masthead


First Stiff Poster

Stiff Records

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          title: First Stiff Poster
   artiste/band: Stiff Records
   record label: Stiff Records
         format: 2 colour 30"x20" poster on glossy paper
   release date: 1976
           misc:


brief / approach

...Jake Riviera's original brief was quite open as he was keen on my idea for the MC Undertaker character   - and that it developed the 'undertakers to the industry' theme we'd started - when I showed him a rough sketch of my proposed poster layout...

  ...incidentally, the term 'a stiff record' originally meant a single that hadn't been even a minor hit - it had missed out, failed to be noticed or  'bombed' - it was probably coined in  40's/50's America and refers to when it first became apparent that getting a hit revolved  around getting crucial radio plays to get record sales...

backstory

...the 20x30 inch poster promoting Stiff’s new roster of artistes was made & illustrated at life-size with hand-drawn lettering - not as a punky DIY gesture but because I didn’t know about resizing, rescaling or making print-ready artwork using professional photographic processes - let alone posh phototypesetting for the text..!

   All the dots are individually hand-placed using ‘needle-point’ Rapidograph pens varying in nib size from 0.1mm to 0.3mm for the ‘misty cloud effect’ - and up to 2mm for the lettering & outlines...

   The title lettering at the bottom - as you can tell from the wonky spacing - was laid out & constructed ‘in situ’ using small compasses & tiny stencils and painstakingly redone at different sizes from the first Stiff record label and 45 single ‘house bag’ designs I’d just done in the same way..!?

   Whereas the ‘gravestones’ text all around the undertaker MC character is simply drawn freehand - he was originally planned to feature in promotional work, including a zippo lighter (which I’ve still got) where his hat was ‘doffed’ when you flipped open the lid...