This May brings the 6th annual Pinchflat: Bike Poster Blowout, in Columbus. This is a great event started by Jeremy Slagle of Slagle Design, and includes 30 posters by 30 local artists, for sale throughout the month of May. The common thread is that they all carry the theme of bicycles and riding. This year, I finally committed to including a poster in the show.
Back in 2011, I photographed the chainrings of the 1972 Schwinn Sports Tourer that I was restoring. I loved the pattern created by the beautiful, French-made pieces. Fast-forward to March of this year. The Pinchflat submission deadline was extended, so after a few years of putting it off, I decided that this time I had to commit to turning that photo into a poster.
I converted the photo to line art using a very coarse halftone screen to echo the mechanical feel of the image, and to work with the traditional letterpress printing process that I chose. Igloo Letterpress printed the poster using silver and bronze inks on French Speckletone Black paper stock. I’m really happy with the final poster. The folks at Igloo did a fantastic job, and I couldn’t be happier with the print quality.
Pinchflat begins on May 7 at Wild Goose Creative. They’re an outstanding Columbus arts organization that helps organize the event. In addition to displaying the posters, they host performances and bike related activities throughout the day. The show then moves to Paradise Garage that evening as part of the Short North Gallery Hop. The posters remain on display there for the rest of the month. If you’re local, be sure to stop by. At $30 per poster, it’s an easy way to pick up some great original art.