From waterways to the street grid, the posters aren't only accurate, they're distractingly compelling. So much so that your mind might actually get lost just looking at them. Finally, a map that you get more lost the more you look at it.

Pictured above is DC. You can also find Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City on their site.

Modernist Poster Sale

It's time again to salivate over Swann Galleries' annual Modernist poster auction. As always, it's packed with treasures from the heyday of avant garde graphic design. Though the catalog is wide-ranging — from wartime PSAs to sporting events to film debuts — pictured above is sampling of travel-related posters we culled from the 200+ posters being offered. You have until 1:30pm to wipe that drool and start your bidding.

Click on the images for a jumbo view. Bib not included.

Rock Star

We revived an old linoleum block we cut last year for a new curling poster this year. Combined with (mostly) 16-line Clarendon wood type and lead stars, this 6-color concoction was printed in an edition of about eight. Maybe ten.

ED. NOTE: The type in upper right -- a nickname for curling -- was originally going to read "hurry hard", but I didn't have enough Rs in the proper size. I figured this out only after cutting the lino for the blue splat which the type sits on. While "hurry hard" fits neatly inside the splat, "the roaring game" is a bit snug for my tastes.

Various color papers are from the French Paper Company; assorted wood type; handcut lino blocks; lead ornaments; hand inked in 5 passes on the cylinder press. 12.5" x 19".

Art Nouveau Posters

Just in time for stocking-stuffer season comes Swann Galleries' latest poster auction: Rare & Important Art Nouveau Posters. The auction includes nearly 200 items from such noted artists as Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. But don't feel like you need to buy us a poster from one of those elite poster icons — we're not too picky.

Kayser Smackdown

Attention both readers!

I've been tasked with creating an announcement for the 2011 Kayser bonspiel for new curlers. In honor of the host club's 50th anniversary, the Potomac Curling Club is invoking the theme "back to the '60s". The design brief clarifies this as "not the hippy '60s, more like Camelot or Mad Men." Pretty clear, right?

I decided to take two design paths. On the left, the martini design, toasting the Rat Pack spirit of the '60s. On the right, the Mod design, inspired by the movie and music advertising of the era.

Since we can only use one, do you have a preference—martini or mod?

Click on image for larger view.

Beans are Bullets

Starting today, the USDA headquarters in DC will be displaying an impressive exhibit of War-Era food posters from the collection of the National Agricultural Library. The exhibit spans the World Wars and touches on the emotional, practical, and patriotic sensibilities of consumers and producers.

A lushly illustrated electronic version of the exhibit can be found here. The physical show ends November 10.

Anatomy of a Letterpress Project

Lame-o us.

Our very first print from our press reads "No. 1 / Duckpin's first impression" and the date. If we had any sense of humor, we'd have done something like this.

Now that's a first impression.

Modernist Poster Sale

Mark your calendars for another inspiring auction of modernist posters. On May 3rd, Swann Galleries will be selling 177 lots of posters dating from the 1890s through the 2000s. Pictured is a collection of our favorites, including a clever and whimsical ad for yo-yos by Raymond Gig. We happen to think it would look fetching in the basement of Duckpin HQ. Hint, hint...

Click on image for larger size.

Time to Refocus... and Eat Yer Bacon

Ostensibly this blog is about letterpress and related design. We've spent a good share of time recently on the "related design" part, so let's get back to some good ol' ink on paper, shall we?


What better way to dig back in than taking a bite of some porky posters? San Francisco's 4505 Meats has 3 posters for sale, all celebrating that other white meat. They were produced at the venerable Hatch Show Print and available for sale here. At 26 bucks apiece, they're not cheap. But at least they won't clog your arteries!

Movie Poster Minimalism

Like Garfield Minus Garfield, these stripped-down movie posters offer a fresh perspective on something we've all seen a hundred times. Once you peel back the typographic clutter, it's surprising just how identifiable films are by their graphic treatment.

Think you're good at recognizing the films that these posters promote? Test your knowledge with many more at Film the Blanks:

And Now A Globe Poster Imposter

That Globe poster post got us thinking.

Back in 2007, Washington City Paper ran a cover story on Elvis' one and only DC appearance. Pete, then the art director of the paper, channeled the old Globe poster aesthetic for the design of that week's cover. It was no match for a Globe original, but then again, you know what they say about imitation...

Click on image for a honkin'-huge view.

Globe Printing Company

When most people think of a print shop being deeply intertwined with a local music scene, they think Hatch Show Print. For years the Nashville-based shop helped promote the Grand Ole Opry brand of country music.

A little closer to Duckpin's home, the Globe Printing Company has been a mainstay in the DC go-go scene for years. From early pioneers like Junk Yard Band and Experience Unlimited, Globe has been there to spread the word about DC's homegrown music. For much of the 80s and 90s, a trip along DC/Maryland commuter routes offered a cluttered, visual panopoly of Globe posters. Fluorescent-splashed signs tacked to traffic poles greeted you at every stoplight. How many times a week can Rare Essence possibly play? I remember often thinking.

Various "beautification" ordinances and a declining number of clubs have conspired to eliminate most of the signage. Globe has since diversified into more mundane "Houses from the mid-$400s"-type advertisements. These new signs (bland, plastic and text-only) are no match for the heyday signage of Globe.

Baltimore City Paper ran a great article on the long history of Globe, from it's start as a letterpress shop through the present day. The article is accompanied by beautiful -- and often haunting -- photography of the shop's composition equipment, type cabinets, and some now-quiet presses. To us, they look eager to be pressed back into service. Just as Hatch has experienced a revival, perhaps the time is ripe for Globe.

Shop photos by Frank Hamilton, Baltimore City Paper

Amtrak Posters

Train advertising has always been predicated on selling an idea more than the service itself. Ride a train and see the world in style, they promise. Worry-free site-seeing is a noble pursuit, but the reality of train travel hasn't always squared with the sales pitch.

When looking for some letterpress inspiration, we ran across these excellent posters for National Train Day. The designs harken back to the heyday of train travel, perpetuating the romanticism of riding the rails. While Amtrak's brand identity has certainly outpaced its service in recent years, these posters still kinda make us wanna give those rails another chance...

Stock up for '10

If you're thinking of stuffing a few stockings with printed goodies this holiday season, look no further than Yee Haw Industries' letterpressed calendars. There are a couple dozen crazy-awesome designs to chose from. And if you're looking to stuff our stocking with printed goodies this season, we like these ones. We're just sayin' is all.

Post Number 100

We made it to the century mark! Boy, that's a lot of wasted time -- for both you and us. But we managed to learn a bunch, and hopefully you have, too. While we stuff our gourds with celebratory gluten-free cake, click on the links below to enjoy a recap of the highs and lows...

Who knew that poop rainbows were nature's way of saying, "blog about me!" We found a pot of gold at the end of that particular rainbow and determined once and for all the true master of the fanbrush. (One hint: it wasn't a man who looks like Kenny Rogers.) Speaking of man, human evolution provided a jumping off point for our look at patterns in modern poster design. But just so we didn't appear too erudite, there were plenty of visits with NASCAR paint schemes, including a post on the 200 mph history of Valvoline. In other sports news, we paid a visit to the curling sheet to see the latest in curling fashion. That may inspire a great gift idea for the little'un being feted in our favorite baby shower announcement. You can look here to see more announcements and other self-printed projects that we put on the blog over the past 100 posts. Enjoy!

I Swept With Your Wife: A How-To

Over the summer we designed and printed the curling posters above. It was odd to think of curling when the mercury was pushing 90, but during the season there's not a lot of time to do projects like this.

The final product was made using a lino cut, wood type, and an array of inks, passed twice through the proof press. Here's how it went down...

First we drew the curler on a piece of paper, backwards:




Then we took white Saral transfer paper and carefully traced the drawing so its outline transfered onto the lino block:



Next, we inflamed our carpal tunnel syndrome by cutting out the parts of the lino block that we did not want to print:



Then we locked the finished block in the press bed, inked it up with a brayer, and printed it on the poster:



After that initial pass, we laid up the wood type in the bed of the press. After inking the type, we laid the paper back down and made a second pass with the cylinder. The various color combinations were created by mixing and matching colors as we went along. All in all, we created 20 posters.



Paper is from the French Paper Company; assorted wood type; handcut lino block; hand inked in 2 passes on the cylinder press. 12.5" x 19".