Designer: Stefan Guzy, Björn Wiede, with Susanne Kriemann

Client: Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten

Size: 92 x 129 cm

Printing Process: Screenprint

Number of Inks: One

Continuing the string of strong work for Berlin studio Zwölf (with much more to come), they dazzle with some old-fashioned one-color creativity.

They collaborated with Berlin artist Susanne Kriemann. "She commissioned us to design a poster for the exhibition of her work in Gent, Belgium, that was of the same mindset as her artwork," explains designer Stefan Guzy. Working together, they "focused on the printing process for screenprints and worked without a computer at all." Compiling photocopies, they "composed simply by taping the elements together as we wanted them." Creating criss crossing blocks of text with differing emphasis and weights and fonts, all in the "not really designed" style of the publications they are stripped from, the trio then allowed the tape marks to become part of the imagery, setting into place a secondary rhythm and compostion to the poster.

Now that the page was filled, they slashed across it with a rough and hand-scrawled title for the show Het Licht. Translated as The Light, it plays up on the strong visual contrast so evident in the artist's work (with many of the images in this exhibit in black and white), and in the poster created to promote it. Her unusual angles and sources of light relating to the changing direction of the type blocks. But, as is the case with any truly successful poster, not only do you desire to see the show, but it works whether you are familiar with Kriemann's work or not. Once you have an appreciation for her tendency to re-appropriate imagery and build side by side with it, adding a new context, as well as her social commentary, you can enjoy the poster on an even deeper level. The pulling of existing articles as the very fabric of the piece becoming more ingenious by the minute.

Much like the poster mavens at Zwolf themselves.

You can always get John Foster's thoughts on posters in book form via New Masters of Poster Design, New Masters of Poster Design: Volume Two, 1,000 Indie Posters and many more.

NOTE: Poster of the Week runs every Wednesday. Check it out each week!