Paper and Ink Workshop

(Fogra 39) JOB: 08-30921 Title:Paper&Ink Workshop

#175 Dtp: 223 Page:168

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Paper and Ink Workshop page 168 The Future of Small-Press Printing page 169

Huge events like the Sasquatch! music festival would

curate their own version of these series, assigning

a different designer to each band on the bill, from top

to bottom. Taking a cue from this scene, movie houses

would commission many of the same designers to take

a whack at creating a new poster for iconic films they

were showing. The most well known of these is the

Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, which elicited amazing

pieces from the likes of Kleinsmith for The Shining,

The Godfather, Cool Hand Luke, The Trial, The Unholy

Three, and others. Jay Ryan would tackle Sixteen

Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink, to bring

the Chicago/John Hughes connection full circle. The results

were rivaling anything else in the field. The theater then

created its own little industry with art print series around

Star Wars, Star Trek, The Warriors, and others.

Business seemed to be chugging right along on so many

fronts that it was hard to see past the next stack of paper

and tin of ink awaiting your arrival at the studio. But the

U.S. recession hit few things harder than small businesses.

A glut of new people entering the fray, many of them

not holding to the same ethics as the previous generation

of gig-poster designers, combined with a reduction in

available spending for the common music fan, served

to narrow the slice of pie and then used it to fill twice as

many plates. Small-press printing was as viable as ever,

but dealing exclusively in gig posters was looking like

a dangerous bet to place. Other avenues like Etsy and

craft fairs seemed to be calling to fill some of the void,

but a change in places to sell the wares clearly wasn’t

the only answer.

Then creatives did what creatives do best—they solved

a problem in ways unique to them and their situation.

Staying true to their style and mode of working, they

saw other opportunities to spread their inky joy around

the world. Print Mafia created a barrage of art prints

around pop culture icons, all of them amazing as much

for the way they assemble them and lay ink on paper as

for the images on them. Aesthetic Apparatus took their

dark energy and funneled it into a sly series of art prints

around a graphic “doom drip.” They then harnessed their

midwestern humor and created several fun art prints

and products, highlighted by their satirical “Sorry We’re”

series of signs. Admitting that they might well be “com-

mercially useless” to a business, they stress the appeal

of such an Open/Closed sign for those “not really

into categorizing your availability.” Pure genius, and

a product that they can sell endlessly.

Many others ventured into the art-print territory with

vigor, such as Jay Ryan with his charming series of prints

detailing the many adventures his old stand-alone garage

in the backyard had undertaken. In many ways, breaking

down the barriers needed with a client allows the audience

to embrace the designer for every aspect of their personality:

their style of illustration, the way they print, and often their

sense of humor. It leads us down the path toward the

future, where the consumer can connect in a very genuine

way with the creator, something that art and design created

by hand can do like no other.

Lineage/Historical

From the earliest civilizations, we have always needed

to print materials and communications as a way to capture

our thoughts and feelings, and this remains the foundation

for everything that has ever found its way to a press.

Small-press printing has occasionally stepped out of

the fast lane of modernization and reappeared when

we needed it most. In a lot of ways, it feels like we are

smack-dab in the middle of one of those periods now.

Print media in general has come under an unending

assault from various forms of digital communication,

and the victims lie helpless at the roadside. Surely half

the world has given up on the idea of ordering more

stationery anytime soon.

But that is where small-press printing comes to the

rescue. At the very beginning of the mastery of printing,

the first goal was always quantity, with an emphasis on

quality after the fact. The race was on to make as many

editions of something, at the lowest cost and the quickest

turnaround possible. Right from the start, small presses,

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(Fogra 39) JOB: 08-30921 Title:Paper&Ink Workshop

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