The National poster / design & print process pics

[Burlesque]

Hello posterers. We recently wrapped up a new poster for The National's Oct 13th tour stop in Tucscon AZ. Here are some images from the design and screenprinting process in our studio.

Enjoy!
Mike


Starting to sketch things out. Thinking about big, loud American trucks and long, quiet road trips. A spilled bottle of beer that turns into a winding highway? I’m so clever!



Now thinking about geometry, typography, and how to break up the space on the page.


Drawing out some basic shapes and choosing some colors. Wait, how do you draw eagles?


Have vintage luggage tags, will travel.


Illustrator Obsessive Compulsive.


The finished design. The dirt across the dotted lines? Following Wezz’s suggestion, I printed out an 8.5 x 11″ sheet of paper with only the dotted line grid visible, folded it across all of the lines, then rubbed the edges on dusty surfaces in our office (not hard to find). I scanned in the dusty grid and laid it on top of the light grey layer, then repeated the entire process for the dark grey layer. MAGIC’S GREATEST SECRETS: REVEALED!


Films for each color have been printed and set to rest in our TO SHOOT drawer.


Ben has his sights set on some greys.


The screen for the gold ink waits patiently for its time to shine.


Here stands the stackola of paper which will soon become the stackola of National posters


Enough prep work, let’s start printing! First layer down, lookin’ good.


I love goooooooooooold.


Bennie making sure the second screen is lined up nice and properly.


Two colors down and all’s well!


Not quite black. I think I asked Ben for “pencil lead grey.”


Ready for lift-off.


Yes! Mighty fine work. Trim ‘em, stamp ‘em, sign & number ‘em, pack ‘em, ship ‘em!

[adamturman]

Big hugs to you both, but hugs with "Ben"efits to Benny!

[Delicious]

super sweet!

[Kotah]

nice process

[James flames]

Freakin incredible! Thanks for letting us in to the process - god, I so love stuff like this.

[seireyho]

Great thread - Great design! It was great to meet Ben in Seattle. Said it then and say it again: mastercraftsman.

[rochambo]

I love process threads. Thanks for the show.

[vastagh]

really nice. thx for sharing.

[eyepeace]

That was fun. Thank you. I love MAGIC!

[caribou]

nice...i like how the finished product has pretty much nothing to do with the original idea of trucks and beer bottles. mine usually end up the same way, just not as well done.