Time to print…lights out! Antiquated printing technology meets eighties sci-fi aesthetic in this special Tron-niversary Edition of DIY Friday. Enjoy…

DIY: to make your own, you’ll need a Charles Brand etching press, rolls of 1/8″ glow-in-the-dark tape, and a utility knife.

For those still mourning, Threadless is rereleasing its MJ-inspired Tees…

Eating Brains, Throwing Shapes by Aled Lewis

Beat It by Adam Benjamin White

Some may call him “Lebowski,” but Jeff Bridges will always be “Flynn” to Printeresting.

It was twenty seven years ago, on July 9, 1982, that the world was introduced to the visionary science fiction film Tron. The movie offered many their first notion of The Computer as Environment, presenting the computer as a place as much as an object or tool. Tron pioneered digital technology in film-making (though according to Wikipedia, the Motion Picture Academy refused to nominate Tron for special effects because they considered the use of computers ‘cheating’).

Director Steven Lisberger “was immediately fascinated by video games and wanted to do a film incorporating them… He was frustrated by the clique-ish nature of computers and video games and wanted to create a film that would open this world up to everyone.” Hmmm… a community’s “clique-ish nature” causing its own marginalization. Sound familiar, printmakers?

Here are some silkscreened posters…

Brad Klausen, Tron Poster for Alamo Drafthouse, Silkscreen (w/ glow-in-the-dark ink!), 24″x36″, 2008.

Kayrock & Wolfy, Untitled, Silkscreen, 26′x20″, 2001.

And if admiring some posters isn’t proactive enough for your Tron-niversary festivities, you can always download and print a paper-model of a Tron “Recognizer“.

Visit Printeresting tomorrow for a special Tron-niversary Edition of DIY Friday.

A little, well large, something that I saw while driving on the freeway the other day here in Los Angeles.  So I suppose, if libraries can do it, so can Hollywood!

ABC’s from Central Office on Vimeo.

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Hammer Museum’s panel presentation FOOTNOTES AND HEADLINES: SISTER CORITA. The panel was moderated by Curator Brooke Hodge.  Artists Jim Isermann, Pae White, and Donald Moffett spoke about Corita, her legacy and the relationship between her work and theirs. Though the panel discussion was interesting, the film shown as an introduction was by far the most interesting item of the night.

Become a Microscope is a new film directed by Aaron Rose (Beautiful Losers and Alleged Press) that compactly tells Corita’s story while interweaving short statements about her through the film. With an original score by Money Mark and some great flash animation, this film captures the feel of Corita’s work, its complicated subversion and the legacy she left with her students.

PS  - If you are in the LA area it will be shown for free this Sunday, July 12 at 8PM at Family Bookstore on Fairfax Avenue 

If the folks promoting Bruno got their use of print in advertising wrong, then designers Tom Wrigglesworth and Matt Robinson got it very right. Tom describes the promo piece on his website in very succinct terms:

HP – invent
-
Brief: Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.

Response: Focusing on the synchronisation of a range of HP products, printers become an orchestra in an aesthetic symphony conducted by HP Workstations.

Filmed, directed and edited by Tom Wrigglesworth and Matt Robinson
Music © Round Table Knights

To further market the marketing project they relied the prints made in the project (see below); now that’s recycling. Although it hardly seems to been worth the bother since the video has gone viral.

The individual frames in the animation were reprinted with information directing people to the online video and encouraging them to find their individual frame within the animation. These would then be distributed within creative networks such as design magazine inserts.

What a smart and fun video; it’s enough to make me rethink my brand loyalty to Epson.

Via our friends at notcot.

Lousy-looking ads for the lousy-looking movie Bruno:

photo by Flickr user jetsetcd

It’s one thing when street ads actually pretend to be street art. You may feel like a sucker when the latest viral meme turns out to be a soda pop commercial, but at least the ad agency gets credit for a “gotcha.”

On the other hand, these Bruno posters don’t even try to fool you. They just ape an aesthetic, badly. The movie is meant to be an edgy satire, but this ad campaign is less subversive than the ads for a Disney movie about a talking chihuahua.

Ah, well. We snooze, they lose!

Last Friday the traditionally traditional Washington Printmakers Gallery hosted a reception for its current show, “Meet Your Printmaker.” All the work on display was made in printshops showcased on the excellent blog of the same name (which is edited by occasional Printeresting contributor Kevin O’Neill). The exhibit is a salon-style extravaganza of contemporary work by professional printers.

The honor roll of exhibiting print shops includes:

DWRI Letterpress, Dirty Hands Serigraphie, Bleu Acier, The Little Friends of Printmaking, Sycamore Street Press, Dieu Donné, Deep Wood Press, Standard Deluxe, Patent Pending, Outlaw Print Co., Erika Ebert Press, Cannonball Press, Atlanta Printmakers Studio, Common Press, Stumptown Printers, Slugfest Printmaking Workshop, Extrapool, Squid Ink Kollective, Tugboat Printshop, Lunalux, Purgatory Pie Press, The Firecracker Press, Thomas-Printers, Aesthetic Apparatus, The Lower East Side Printshop, Iskra Print Collective, Halo Halo Screen Printing, AS220 Community Printshop, Proyecto´ace, Elshopo, Low Rider Tee Shirt, Starshaped Press, Pinball Publishing, Uhrgalo, Sonnenzimmer, Punk Rock Payroll, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, Polluted Eyeball, Spudnik Press, Bob Eight Pop.

This is a broad survey, and the exhibit deserves praise for its inclusive curatorial vision. It’s all here, from the trivial to the sublime, and the presswork alternates between delicate and brutalist. While the work is not universally excellent, it’s all representative of some important current in contemporary printmaking. Kudos to the WPG for putting up this show, which may be a bit outside the Gallery’s usual comfort zone.

All in all, it was a Jolly Good Show! For information visit meetyourprintmaker; for images visit this Flickr set posted by the gallery. A few views of the exhibit follow the jump…

Kevin O’Neill, at right, is clearly baffled by the majesty of printmaking

Free stuff is always a plus.

Check out this work by the Iskra Print collective

From the Lower East Side Printshop

Or should it be (Sun)Block-Printing?

With the summer vacation season in full swing, it’s the right time to discuss the importance of sun protection. While the scientific evidence advises against over-exposure, the creative evidence provided by Tan the Man suggests otherwise…

James Titterton (w/Janine Rewell), Tan the Man, 2009.

James Titterton (the tanned man above) actually conceived of the project. Titterton decided to use his body as blank canvas and called for artists to submit their proposals. After choosing Janine Rewell’s design, he used vinyl graphics and a solarium to realize it on his skin.

Painful. 

(via Beth Grabowski)

From Tugboat Printshop:

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
Color Woodcut Print by Paul Roden + Valerie Lueth, 2009.

I had the pleasure of seeing this beauty just last night! More on that later. Meanwhile, check out the fireworks at the Tugboat Printshop website, and some in-process views at the shop’s Flickr page.

Happy Independence Day!