Wim Crouwel Reprint

Out of context: Reply #23

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  • Blam0


    Firstly, thanks for everyone's positive comments on this poster. We have recieved lots of emails from people who have bought this already and who are happy that we have managed to persuade the designer to make it available again. I have noticed that there are a few comments on this post regarding the pricing of this item. I do understand your points that £100 for a poster is a lot of money for some people. I myself would have to think long and hard about spending a £100 on a poster as opposed to putting food on the table to feed my family so I understand some people's frustration on the price of this item.

    However let me try to explain. If you were to try and buy an original copy of Vormgevers, it would cost you in excess of £1000 and you would probably have to spend 18 months of scavenging, if not longer, to find a copy of it. When you did find a copy of it you would then become embroiled in a bun fight or bidding war to secure owning a copy, believe me as I speak from experience. I also want to share with you the process we have had to go through to make this happen. When we were originally granted permission by Wim Crouwel to produce this poster it was impossible, at the time, to access the original artwork so Wim suggested the only route available was to redraw it on our computer. This would have been a nice solution as, with modern advances in technology, it would have been a relatively easy process to manage, much simpler than the problem Wim faced in 1968 of drawing this with a rotring pen and a parallel motion. After some consideration, it was felt that this would not be a true reproduction of the poster as the original has certain hand drawn inconsistencies such as pen skips and line width differences and other subtle yet beautiful imperfections which all make up part of the thumbprint of the original and are significant in making it the truly original and unique poster that it is. So we decided rather than just rushing this poster out, we would source the original and meticulously recreate the poster exactly as it was intended by the designer and not make a cheap watered down homogenized and sterile version of what I personally consider to be a design classic.

    After 15 months of trying to locate a copy of the poster we finally succeeded in finding an original where it would be possible to restore the poster back to the condition it is now in. This process has taken us to Wales twice to find a camera capable of making a reproduction of this item. The first scan of was a 300mb grey scale image but it did not contain enough of the information of the very fine detail of the poster so we returned to Wales again to have a 700mb scan of the image made. This involved a 700 mile round trip to ensure that this was carried out in the precise manner we needed.

    After the scan was made, it was necessary to retouch some of the vertical lines in the black area of the print which meant masking out each individual line by hand, this involved creating over 1000 masks so that we could make the line printable again [due to dot gain ink spread on the original]. We also we had to retain any of the imperfections and character of each individual line. This process took approximately four hours every day for three weeks to give us a final print ready original. We ran over 20 proofs during this process matching it to the original print and ensuring that we had an exact replica of the item.

    Finally after 18 months of wanting to make this item available, we sent the finished proof to Mr Crouwel in Holland who informed us he was truly happy with the original and that we had retained many of the hand created features of the original. This done, we had to now decide on how to edition the poster and how to price it. As I have said above at the top of this email, we think long and hard about how much we charge for every item on Blanka, as it mortally wounds me when we are accused of being overpriced rip off merchants. It is my personal desire to bring great work to people who truly appreciate it and I get a lot of happiness out of doing this from the very kind emails I receive thanking me for my endeavors to make these type of things happen. We also have a company philosophy where any profits we make we share equally with the artists involved and I believe this is a good thing as the people who buy our posters are not only getting enjoyment out of owning something beautiful to look at but they are also investing back into an industry which I strongly believe in. I was a practicing graphic designer for 15 years and I stand beside this ethos passionately about promoting good work and passing money back to the artists within the industry. Also when pricing our items, we also take into consideration what the current market price is and also what is a fair price comparison for our items. As an example, I will give you a couple of comparisons - the First Peter Saville poster which he designed for Factory records was reprinted a couple of years ago. The edition of this poster was in 500 units and this was priced at £100, the 500 units sold out very quickly - you can probably pick up an original, albeit very rare, for about £600. As a second example, Jamie Reid regularly re prints and re editions his design of Never mind the bollocks - Sex Pistols poster. These are usually in editions of 200 and are priced at £500. When the edition sells out, the artist relicenses it in another colour and then sells another edition of the item. Again, you can collect an original depending on its condition for £500 - £750. You may be able to get a cheaper version on ebay but then can you be absolutely sure of its authenticity or even the condition it is in?

    Bearing all of this in mind, I think Vormgevers is a much older poster and, due to its age and the value with which it is regarded, is probably a rarer item to find. We could have mass marketed this poster, brought the price down and flooded the market with posters but we have carefully considered making a proper size edition so that we can make it available to a limited amount of people who greatly desire it but also not to detract or devalue from the very few people who are lucky enough to own a very rare £1000 original of this poster. After this edition is sold out, it will be no more. So for those who want a copy, get it while you can and for those who deem it too expensive or don't like it then thats fine too.

    To summarise, I think the pricing structure on this item to be completely fair when compared with the pricing of other items within the industry. I sincerely do think we have structured this exactly right. In the first 48 hours, it sold just over 40 copies making it one of our most successful items so i think I have to look at this rather than the criticism or cynicism or whatever you wish to call it and take strength from the numerous emails I have received for fighting slowly and carefully to make this happen rather than be disheartened by those who knock what Blanka does. I hope that at least a few of you have taken the time to read this and have a better understanding and appreciation of what we try to achieve and also how carefully and diligently we work to bring you beatiful print to enjoy. Rant over, thanks for listening, Blam at Blanka

    • Appreciate the explanation.Jaline
    • that is some lord of the rings type shit... crazy.. thanks for the effort and keep up the good work...neue75_bold
    • When you take a step back and don't project hate, your explanation posts are fantastic.flavorful
    • Thanks for the back story, it really does give it even more character - which I probably didn't think possible before, haha.flavorful

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