# Screenprinted Gig & Alt-Movie Poster

> 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.

- Period: 1991–present
- Where: North America, Western Europe, Global / networked
- Origin: Austin, Texas, where Frank Kozik began silkscreening posters for local bands in 1991 (Paul Grushkin and Dennis King's Art of Modern Rock traces the silkscreen movement's roots to 1980s Austin); spread through touring bands, San Francisco, Chicago, Montreal and the American Poster Institute's Flatstock fairs (from 2002), and carried into film from 2004 by Austin's Mondo, an Alamo Drafthouse offshoot until 2022
- Branch: Counterculture
- Also known as: Gig poster art, Rock poster revival, Modern rock poster, Alternative movie poster, Mondo poster, Limited-edition screenprint poster
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/screenprint-gig-poster/

## Use it with care

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.

## How it works

- Print by hand in a short, numbered edition: lay down flat inks one stencil at a time, opaque for solid shapes and transparent where two layers should overprint into a third colour, and reach for speciality inks: fluorescent, metallic or glow-in-the-dark.
- Build the poster on one central idea instead of a photograph of the band or the film's stars: a visual pun, a silhouette that holds the story, or a single symbolic object.
- Draw the picture yourself, in keyline or flat cut shapes, and letter the band name or film title by hand as part of the image.
- Keep the venue, city and date readable in a smaller line of capitals, so the print still announces one show or one film.
- Quote the past knowingly, from comics and kitsch cartoons to mid-century travel and film posters, and set bright, appealing images against dark or confrontational ones for fans who get the reference.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (occasional)
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (defining)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (occasional)
- [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (characteristic)
- [Condensed display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/condensed-display/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Eclectic mixing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Fluorescent & neon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/fluorescent-and-neon/) (characteristic)
- [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (occasional)
- [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Halftone & Ben-Day dots](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/halftone-and-ben-day-dots/) (characteristic)
- [Misregistration & overprint](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/misregistration-and-overprint/) (occasional)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (characteristic)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Flat vector illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-vector-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (occasional)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Screen printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/screen-printing/) (defining)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (characteristic)
- [Nostalgic & retro](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/nostalgic-and-retro/) (characteristic)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (characteristic)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (occasional)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (occasional)

Avoids: Straight photography, 3D render, Gloss & highlights, Agitational & persuasive, Modular grid, Offset printing, Rational & objective, Authoritative & institutional

Palette: #f1ead8, #1d1c1a, #e2482f, #2a8a8c, #f2b134, #ff4f9a

Typefaces: Hand-drawn display lettering by the poster artist, drawn into the image, Condensed sans-serif and wood-type-style capitals for the band, venue and date line, Film-title logotypes redrawn or re-lettered for licensed alternative movie posters

Known for: Frank Kozik, silkscreened posters for Austin bands from 1991, beginning with his first silkscreen, 'I Am the King of Sleep', and soon commissioned by touring bands; his 1992 Soundgarden poster is a five-colour silkscreen, 22.5 by 35 inches, in a first edition of 450. Rolling Stone called him the 'new rock-poster genius' (December 1993). In San Francisco his label Man's Ruin Records (to 2001) issued sleeves silkscreened and numbered in his print shop; Seripop (Yannick Desranleau and Chloe Lum), Montreal, 'All Bets Off' gig poster (2004), screenprinted in yellow, orange and red in a numbered edition of 200 (Victoria and Albert Museum, given by Seripop); Jay Ryan, limited-run, hand-printed posters for bands such as Shellac and the Flaming Lips, made since 1995 and mostly screenprinted at his print shop The Bird Machine; collected in 100 Posters, 134 Squirrels (2005); Olly Moss, Star Wars trilogy posters (2010, editions of 400), each film told in imagery held inside the silhouette of C-3PO, Boba Fett or Darth Vader; Mondo, Austin: founded in 2004 as Mondo Tees, a T-shirt shop of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain; Rob Jones's posters for the Cinemania festival (2004) and the Quentin Tarantino Film Festival (2006) turned it to screenprinted film posters, 71 of which the National Film Archive of Japan, Tokyo, showed in a series co-organised with the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, as 'MONDO: The Front Runner of Film Poster Art' (2021–22); Tyler Stout, The Avengers (Mondo, 2012), a hand-numbered, nine-colour screenprint, 24 by 36 inches, in a regular edition of 750, printed by D&L Screenprinting, with all of the film's characters drawn on one sheet; Scout Shannon, Just Like Being There (2012), a documentary on the American gig-poster scene with Jay Ryan, Daniel Danger, Olly Moss and Tyler Stout

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Psychedelic Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/psychedelic.md) (1965–1973)
- Influenced by: [Pop Art Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/pop-art.md) (1955–1975)
- Influenced by: [Punk & DIY Zine](https://stylogeny.com/styles/punk-diy.md) (1976–1986)
- Influenced by: [WPA Silkscreen Posters](https://stylogeny.com/styles/wpa-poster.md) (1935–1943)
- Influenced by: [American Mid-Century Modernism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/american-modernism.md) (1940–1970)
- Alike in its design choices: [Australian Poster Collective Screenprints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/australian-poster-collectives.md) (1971–1994), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Push Pin Style](https://stylogeny.com/styles/push-pin.md) (1954–1980), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Puerto Rican Silkscreen Poster (DIVEDCO & ICP)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/puerto-rican-silkscreen-poster.md) (1946–1989), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Turkish Modernist Poster & Graphic Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/turkish-modernist-graphics.md) (1959–2000), 58% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Chicano Screenprint Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chicano-poster.md) (1965–present), 58% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Cuban Revolutionary Poster (OSPAAAL & ICAIC)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cuban-poster.md) (1960–1990), 57% alike

## Sources

- Wikipedia: 'Frank Kozik' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Kozik): silkscreen posters for Austin bands from 1991, touring-band commissions, Rolling Stone's 'new rock-poster genius' (December 1993), Man's Ruin Records and its silkscreened, numbered sleeves, influence on Emek, Chuck Sperry and Coop, and the iconography of Franco's regime as an influence on his art
- Casey Ashlock, 'Frank Kozik: Concert Poster Legend', GoCollect, 5 March 2021: https://gocollect.com/blog/frank-kozik-concert-poster-legend (early-1990s work in 'bold, bright, fluorescent color' with 'seemingly innocent characters' in bizarre situations; the 1992 Soundgarden print, a 22.5 x 35 inch five-colour silkscreen limited to 450 copies)
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, 'Frank Kozik' artist biography, after Therese Thau Heyman, Posters American Style (1998): https://americanart.si.edu/node/7620 (work that mixes bright, appealing images with dark, confrontational ones)
- Victoria and Albert Museum, Seripop, 'All Bets Off' gig poster, Montreal, 2004, screen printed, edition copy 09/200: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1274884/poster-desranleau--yannick (gig posters in 'layers of flat, bold colour', 'experimenting with psychedelia')
- Wikipedia: 'Mondo (American company)' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_(American_company)): founded 2004 as Mondo Tees, Rob Jones, Cinemania 2004, Quentin Tarantino Film Festival 2006, Lucasfilm and Disney licences, acquisition by Funko in 2022
- National Film Archive of Japan, 'MONDO: The Front Runner of Film Poster Art' (7 December 2021 – 27 March 2022), Tokyo, in a series with the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto: https://www.nfaj.go.jp/english/exhibition/mondo2021/
- Peter Sciretta, 'Cool Stuff: Tyler Stout's The Avengers Poster', /Film, 3 May 2012: https://slashfilm.com/cool-stuff-tyler-stouts-the-avengers-poster (Mondo, nine-colour 24 x 36 inch screenprint, hand-numbered, regular edition of 750, printed by D&L Screenprinting); Film on Paper, 'Tyler Stout on the making of his The Avengers screen print', 31 July 2014: https://www.filmonpaper.com/blog/tyler-stout-making-avengers-screen-print (a print 'featuring all of the characters'; a gold and silver metallic combination tried for the variant)
- Jason Kauzlarich, Mondo's They Live poster by 100% Soft, Fangoria, 13 July 2022: https://www.fangoria.com/mondo-100soft-theylive-sdcc/ (36 x 24 inch screenprint whose variant uses metallic and glow-in-the-dark inks)
- Eric Kindel, 'When 1+1=3: colour overprinting', Eye 43 (Spring 2002): https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/when-113 (overlapping inks mix to a third colour only if the ink is transparent)
- Adrian Curry, review of Matthew Chojnacki, Alternative Movie Posters: Film Art from the Underground (Schiffer), Film Comment, July–August 2014: https://www.filmcomment.com/book-review-alternative-movie-posters/ (designers who 'worship at the twin temples of Saul Bass and Drew Struzan'; 'The Bass homages in particular are far too plentiful'; Mondo 'spearheaded and legitimized' the movement)
- Wikipedia: 'Olly Moss' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olly_Moss; art director of Firewatch, 'Inspired by the iconic style of the 1960s National Park posters'), 'Jay Ryan (artist)' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Ryan_(artist)), 'American Poster Institute' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Poster_Institute) and 'Just Like Being There' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Like_Being_There)
- Kelsey Sidwell, 'Firewatch's design is rich with American history', Killscreen, 16 October 2014: https://www.killscreen.com/firewatchs-design-rich-american-history/ (compares the Firewatch trailer with the Federal Art Project's national-park posters)
- 'Political clout: Australian posters', Eye (Winter 2002): https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/political-clout-australian-posters, and Wikipedia: 'Australian poster collectives' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_poster_collectives): posters for unions, marches, community groups and some bands, photo stencils, pasted up at night, fluoro inks
- Raoul Hernandez, review of Paul Grushkin and Dennis King, Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion (Chronicle Books), Austin Chronicle, 3 December 2004: https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/rock-and-roll-books-11720713/ (the silkscreen movement's roots in 1980s Austin, 'a curious mix of psychedelic and punk rock', Kozik's first silkscreen, 'I Am the King of Sleep')

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Screenprinted Gig & Alt-Movie Poster”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/screenprint-gig-poster/