Posters by Scott Campbell

Tuesday

May052009

May 5, 2009 at 4:25 PM by

Atlanta-based designer and illustrator Scott Campell’s poster work is, for the most part, based on hand-lettering — and that makes him an odd choice to profile here. However, when he does integrate digital type, it’s both subtle and used to great effect: complementary and always a perfect companion for the (very illustrative) hand-lettering that dominates his work.

The thing I love about making posters is the challenge of marrying type and image together to make a cohesive piece of art. My approach to type varies with each poster. Sometimes I have a strong graphic concept and the type is chosen to complement it, while other times the lettering takes center stage as the main visual element. I don’t have any formal training in lettering, but after years of working at it on my own, I have really developed a love and respect for the artistry involved in (hand-lettering). The majority of my (lettering is done by hand) or found type … A lot of the found type I use is naturally distressed, but when distressing something new I use a variety of techniques from rescanning crumped and scratched type, to working with rub-on letters that naturally lay down a little crunchy, to distressing digitally using a variety of textures I have scanned from various sources.

Above left: “This was inspired by old sci-fi magazine and book covers, so I wanted the lettering to have a retro/futuristic vibe. To create the ‘Asobi Seksu’ type, I started with a sheet of isometric grid paper and filled in triangles to make the appropriate letters/words.” Type used: Avant Garde Gothic Above right: “For type-heavy posters such as this, I like to create a smaller sized, bold graphic and use a grid and column system to layout the text.” Type used: Avenir for “its clean yet sophisticated look” Above left: “I’m a sucker for designs that are centered around one large stylized letter, like you might find on old Dutch posters and book covers, so I took this opportunity to try my hand at it. The ‘Y’ was drawn with a chisel tip marker on paper, then scanned in and knocked out of the blue background. Using a scan of some halftones from a photo in an old book, I added the magenta layer to give the ‘Y’ some depth.” Type used: Avenir and House Industries Chalet Comprime Above right: “Obviously the theme here was surrealism, so I wanted a typeface from that general period, but I was looking for something that leaned toward Modernism (because I love Modernism). I decided to use this Alvin Lustig typeface which I had found. Its amazing what Lustig could do with squares, triangles, and quarter circles.” Type used: Avenir Above left: “This was a case of wanting the type to really complement but not take anything from the artwork.” Type used: Avenir and Glypha Above right: “I was going for a minimalist / geometric feel.” Type used: modified Bifur and Century Gothic Above left: “I created the sunset image with the idea that it would act as a background and large bold type would be placed on top. For ‘Sun Set’ I used found type. I really love the rough halftone quality that you can only acheive when scanning in small words/pictures from old books at high res. ‘Rubdown’ was hand lettered with a Mars 3000 brush pen.” Type used: Vogue Bold (scanned from an old specimen book) Above right: “I love the look of letterpress wood type. These beautiful letters are all found type from different sources. Maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to own the real deal.” Type used: Twentieth Century Above: “I was given a huge box of rub-on letters several years ago, which is a great thing to have because I love doing stuff by hand. The rub-on letters never go down solid, they always break up just a bit, and I love it.” Type used: Futura (from rub-down source)