About DigitaLetterpress Posters

Why not bring back the use of letterpress posters to announce a major event? Several (OK, many) years back, renegade poster designers created overly simplistic, bold, distressed (highly imperfect) art with mismatched typefaces. These posters defy traditional graphic design standards with jagged graphics and off-centered, semi-transparent color overlays. Making a splash with letterpress posters makes an impression made famous by letterpress artisans like (Hatch Show Print and Inky Lips) among others all over the world.

Traditional Letterpress

From Hatch Show Print and so many other traditional letterpress posters, these vintages works of art are guaranteed to attract attention.

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Courtesy Voo Doo Rocket Institute of Advanced Typographic Research (voodoorocket.com) and INKY LIPS PRESS (inkylipspress.com)

Benefits of a DigitaLetterpress poster

Pretend you are back in the 1950s and a country music hero is coming to town. Or what about rock concerts in the 1970s mimicking the psychedelic times?

Event management wants a killer poster and they need it quick. Unfortunately, the platen press broke down. No posters. No exposure. As a result, low attendance at the concert.

The sample King Crimson DigitaLetterpress poster I created demonstrates what a concert vintage poster might have looked like in 1969 with their debut as the warm-up act before The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park. (Obviously, the Stones would have been the primary focus of the art instead of KC.)

[Sketchbook Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator]

Streak forward to 2023 and with the introduction of digital letterpress computerized tools, there is no machinery and no ink. Armed with a few sketches and frequent iterations of the art using apps, the same look and feel the musical act wanted is now possible with Adobe Photoshop. And in just a few days!

Visually stunning posters attract attention to events. DigitaLetterpress posters are amazingly simple, colorful, and break about every graphics design rule there is.

DigitaLetterpress features

  • Duplicate subjects

    Instead of just one main object, why not overlap with several variations? The duplicate figures can act as a backdrop with semi-transparent color fills.

  • Embossment

    Showing depth is important—especially with simulating letterpress. By applying a slight embossment around specific objects, your art stands out.

  • Halftone and other effects

    Apply halftones, color, psychedelic patterns, and other effects to add visual appeal to the art.

  • Roughen and texturize

    Traditional letterpress takes on a roughened, texturized look due to the physical interaction between paper, type, wood blocks, and plates.

  • Weathered paper

    With or without a background color, there’s nothing like making the poster look like it survived a rain storm or hurricane.

  • Registration gaps

    When running ink passes on traditional letterpress, registration can be a little off resulting in gaps. in fact, imperfection may be EXACTLY the look you want!

Getting started with DigitaLetterpress

Once the poster art project kicks off, a highly-iterative, collaborative effort starts. We will collaborate through sketches, adjustments and improvements, until you are satisfied with the poster. A high-quality poster PDF is prepared ready for production.

To get started with a DigitaLetterpress poster project, we have a single-page survey form that the event manager can fill out in under 30 minutes. This results in a project scope discussion that produces a min/max level of effort (cost and schedule).

Before finishing, I'’ll add my autograph as a Chinese symbol (I’ve been told represents Whitaker, but probably isn’t at all).