Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Grapus: A large photograph beneath, lettering and scrawl laid over the margins
- Type
- Set in Grapus's manner (Headlines written directly with brush or marker, slant and bleed kept), and let Polish Poster School's lettering (Draw the title by hand in the same stroke as the image) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Grapus's material (Splatter and finger marks kept in the plate, plus one fluorescent ink); bring in exactly one thing from Polish Poster School (Rough brush and ink surface, few colors, tears and bleed left in).
- Colour
- Build on #f2ece0, #d81f26, #16130f and admit one accent from #e2d6bd, #b9362f, #25211d.
Where they fight
- Grapus and Polish Poster School both belong to Regional Graphics, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Grapus Manufacturing the roughness with a filter removes the necessity of the hand, and what remains is a costume of political heat that trivializes the subject.
- Polish Poster School Leaning on star faces or film stills kills the metaphor, and roughening the surface alone leaves decoration with nothing behind it.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Grapus (style, 1970–1991) and their accent from Polish Poster School (style, 1950s–1980s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Grapus exists for: posters for rallies and unions that shout in the voice of those involved, or cultural programmes for public theatres and city halls needing their stiffness broken. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Grapus - Rough hand-drawn lettering - Splatter and graffiti - Interventions on photographs - Anonymous collective authorship Composition: A large photograph beneath, lettering and scrawl laid over the margins. Type and lettering: Headlines written directly with brush or marker, slant and bleed kept. ## Accent comes from Polish Poster School, used sparingly - Symbolic metaphor - Hand-drawn lettering - Rough paint surface - One strong image Let one material quality come from it: Rough brush and ink surface, few colors, tears and bleed left in. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #f2ece0, carry the structure in #d81f26 and #16130f, and let a single accent come from #b9362f. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, play, exhilaration, nostalgia. ## Where they fight - Grapus and Polish Poster School both belong to Regional Graphics, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Grapus: Manufacturing the roughness with a filter removes the necessity of the hand, and what remains is a costume of political heat that trivializes the subject. - Polish Poster School: Leaning on star faces or film stills kills the metaphor, and roughening the surface alone leaves decoration with nothing behind it. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Grapus 1970–1991 / Style / Regional Graphics
The French collective was born out of May '68. Hand-scrawled letters, splatters and graffiti over photographs brought a festive roughness to posters for politics, theater and city halls, and made resistance to polish into a style.
- Polish Poster School 1950s–1980s / Style / Regional Graphics
Rather than explain a film or a play, it turns the assignment into a psychological image built from painting, metaphor and hand-drawn letters.
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