More letterpress, and this time I ran the posters up without using the computer at all, just a combo of woodblock and linocut. Very suitable for these bands, who shun modern equipment and take their inspiration from the wild sounds of the 50s and 60s. Thee Ludds are also named in honour of local boy Ned Ludd, who as leader of the luddites led an anti-technology machine smashing revolt. You can sometimes get good results from doing things the old way! (or smashing things up)
Keeping the layout simple, I arranged the text in straight blocks, and added graphic elements cut from lino, managing to slice my fingers to shreds in the process. There's probably a fair dose of blood in that red ink! The ground of ultra-cheap, nicely textured brown parcel paper means I could use white for some of the text, as well as the vivid red and strong black, creating a poster that stands out when seen alongside all the digital prints on white paper that it was vying for attention with.
The surface crazing and wood grain on the old type blocks adds more texture, creating a lovely varied, tactile surface rather than a dull, flat, digitally perfect one. The pressure from the press also meant that the letters were very slightly recessed, adding another layer of interest to the surface of each poster.
For a long poster I set up the type in two chases, packing everything in tightly with wooden blocks and quoins, apart from the 'footstompers' text, which I left free to slide up and down to give movement to this line. Printing the text first, with a different run for each colour, I left spaces for the lino graphic of musical notes dancing around a spinning record. Each poster is subtly different, with a different arrangement of red, black and white, and some with white stripes rolled across the image to highlight the band names.
The oil based inks give the text a nice sheen and give great thick coverage, although they're a bugger to clean up after using!
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