Style combination · Contrasts

Lucerne Poster Scene × Screenprinted Gig

Gig posters are illustrated editions made for collectors; Lucerne's concert posters are mostly typographic, made for the city's walls and small venue runs. Use the contrast to decide between picture and title.

From the research on Lucerne Poster Scene (Neubad & Südpol Posters)

Mix them and make something Lucerne Poster Scene Screenprinted Gig

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Screenprinted Gig, their arrangement from Lucerne Poster Scene, the finish from Screenprinted Gig. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Lucerne Poster Scene (Neubad & Südpol Posters) Screenprinted Gig & Alt-Movie Poster

Type from Lucerne Poster Scene: Experimental & distorted
Type as image
Colour from Screenprinted Gig: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Screenprinted Gig: Stylised figuration
Restrained accents
Composition from Lucerne Poster Scene: Single focal point
Illusion of depth
Surface from Screenprinted Gig: Halftone & Ben-Day dots
Flat

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Lucerne Poster Scene

Hello

Anton, standing in for Letters constructed or distorted for each poster: Brechbühl's handwritten blend-tool letters for The Notwist (2019), the square-tiled cube letters of Neubad Start (2013), Pfäffli's bent, sliced and paper-folded titles for Südpol; elsewhere set type is warped rather than drawn, as in the condensed sans bent round a disc for Future Islands (2014) or the serif of When Saints Go Machine

Text · Screenprinted Gig

Hand-pulled, numbered screenprints that revived the rock poster in Austin from 1991, led by Frank Kozik, and spread via Flatstock fairs and, from 2004, Mondo to 'alternative' film posters, for collectors as much as the show. The gig posters lean to fluorescent inks, innocent cartoons in bizarre scenes and dense psychedelic layers; the film posters, often by the same artists, to Bass-like silhouettes or a whole cast on one sheet. A few flat inks, opaque or overprinting, sometimes metallic, carry hand-drawn lettering and usually one witty idea, sweet and sinister, nostalgic and knowing.

Oswald; Screenprinted Gig used Hand-drawn display lettering by the poster artist, drawn into the image and Condensed sans-serif and wood-type-style capitals for the band, venue and date line

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Screenprinted Gig, with a counter-accent from Lucerne Poster Scene. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Lucerne Poster Scene (Neubad & Südpol Posters) Screenprinted Gig & Alt-Movie Poster

#1d1c1a ground · 36%
#f1ead8 ink · 14%
#f2b134 accent · 18%
#f0e111 accent · 14%
#e2482f accent · 10%
#ff415b accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #1d1c1a;
  --ink: #f1ead8;
  --accent-1: #f2b134;
  --accent-2: #f0e111;
  --accent-3: #e2482f;
  --accent-4: #ff415b;
  --font-display: "Anton", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Oswald", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Screenprinted Gig & Alt-Movie Poster: Film characters, logos and band names belong to their owners: Mondo's Star Wars and Marvel posters were made under licence from Lucasfilm and Disney, so clear the rights before printing a fan 'alt poster'; gig posters are the living trade of named independent printmakers, so commission or credit them rather than generating look-alikes of a recognisable artist's hand; and when you borrow the scene's sweet-and-sinister mix, keep the sinister half to monsters, skulls and noir rather than hate symbols or real atrocities: Kozik's own art drew on the iconography of Franco's fascist regime, under which he spent his earliest years in Spain, and that is not a costume to reuse.